Things have been busy in general for me between major projects at work (most of which are wrapping up now), kids being involved in karate and other activities, and my wife being in paramedic school. I also started taking karate as well, and I'm enjoying it. At this point, myself, my wife, and my kids are all taking it.

My game has been running about once a month due to everything else going on with a decent mix of new and old players now that I have my own place. It's still been the same .25/.50 NLHE/1-3 button blind PLO mix with occasional hands of SOHE thrown in. It also looks like I may finally have enough interest to start a 2/4 Limit mixed game (like HE, O8, Stud 8, and 2-7 TD).

My parents moved to Florida, so I got to play poker over Thanksgiving. I played at the Ft. Pierce Jai-Alai room. Other than the Floor not doing their job and costing me a high hand bonus and then paying off Aces on five high board (5/4/5/4/4) when I had 9s, I had a good session. Patience paid off and I went from being stuck almost $400 to cashing out up over $100. The best hand of the comeback went something like this:

I have Ac/Ks UTG. I raise to $7. The Cut-Off calls. The SB raises to $15. I call and the CO calls. The flop is Qd/Js/10s. Bingo! The SB leads for $15. I raise to $30. The CO folds and the SB calls. The turn is the 9c. SB checks, and I bet $60. The SB immediately raises to $200. I shove for about $270 and he snap calls. He has K/3 with no spades and there is no ace on the river for a chop.

And I did wave in your general direction on my way up and down I-95, Schmendr1ck.

I'm worth more than a parenthesis mention, with as often as I fly in to play your games.

Obviously, but most of the regulars with the exception of Abby are not in 2+2 or even more specifically HP hence the designation of parenthesis for that. It wasn't to mean that your not a regular. I regularly enjoy taking your money

So we had our ToC, final game of our Saturday game (see #223 above). Got my second best live hand ever, K-high straight flush. Won a pitiful pot of 12k (blinds were 3/6k). I completed my SB, BB checks. Kd9d to to flop and QJ6 all diamonds. check/check Turn 10d bingo. unfortunately check/check. River 3s. I lead with a min bet of 6k and after about 30 seconds, a very reluctant call. Probably got the max I could possibly get but still...

Anyways, after a average below stack all game, I make it to heads up. I was at least a 8:1 underdog in chips. So I went into hyper-aggressive mode. Went all-in on 90% of hands preflop. Just picking up the blinds in most cases but I got it to the point of having a slight chip lead. I'm dealer, I go all-in with K8o and get called, finally he has the balls to call and it's not good for me. K8 vs K10 Board runs out 677Q6, split pot, lol. Next hand, look down at A4s, all-in and get called. A4 vs A10 (are you kidding me?). Board runs out 74J8Q. WooHoo!!!!! I'm the champion of the last Saturday game. Bitter sweet.

I've been absent from posting here much, as well. I drop in to read a bit from time to time. I figure it's good for some of the new posters to field the questions here.

I've also not been playing much lately. Our game does not happen as often as it used to, and I haven't had much interest when it has. What can I say?

But it's good hearing from some of you who haven't posted lately. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all.

Hosted 19 players for our Christmas tournament on Saturday that included 4 new players. There was a lot of laughter and fun had by all. When it was all said and done we had 19 buy ins + 18 add ons + 49 rebuys which resulted in a decent size prize pool. I decided to pay out 5 places and the total run time of the tournament was just under 5.5 hours.

After we got done we did a secret Santa gift exchange and this year we had people pick gifts in order from their tournament finish (1st place = chose first) with the option to steal other gifts, white elephant style. This format worked really well and had some fighting over some of the better gifts in the final round. We had a great pot luck style dinner and then fired up two tables of cash games using my newly acquired PCA set for the $0.50/$1/$5 chips, 43mm Dunes Baccarat chips for $20s, and Matsui plaques for $100s. One table that ran dealers choice and the other that ran PLO/Big O. Both started 8 handed and stayed that way for a few hours and then people started leaving. Around 1ish we combined into one table. Briech, Mr. Bootysnatch, and I played 3 handed for a few hours closing the game down around 4am. Overall a solid day of poker.

Garage Set Up


Breich (left), Morph3us (right) , my son, and I


3 way all in on turn during PLO. Nut straight - Morph3us+ club draw (Machine Gun) vs. Set vs. Nut low (local... whoops!). Machine gun hits quads to scoop.

Over the past few years I've realized that I don't like playing tournaments and avoid them altogether now except for jz's Christmas tournament. The craziness is so much fun. This year, I was in for 4 rebuys (my intended max), with a stack of around T6K (starting stacks T5K) at the end of the rebuy period. With such a small stack I was going to skip the add-on and accept my fate. When I was reminded that the add-on was T10K and not T5K, I pulled another $5 from my pocket, which turned out to be the best investment of the day. Shortly after the break I was moved to a different table and finally started to get some decent hands, and they held up. Long story short: I finished third and collected three bounties along the way.

It was nice to meet some new players, the food was great, and the room was filled with laughter. Unfortunately, I ran out of steam around midnight and started my hour-long drive home around 12:45 a.m., so I missed the major cash-game hand of the night and short-handed poker in the wee hours of the morning (my favorites). Thanks to jz for the enormous amount of planning, organization, and work that went into putting on this awesome event.

Merry Christmas!

What's crazy is that hand wasn't the biggest of the night. We actually had two bigger ones! One between Breich and Machine gun and another between Breich and I.

Good Morning. Wonderful week-plus off here in NJ. Going to miss my new reg home game this week, but it's because the wife wants to head to AC (Water Club @ Borgata).

Got our Star Wars tickets (no spoilers ), will be taking a steakhouse dinner cooking lesson (Viking Cooking School) and back home in time for a quiet NYE.

Hoping that my 1-2 game hasn't suffered too much from our Dealers Choice, Spread Limit (5 max) weekly game.

I just spent a few days in NJ, too. Dad is in Whippany and mom is in Monroe Township.

Homes of JR Cigars and a buncha people waiting to come back from Florida.

I'm now in Ocean County (further south), but grew up and work in Middlesex County (includes Monroe).

Had our yearly Santa game the day after Christmas. 10 folks showed up and most stayed till the game broke. We had 5 $10 prizes (Two Red Chips in an envelope). I had expected it to last for some time , but all 5 prizes were won by 20 hands in. Never seen so many red kings and they almost all were winners. Really a nice gift to my poker pals since I did not win one red king hand.

Happy New Year!!!

Sounds like fun Bene. I like fun stuff like that, but hate being the sole provider. Back with the college guy, I could probably have had everyone bring a 'prize' to play randomly for, even go 'white elephant' for them as players won them. These days, I'm not hosting, and feel no need to toss the table $50 (although we all recently kicked in for a gift for the host).

Last night. Horseshoe Cinn. 1-2 NLH . Card Dead for 1 1/2 hours. Good LAG UTG opens for $15 , folds to me in HJ. I look down at KK. 3 bet to $30. Folds to BB he calls and UTG calls. Both Vs have me covered easily. Flop comes Q 9 3 rainbow. UTG V checks. I make it $50 to go. BB shoves about $150 more on top. UTG shoves even more. JHC!! I have about $80 behind. I say **** it and call. Showdown pre turn UTG has QQ for a set, I show KK and the BB shows AA. JHCx2!!! The turn and river are blanks and the 3rd best pre flop wipes us both out. I am too dazed by what was dealt to be angry. I just stand up with a stupid look on my face and go to supper. Glad to be just a rec player for sure.

Good gosh, QQ will be talking about that set for years.

Yeah the BB with AA was an even bigger Poker Gods sacrifice than I was. Likely somebody who plays much more regularly has seen this a few times before. I had never seen AA, KK, QQ dealt , LIVE, in one hand before and certainly was "impressed". Loki is the main poker God. LOL

Years ago (over 5 at least) in the early days of our weekly home game, we had 4 guys go all-in preflop in a monster 800bb pot ($ wise this was equal to about $100 )

AA > KK > QQ > A8s

AA guy had everyone covered
KK was 200bb deep
QQ was 300bb deep (he actually flatted first time around when AA raised, then called after being 3-bet behind by the KK and 4-bet all in by the AA)
A8s guy was only 100bb deep and had just re-bought this very hand after losing his stack

Table dropped from 8 handed to 5 handed after this as all 3 guys busted and didn't re-buy.

Memorable hand to this day.

First time I played poker in Vegas many years ago, I stacked KK with A9s on a 99x flop. In spite of it being "just poker" to me nowadays, I still remember that hand.

My weekly Tuesday tourney group finally decided to mix things up a bit.

Since the inception of the group (Moneymaker era, so 2004-ish), they've played a $10 NLHE freezeout. A few times folks have tried to up the stakes or institute rebuys, but a few players and the host have always shot it down.

This year, we've made two changes. The buy-in is now $15 (whee-hoo!), and we're doing a "pre-buy" similar to what I've used in some of the tourneys I host. Essentially you're getting a starting stack and a prepaid rebuy that can be used in the first hour. After that, it becomes an add-on.

The fear for some in this very casual group is that allowing rebuys would make the early tournament "too crazy." However, a lot of us wanted rebuys as an insurance policy in case we busted out early and didn't want to go home. The prebuy was our compromise, and thus far it's working out well.

You're alive?

I've got a 27-man freezeout at my place tomorrow followed by all day 1/1 NL and 4/8 limit cash. Should be a great time.

t is so nice to seeanother woman from here actually play cards!!!

t is so nice to see another woman from here actually play cards!!!

While not home poker, I ask in hopes that no one has a cow.

I just discovered charity type tournies in my area.

What is a reasonable rake? How much is unbeatable?

The one that I find interesting is $125 buy-in, $25 donation, $90 to the pot, and $10 to the bounty, no re-buys or add-ons. Free dinner too!

I don't know the structure, but I'm guessing better than bingo. I'll ask first.

How does this compare to casino tournies at a similar buy-in?

I played a smaller buy-in tourny last week. 8 man tables, round plastic banquet style! No cut card, I had to remind the dealer that he was show an ace on the bottom!

Quite fun actually, good players stood out like a sore thumb.

I live, believe it or not, and the 1/1 NL game sounds like a good time.

I played 2/5 NL Friday night - first time in about 5 months - and walked away with a small win. I'm not rolled for it, and the buy-ins at my local card room have increased, so I'll probably drop down to 1/2 for a while until I build a bigger bankroll.

I've also been invited to a new home game. My daughters have friends who live about a block from my house, and my wife and I have known their parents casually for a few years. I just found out this weekend that Dad runs a monthly NLHE tournament with an average turnout of 20-25 players. I got an invitation for this month's game, so I'm going to give it a go. It could be dice chips at the kitchen table - I'm going in blind.