Inaugural Seattle Poker Blogger Home Game!
Last night was a blast! Would have had eight, if Zeem had showed, but I understand why he was scared... I'll just say playing with this group isn't the best way to make money. Here was the line up:
Seat 1: mclarich
Matt's got game. He's a really cool and laid back guy, who joked around regardless of how well he was doing, which is always a big plus in my book. I seem to recall him winning a lot of pots without showing down, which is the type of play I try to emulate.
Seat 2: The Wife
Michelle's got it going on, plain and simple. Poker acumen, a hilarious personality, and hmm... what else... oh yeah, a smoking hot body. I now see what all the hub-bub was about at the Winter Gathering. Dr. Chako is one lucky guy. Michelle and I never actually tangled in a pot all night long, but that is probably because I was on the rail 30 minutes into each game.
Seat 3: Joshua
Joshua, the self-proclaimed non-blogger, who only made a blog last November so he could play in the home game. We really need to get this guy posting more (ooh, updated his blog today!), he's got the entertainment value of a Waffles, but he's much prettier (no offense, Waffles). Joshua may only be remembered by his lethal check out-of-position to induce a bet by John, only to pop John with an all-in. Oh, it was dirty! But I'll remember him for his plethora of hats. Hats are like a moonstone ring for Joshua, as his mood changes, he's gotta get a new hat. The cowboy hat comes out and he starts calling everyone "Hoss." Watch out for this guy in the future.
Seat 4: Your Hero!
I am a donk, plain and simple. I think everyone knew I was the mark, including myself, within the first orbit. Little do they know, I was only posturing last night. Give the image of a complete buffoon at the table the first home game, then as the weeks turn into months, months into years, my wins will slowly start to snowball into a college fund for my future kids.
Seat 5: Seattle John
Seattle John plays with the big dogs. During the second tournament, he got a text from a buddy of his down in LA at the Commerce, who had just jumped into a 1/2 full ring game with Gabe Kaplan, commentator on GSN's High Stakes Poker. 1/2 thousand... !!!... !!!!! I have a few connections in the poker world, so I can hold a conversation with the high rollers, but I am so far removed from that world, it is much more fantasy than reality. I remember a handful of times last night where John just made great plays. He was aggressive when the rest of the table started out passive. He took his time to sniff out my bluffs, and besides his "Fuck it" call in the second tourney (because he had another engagement to get to), I think he only made one bad play--which was on Joshua's low-blow check out-of-position, re-raise all-in. Ohhh, it was DIRTY!
Seat 6: Cayne
Cayne's a great host, and a quality guy. He never believed any bets that Joshua made, and defended his big blind like it was his first-born. Don't try and steal Cayne's blind, just don't! Cayne's a funny guy, and took just as much ribbing as he gave out. He had a fridge full of beer, a kitchen full of food, and a nice TV playing Rounders as we all arrived--can't ask for more than that.
Seat 7: Andre
The only non-blogger in attendance (if you count Joshua's blog). A good friend of Cayne, and Andre also provided the table, which is the nicest home-game table I've ever played on. Andre has some poker skills, and is a big fan of Arrested Development, so he will be considered the recipient of the first "honorary blogger for a night" reward, his ticket to play in the game. It is only good for one night though, so he better start cranking out the blog posts before our next get-together.
---
Much like the blogger tournaments online, you're playing with people who know more than just the basics of the game. People are thinking on different levels (me being towards the bottom), but everyone is considering position, pot odds, table image, stack sizes and a variety of other things when making decisions at the table. John got a screw job while holding AK or AQ to Joshua's A8, but other than that, I can't think of many suck outs on the evening--which obviously isn't the blogger norm!
Out of the seven players, I was probably the worst. Well, I was the worst last night, with two 6th place finishes, but that is results-oriented thinking--and results-based thinking is for losers! I was playing a loose-weak game, and it didn't work out well for me (nor for anyone who has tried it in the past). In the first tourney, I let Joshua catch up on the turn, then didn't believe he had a 3. In the second tourney, Andre's low pocket pair flopped a set against my over-pair of queens, and I wasn't able to get away from the min-raise. After the hand, it all made sense, but I couldn't get away from the ladies in the heat of the moment.
Michelle ended up bubbling both times, which is more aggravating than going out sixth both times. She took it well though, and I have a good feeling that Michelle and I will receive our just desserts next home game. Joshua luck-sacked his way into 1st place in the first tourney, followed by Cayne. In the second tourney, Andre got out to a monster lead after taking out John, me, and then Cayne, but Andre ran into a road-block when it got down to him, Matt and Michelle. Matt entered 3-handed play the short stack, but fired up the aggression and took a number of uncontested pots. Eventually, Michelle's 77 got out-flopped by Andre's Ace-Nine, and Matt ended up taking out Andre heads up.
A few of us were pushing for the second tourney to be some HORSE variant, but Cayne felt like Andre got the shaft in the first game because Andre got knocked out first and dealt the entire game. And it was just easier to deal and play NLHE, as opposed to a limit HORSE tourney. After the second tourney, we toyed with the idea of playing Chinese Poker, but settled on a dime/quarter HORSE game. I solidified my position as the worst player, by buying in for $5 and cashing out for $1 at the end of the night.
I can't speak for everyone else, but after the full five orbits of HORSE, I was dead tired, and ready to call it a night. We broke up, gave lame hugs to Michelle, then headed out. This is where the real fun begins.
Yesterday was actually a pretty nice day, so I decided to give the ol' motorcycle a much-needed spin. The city driving kills cars and motorcycles, if that is the only driving you do, so a nice 25-mile ride down to Renton sounded like a good idea. On the ride down, it was perfect. I got to ride in the carpool lane past all the congestion, and had fun seeing and driving through downtown Seattle at night. By the time I got to Renton, it was dark outside, but still 51 degrees, which is about 20 degrees warmer than a week ago--so it almost felt like summer riding!
The ride home was a different story. Sometime between 6:30pm and 1:00am, it decided to start raining. No biggie, I've ridden in the rain before. Have I ridden in the night, in the rain, on a freeway before? No, I haven't. And it is bullshit. I couldn't see anything for 25 miles on the freeway. It was like I wasn't wearing glasses. I had to tilt my head to the side in order to see out of my helmet, because I've got no windshield wipers on my helmet. I had to avoid standing water on the freeway, while trying to figure out where my lane was. The cars zipping past, throwing even more rain on me didn't help. Eventually, I just got behind a car with bright tail lights and followed him from a few hundred feet back.
Other than the ride home, I had an amazing time, and might look to host one of these get-togethers if there is enough interest in coming up to Seattle (or down to Seattle?? Schaubs??). The Wife should have some pictures up soon, if not already, so head over there if you want to see five ugly guys, one pretty guy, and one fox.
Seat 1: mclarich
Matt's got game. He's a really cool and laid back guy, who joked around regardless of how well he was doing, which is always a big plus in my book. I seem to recall him winning a lot of pots without showing down, which is the type of play I try to emulate.
Seat 2: The Wife
Michelle's got it going on, plain and simple. Poker acumen, a hilarious personality, and hmm... what else... oh yeah, a smoking hot body. I now see what all the hub-bub was about at the Winter Gathering. Dr. Chako is one lucky guy. Michelle and I never actually tangled in a pot all night long, but that is probably because I was on the rail 30 minutes into each game.
Seat 3: Joshua
Joshua, the self-proclaimed non-blogger, who only made a blog last November so he could play in the home game. We really need to get this guy posting more (ooh, updated his blog today!), he's got the entertainment value of a Waffles, but he's much prettier (no offense, Waffles). Joshua may only be remembered by his lethal check out-of-position to induce a bet by John, only to pop John with an all-in. Oh, it was dirty! But I'll remember him for his plethora of hats. Hats are like a moonstone ring for Joshua, as his mood changes, he's gotta get a new hat. The cowboy hat comes out and he starts calling everyone "Hoss." Watch out for this guy in the future.
Seat 4: Your Hero!
I am a donk, plain and simple. I think everyone knew I was the mark, including myself, within the first orbit. Little do they know, I was only posturing last night. Give the image of a complete buffoon at the table the first home game, then as the weeks turn into months, months into years, my wins will slowly start to snowball into a college fund for my future kids.
Seat 5: Seattle John
Seattle John plays with the big dogs. During the second tournament, he got a text from a buddy of his down in LA at the Commerce, who had just jumped into a 1/2 full ring game with Gabe Kaplan, commentator on GSN's High Stakes Poker. 1/2 thousand... !!!... !!!!! I have a few connections in the poker world, so I can hold a conversation with the high rollers, but I am so far removed from that world, it is much more fantasy than reality. I remember a handful of times last night where John just made great plays. He was aggressive when the rest of the table started out passive. He took his time to sniff out my bluffs, and besides his "Fuck it" call in the second tourney (because he had another engagement to get to), I think he only made one bad play--which was on Joshua's low-blow check out-of-position, re-raise all-in. Ohhh, it was DIRTY!
Seat 6: Cayne
Cayne's a great host, and a quality guy. He never believed any bets that Joshua made, and defended his big blind like it was his first-born. Don't try and steal Cayne's blind, just don't! Cayne's a funny guy, and took just as much ribbing as he gave out. He had a fridge full of beer, a kitchen full of food, and a nice TV playing Rounders as we all arrived--can't ask for more than that.
Seat 7: Andre
The only non-blogger in attendance (if you count Joshua's blog). A good friend of Cayne, and Andre also provided the table, which is the nicest home-game table I've ever played on. Andre has some poker skills, and is a big fan of Arrested Development, so he will be considered the recipient of the first "honorary blogger for a night" reward, his ticket to play in the game. It is only good for one night though, so he better start cranking out the blog posts before our next get-together.
---
Much like the blogger tournaments online, you're playing with people who know more than just the basics of the game. People are thinking on different levels (me being towards the bottom), but everyone is considering position, pot odds, table image, stack sizes and a variety of other things when making decisions at the table. John got a screw job while holding AK or AQ to Joshua's A8, but other than that, I can't think of many suck outs on the evening--which obviously isn't the blogger norm!
Out of the seven players, I was probably the worst. Well, I was the worst last night, with two 6th place finishes, but that is results-oriented thinking--and results-based thinking is for losers! I was playing a loose-weak game, and it didn't work out well for me (nor for anyone who has tried it in the past). In the first tourney, I let Joshua catch up on the turn, then didn't believe he had a 3. In the second tourney, Andre's low pocket pair flopped a set against my over-pair of queens, and I wasn't able to get away from the min-raise. After the hand, it all made sense, but I couldn't get away from the ladies in the heat of the moment.
Michelle ended up bubbling both times, which is more aggravating than going out sixth both times. She took it well though, and I have a good feeling that Michelle and I will receive our just desserts next home game. Joshua luck-sacked his way into 1st place in the first tourney, followed by Cayne. In the second tourney, Andre got out to a monster lead after taking out John, me, and then Cayne, but Andre ran into a road-block when it got down to him, Matt and Michelle. Matt entered 3-handed play the short stack, but fired up the aggression and took a number of uncontested pots. Eventually, Michelle's 77 got out-flopped by Andre's Ace-Nine, and Matt ended up taking out Andre heads up.
A few of us were pushing for the second tourney to be some HORSE variant, but Cayne felt like Andre got the shaft in the first game because Andre got knocked out first and dealt the entire game. And it was just easier to deal and play NLHE, as opposed to a limit HORSE tourney. After the second tourney, we toyed with the idea of playing Chinese Poker, but settled on a dime/quarter HORSE game. I solidified my position as the worst player, by buying in for $5 and cashing out for $1 at the end of the night.
I can't speak for everyone else, but after the full five orbits of HORSE, I was dead tired, and ready to call it a night. We broke up, gave lame hugs to Michelle, then headed out. This is where the real fun begins.
Yesterday was actually a pretty nice day, so I decided to give the ol' motorcycle a much-needed spin. The city driving kills cars and motorcycles, if that is the only driving you do, so a nice 25-mile ride down to Renton sounded like a good idea. On the ride down, it was perfect. I got to ride in the carpool lane past all the congestion, and had fun seeing and driving through downtown Seattle at night. By the time I got to Renton, it was dark outside, but still 51 degrees, which is about 20 degrees warmer than a week ago--so it almost felt like summer riding!
The ride home was a different story. Sometime between 6:30pm and 1:00am, it decided to start raining. No biggie, I've ridden in the rain before. Have I ridden in the night, in the rain, on a freeway before? No, I haven't. And it is bullshit. I couldn't see anything for 25 miles on the freeway. It was like I wasn't wearing glasses. I had to tilt my head to the side in order to see out of my helmet, because I've got no windshield wipers on my helmet. I had to avoid standing water on the freeway, while trying to figure out where my lane was. The cars zipping past, throwing even more rain on me didn't help. Eventually, I just got behind a car with bright tail lights and followed him from a few hundred feet back.
Other than the ride home, I had an amazing time, and might look to host one of these get-togethers if there is enough interest in coming up to Seattle (or down to Seattle?? Schaubs??). The Wife should have some pictures up soon, if not already, so head over there if you want to see five ugly guys, one pretty guy, and one fox.
Labels: motorcycle, poker
posted by MHG at
2/10/2008 11:38:00 AM
4 Comments:
South Siders Rule!!!!!
It was not dirty! It was a mistake! Yeah that's it a mistake.
My hats are my strength. Like Sampson's hair.
You get bonus points for calling me a fox. But that doesn't mean I will have any qualms about taking your money next time.
You should have totally stayed at Cayne's - just not in the misteltoe room.
Glad to hear you made it home safe. That rain was bad enough driving in my car, I was wondering how you'd make it back on your bike.
We will definitely have to get some of those south siders up here one of these times.
I'd be willing to make a trip down to Seattle in the summer for sure!
Bring it.
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