Damn Kings

Chip Douglas: You know what the trouble about real life is? There's no danger music.

"The Cable Guy"

Some of the comments heard at the final on Sunday when C/C was going through his amazing run:

After he has won his third all-in hand:
"Man, he's harder to get rid of than herpes!"
"Are you speaking from experience?"
"All I'm saying is Thai hookers are not as clean as you'd hope"

When he left the table, having gone from T5000 to T150,000 in the space of five hands:
C/C: I'm just going to get some water.
Crowd: Are you going to drink it, or walk on it?

If you happen to run into this guy at the World Series this year, try to stay away. It doesn't matter how good you are, his cards will fall.

In all the excitement, I forgot that I actually played some poker on Friday night. This is a home game that I have been to once or twice, even though it is on every week. As a friend of mine would say, I just can't get the correct visa from the minister for travel and recreation every week. Well, I do have other things to do from time to time, but it is great knowing that every Friday, if I want a home game there is one waiting.

When I arrived, it seemed that I was the first one there besides the host. We were chatting a bit and checking out his new 14 gram chip set (very nice) and he informed me that they deal from a shoe from now on because there were allegations of cheating. Without going into too much detail, one player hit a straight-flush on the river on their own deal, and another player said he saw/heard him dealing from the bottom of the deck (despite the cut card being used). Without having been there myself, it is very hard to ascertain what happened, as I know and have played with both the accuser and accused before. I'd trust both of them around any poker table. I find it hard to believe that the accused would bother to do that for the little amount of money in play, and I find it hard to believe that the accuser would make up a complaint out of spite.

So what do you do? Dealing from the shoe isn't a big issue, it's not as clunky or awkward as I thought it would be, so there shouldn't be a problem there. They are also installing CCTV for the benefit of the games – although the place is also a business so I guess it will be a tax write off anyway. But what a shame it would have been for this game to close down. Of course the accuser and some of his friends will not return, but we still had plenty of numbers on the night so it appears the game will live on regardless.

The structure changed slightly too. It is still $1/$1 no limit, but instead of a $50 max buy in, it is now $50 min/$100 max buy in. This did mean I had arrived with less buy ins than I had hoped, but I guess I'll just need to hit early or go home.

I had a small pot win before my first all-in, with Aces holding up over Queens on an all-under flop. I've had a good run with Aces lately, both in live and online as I think they are undefeated for the past 6 or 7 runs. This was by far the biggest pot for them though, and I was looking down at about $220 at this stage.

A few more players join the fray, and I'm still just travelling along and making some decent plays when needed. A new player bets aggressively on a 2 spade flop, and I'm holding AsXs. I call, and the button folds. Then he checks the Queen of spades on the turn. I bet just under the pot amount at $50, and he moves all-in over the top for another $50 or so. I check for straight flush possibilities, and my Xs ruins them, so I have the nuts and call. To be honest, I don't think I could have folded even if there was a straight flush possibility, unless it was four in a row on the board. All I'm fearing is 2 pair or a set filling up on the river. He says "You better have a flush", which I thought was kinda weird. I guess he didn't want to see a loose call hit on the river either. I showed my ace high flush and had him drawing dead. The button who folded on the flop also had two spades, so this could have been a even bigger.

The player who busted to me early with his Queens was having a horrible run of beats. The short stack went all-in and he called with a set, only for the gut shot to come on the river for the short stacks straight. This left him with $27 dollars, and he went all-in UTG the very next hand. It was very tiltish, but you could tell he probably had a pair or an ace. I looked down and saw pocket kings, and I almost felt guilty. I said sorry, and called the 26 big bet raise. Oh yes, you know where this is going. The former short stack called from the small blind.

The flop is ten high, and he bets $10 into a $82 pot. He has just over $100 left, and I hope all he has is a ten. He thinks for less than a second and calls with T7d. There are no diamonds on the board, so he has called with top pair weak kicker. The other all-in has pocket threes.

Sure enough, the turn brings a 7 for his crappy two pair to stand up in a $300+ pot. We had a rule in place that you can whinge and whine all you like about a bad beat, but only for three hands afterwards. Man, did I want to take advantage of that rule.

"Interesting call with T7 suited pre-flop?" I decided calling with top pair weak kicker was not as bad a call as this, shocking though it was.

"Yeah, I like playing suited connectors". Oh dear, how I wanted to cry.

"You know, technically, they're not really connectors." Fruitless as it was to say, I felt I needed vindication some how. But what can you do? It's a friendly game, he wasn't being obnoxious or anything. I used that conversation as my whinge and let it go. Besides, I still had over $200 in front of me, and I was the only players with a black $100 chip. I looked at it and studied it closely – this was my buy in. Everything else was profit.

Two hands later, I called an all-in with TPTK on a ten high flop, and I've run into aces. There goes another stack of chips, about $70-80 worth.

3 hands ago I was looking at being nearly half a grand in the black, and now I've got enough for maybe a happy meal in profit. Don't you just love poker?

For the next 2 hours I think I won maybe one hand. It was cold cards though, so I didn't loose all that much. I was on the wrong end of some river cards, but they were easy to get away from. Late in the game I managed to claw back to just over $200 again before 3 of the remaining 5 players were going to call it a night. The host had $103 dollars and decided to pocket the $100 and go all-in blind with the $3. In a nano-second every player agreed for the $3 hand to finish off the night.

I had A6, there was A9, A8 and T6. I managed to hit a 6 on the turn to take down the last pot of the night, and left in a weird mood. Sure, I was $120 up on the night, which is considered a great night by my standards and bank roll size, but it could have been so much more if those Kings didn't get cracked. On a side note, we saw Kings loose 4 all-ins on the night, but I think mine had to be the most expensive. It just goes that way sometimes.

There will be no poker this weekend, as my parents are visiting Sydney. This will be their first visit since the wedding, and Dad's first trip to Sydney for years. I'm always looking forward to catching up with my old's since I don't get to see them that often these days, and they are still young enough to enjoy life and the such. In fact, mum (the oldest of my parents) is turning the half century later this year, so I've got young parents compared to most people my age.

Anyway, the following week I'm hoping to renew my home game, so lets see how we go.