A Good Result

Poker is such a fickle game. Fortunes (and bragging rights!) can be won and lost on the turn of a card. Well, this weekend, the cards turned in my favour and I’m happy. I actually felt I played as well as I could and got the results I deserved – not something that happens especially often in poker games (or at least the ones I’m involved in)!

So, Saturday night saw a new venue for us, with a first visit to my friend’s new house in Knottingley. For the first time ever as well, we managed to muster seven players which was awesome. Such a contrast to the usual fast dynamic of our five player games.

After anticipating this night for so long, it was great to finally get there and get going. We got the cards in the air around 9.30pm and everyone seemed to make a cautious start to the game – not wanting to make too many moves too early. To be fair, the general standard among us, with a couple of exceptions, is reasonably ok, so the careful start was to be expected.

A few hands in though, with the blinds still only at level two, (10, 20 out of a 3k stack) the best, and most aggressive player at the table started making what I thought were a few bold moves. He is well known for playing fast, aggressive, power poker but by the same token, we all know he doesn’t need a hand to do it. So, I decided to play the role of Sheriff for the night and keep him honest. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out so well. To be honest I was a little reckless, re-raising (twice) with air when he actually had a hand. Fortunately, I bailed out once I realised this but had bluffed off half my stack trying to catch him out.

So, from this point on for me, it was a bit of a grind, and then, as the blinds got bigger, a case of pushing in good spots and getting my chips in ahead. Amazingly, I managed to play pretty well (in my opinion) and get myself into a position of being average chipped with two people out. From here, I knew I had to up my game and actively start to accumulate chips and go for the win. So, as the blinds escalated, I played more and more aggressively, even taking down an amazing bluff hand (for a huge pot), pushing top two pair off her hand – brilliant, a real buzz – I showed the bluff too (nasty!)

However, the win was not to be. I was just too far behind and the luck wasn’t with me. I did manage to get heads up, but my 1:2 chip deficit was just too much and I ended up second – a good result considering my start though.

We started the second game around 1.30am with shorter stacks and faster blinds – really fun poker. Play hands or get blinded out – fast! There were a lot of flops, a lot of all ins and a lot of chips changing hands.
Fortunately for me, I got a few hands initially and that meant I could be pretty dominant throughout the second game. I never got my chips in for my tournament life and actively tried to knock people out. This meant a few stack swings, but it paid off in the end with me eventually hitting a one outer heads up to take the game down. This was a bit rough on my friend, but that’s the way poker goes. I’ve had a few inflicted on me in the past and I’m sure it’ll happen again, so I’ll take it when it falls for me.

The poker finally came to an end around 3.30am, bringing to an end a really fun night, made all the better by the fact that I’d bagged the most league points for the night and the bragging rights for the next month.

Roll on the next game in May!