[Josh W]

After reading Andy's response to Jim's post regarding the game (top 13 post), I felt compelled to write my own post with a lotta thoughts and excerpts from the night.

First, I want to apologize to those in attendance. It only dawned on me this morning (er, afternoon) when I woke up that I had ingested a hefty sum of alcohol. I'm sure I was a babbling idiot last night.

As an aside, yes I did drink just to give me an excuse for being a babbling idiot. I make no excuses for rambling now, tho.

If you read Andy's "Top 13" post, then I have some explaining to do. If you haven't, then you should.

He mentions that I'm a funny man. Unfortunately, looks don't count for much in poker.

Then he goes on to discuss my "bottom pair bottom kicker" (bpbk) hand. I feel that this needs further illumination.

Gabe raised preflop (I may not remember this 100% correctly, it was between the Jack shots and the cerveza's).

So, Gabe raised. I put him on two random cards. He was playing a lot of hands (at least 3% of 'em), and I was in the BB w/ 32o. I thought that I was probably behind, but was getting like 4:1 to call preflop, so call I did.

The flop came J54, giving me an openended draw. The cards were too blurry for me to say what suits they were. I bet, and Gabe raised. I now figured him likely overcards, a big jack, or a pocket pair bigger than 5s.

The turn was a blank, we'll say a Ten. It went check/check. Now, I really thought he had overcards.

River brought a deuce. I bet (honestly, I figgered this to be a value bet, not a bluff). Gabe called, and I said, as Andy correctly mention "bpbk". The thing he left out, however, was I said it emphaticly, proudly, and with heart. I was proud of my value bet. I was happy to win this pot, and pick up a bet on the river.

When Gabe turned over his 99, I was none of the abovementioned.

We were all amazed when playing Omaha/8. Clark was dealt AA23s. Many of us had never seen that hand dealt before. I beat it with the often-disrespected starting hand QQJ3r. What was he thinking???

The only real error of the night by a dealer (there were many mistakes by the players...er, me) was when they burned and rivered before everybody discarded in the "Crazy Fox" game (double discard pineapple). The initial river was the 5d...after shuffling the remaining deck, and turning over the 'real' river, it too was the 5d. And a cheer broke out amongst us without a financial interest in the outcome.

It was also fairly important to the two players in the hand, Hero and ???? mike l. perhaps was the other. The board was Ks 6s 5s, 14ph (fourteen of purple horseshoes), then the 5d. Hero had ATs, and the other player had KK. So pairing the board was criticalish.

I figured Andy to be so tight that he'd often muck UTG blind. However, last night, he called blind UTG and UTG+1 on many occassions. I don't blame him. His postflop play makes up for any slight -EV his preflop play may involve.

Rick N. bet the river whenever he had any two cards that comprised the nuts. And never else. So when I called him down twice (and others did as well) with a strong non-nut hands, Clarkmeister would ask why we pay him off. In fact, he'd belt it out "WHY PAY HIM OFF?" Of course, he was just trying to be helpful. Throwing a beer bottle at my head may have got the point accross better.

But then, the next time, I called him down with JJ on a KKxxx board, and he showed AQ, and I was elated. So elated that I had another libation. Mmm Good.

As far as the poker was concerned...the sixth dealer
was far and away my favorite...that's when I won my 1st pot. It coulda been worse tho. A sincere thankyou to Hero who let me play 'over' her chips while she lobbied (then played Rick's). It woulda been a fun game to watch, but much more enjoyable to play. Thanks Hero!!

Ed Miller (majorkong) is a man of his word. there were a number of times when he was raised on the river and he stated "I'll pay you off". He did, 100% of the time!

[aside: I'm not mocking him....the pots were big, and folding for 1 bet when there's a 90% chance somebody is taking a shot at you is horrendous].

I was honored, that near the end of the night, when the play had tightened up somewhat, i was still one of only two people that clarkmeister would give action to. Not sure that honor is the word I should use....

mike l. is a lot tighter than I expected. Andy sure played a lot looser than i imagined possible [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Clark did a good job of making it seem like he was playing looser than he actually was.

[aside #814: i've begun noticing that a lot of the best players i know promote a lot of action with their mouth. they gain bets, tilt players, make poeple stay longer than they wanna, etc. because of their mouth. I strive to have this weapon. I sense that Clarkmeister already does]

It's taken me about 2 hours to write this so far. I'm sure I'm leaving lots out, but I'm also playing online (gotta make up for what I lost yesterday [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. So now I'm gonna quit writing.

But to summarize. Thanks to Rick and Hero. This was the stone cold nuts (which is why Rick was involved in it!). It was great meeting those I hadn't (Jim, Gabe, mike l., Andy, Clarkmeister, Rick, Hero, and el Dukie) and seeing those I knew (Ed Miller and Dynasty).

So far it looks like all made it home safe. That's the best part.

Josh