Tao of Poker

Coach's Home Game

Yes, fellow NYC poker buddy Coach hosted a game at his place on the Upper East Side and I was fortunate to get an invite. He had a brand new poker table which was great except we had nine players at one point and had to move to the larger dining room table. If Rick had not gotten held up with work (lawyers working late on a Sunday night, ouch!) we would have had 10! Anyway, Ugarte returned from abroad to make an appearance which was great because I have not really had the chance to play a lot with him. And Swish showed up on his last night in NYC before he moves to DC. I had one last chance to get some of my money back from him after my four 3s lost to his four 4s.

The players:

Seat 1: Coach (Our Host)
Seat 2: Ugarte
Seat 3: Swish
Seat 4: Matt
Seat 5: Doug (Coach's brother)
Seat 6: Mike
Seat 7: Pauly
Seat 8: Signor Ferrari
Seat 9: Kathleen

The game started around 6:30 and the stakes were much lower than at Ferrari's Monday night games. Coach set a $30 buy-in and the highest bet was $1 (although it did get raised a few times).

Right away I lost a few dollars playing Anaconda when Mike won a pot with four 10s. I had to chop the low with Matt on another deal of Anaconda, but at least I didn't lose money on that one.

The bad beat of the night went to Ferrari from... me! My turn to deal and I called Texas Hold'em. Ferrari was the little blind with A-K. I'm on the button with Q-6. I limp in and Ferrari raised. I called and caught a decent flop: Q-6-K. He bet and I raised. I can't recall the rest of the hand, but at the showdown my two pair Q-6 was better than Ferrari's pair of Kings with an ace kicker. That sucked and Ferrari wondered why I called his pre-flop raise. Simple: Position. I was on the button and even if I had to put three bets in, I was going to see a flop.

Swish called seven card stud with Dueces Wild. Of course I caught a Wheel straight flush (I had one two) and didn't realize I had it. I made a rookie mistake, and that coast me a few dollars. I should have been betting the max and blew it.

I won a huge pot of Stud hi/lo when my two pair beat out Doug's two pair. I went head's up with Kathleen playing stud hi/lo and hold'em. I think she had 3 Kings both times. The first time, playing stud hi/lo, my three 3s were no match for her set of Kings. She had two Kings showing and I knew she had the other King when I tried to stare her down and she just smiled too confidently. I called her anyway and she flipped over a King. She admited, "Pauly, I have a terrible poker face." She's a newbie, but picked up very quickly. I knew she had me beat anyway, but had to see her cards. Another time, during a hand of hold'em, I had Q-10 and I caught the straight on the river when a K hit. She bet on the King heavily because she had pocket Kings! Ouch, that was the second bad beat of the night I inflicted! Q-10 cracked K-K and my Q-6 took down Ferrari's A-K. If I only had the Hammer, I would have raised pre-flop with it! Yep, it was one of those nights.

The game ended a little after 10pm. The final tally:

Mike +84
Pauly +23
Coach +6
Ugarte -2.25
Ferrari -5
Matt -10
Kathleen -15
Doug -27.25
Swish -41.50

Overall, I played very loose and won some bullshit hands. But a good night is a good night. I left up, so that's always great.

Next write up: Ferrari's Monday night home game!