Tao of Poker

Sharks Eating Sharks

"The best thing about Party Poker... is that I get to play pantsless." - Me

It was a cold early winter December night in the big city. I got home late a little inebriated and read an email from Iggy. Both he and The Fat Guy were playing on a $25 NL table. I quickly fired up Party Poker and joined the waitlist. I saw that Sean from Anisotropy and SirFWalgman were playing also. By the time my number was called, Maudie was already seated. Long time reader Hank987 joined us soon after. Within an hour we nearly had a table full of bloggers and readers. Hammers, liquor, and bloggers are a destructive combination. I have the hand histories to prove it. I have been getting my ass kicked at blogger tables all week. Some nights I think playing Russian Roulette with a gang of unscrupulous crystal meth snorting bikers would be a safer proposition.

Here's the lineup throughout the night, with 13 bloggers in total (and Hank987) hopping in and out for the entire duration of my session.

Seat 1: Maudie then AlCantStaySober
Seat 2: UWannaBet
Seat 3: SirFWalgman
Seat 4: The Fat Guy then Bad Blood
Seat 5: Predator from Poker Quest
Seat 6: Dr. Pauly
Seat 7: Poker Nerd
Seat 8: Iggy
Seat 9: Sean from Anisotropy then AlCantStaySober then -EV
Seat 10: Hank987 then Otis

Iggy had an off session compared to the rest of the times we played together the last ten days or so. He had been crushing these loose tables. I think he was sober! At one point, The Poker Nerd, The Fat Guy and Poker Quest all had $100 stacks. I got as high as $95 at one point. There were hammer bluffs flying left and right and bloggers pushing all in preflop with almost any two cards. We all definitely jacked up the rake for Party Poker and I wondered if our table had the highest average pot size for all the $25 NL tables.

Here are some notable hands.

1:14am EST... I went heads up with SirF twice splitting our battles. This was the first one. With AJ in middle position, I limped in. The flop was A-K-9. He bet the pot, I raised and he moved all in. I ended up calling hoping I wasn't too far behind. He had K9 and took down that pot.

1:40 am EST... Otis and Iggy went heads up. The flop: A-8-4. Iggy had 8-4 and Otis had A5s. He ended up calling (and thought he was outkicked). Running threes hit the turn and flop and Otis doubled upagainst Iggy. Here's some of the post hand chat:

Otis: that was horrible
Iggy: pfft poker
DrPauly: and you loved every second of it
Otis: um....sorta yeah
PokerQuest: online poker is rigged... I tried to tell you all

1:45am EST... I got a suited hammer and limped in. Maudie raised an unusual $2.16 and four of us called. I caught a 7 on the flop and check raised Maudie all in. She folded AQ (I think). I tightened up my play at the table and that was one of two or three bluffs I made all night.

2:18am EST... I went heads up with Iggy who was shortstacked. My A-10 vs. his Q8. He was being nice trying to give me extra stripper money for Vegas!

2:21am EST... Otis had a tough bad beat. His KK were cracked by Poker Quest's 77 who hit running cards for a straight. D'oh! Poker Quest raised preflop and Otis smooth called his Cowboys. The flop: 9-6-5. Poker Quest pushed all in (about $40+). Otis had him covered and called after he typed in the chat, "I may have to pay this off." The turn was a 4 and the river a 3 to give Poker Quest a straight and his stack topped almost $100. I think everyone in South Carolina heard Otis' primal bad beat scream. When I talked to him almost 11 hours later, Otis was still reeling from that suckout!

2:24am EST... More bad beats for the South Carolina bloggers. Al Cant Fold's ATs took down Bad Blood's pocket Jacks when he rivered an Ace!

2:35am EST... Bad Blood's 66 lose to Otis' 77. Ouch. I hate when that happens.

2:36am EST... I cracked SirF's Hilton Sisters with 56s. I got him back. I flopped an open ended straight flush draw on 4s-7s-Kx. Sir F checked, I bet $4, he raised to $8 and I moved all in. He typed, "What the hell... I'm sleepy," into the chat and called. I had plenty of outs and was hoping to at least catch a flush. I hit a straight on the turn and a flush on the river to take down a sizable pot. I love smacking around Nicky & Paris.

Shortly after that the table broke up... or at least I left to write a little before I crashed. That session might have been the first time in a very long while that I actually won money on a blogger table. I had been getting spanked all week long playing with bloggers. A couple players lost their buy-ins (and multiple buy ins). I finalyy got to play with some other bloggers like Poker Quest for the first time, along with -EV, the Poker Nerd, and UWannabet. I'm thinking I might have to limit myself to only one or two sessions a week with hammer throwing bloggers since I always end up pissing my money away.

By the way, Happy Birthday Otis!

Holiday Classic Update

Daddy from Snail Trax is in for Vegas! I met Daddy for the first time at set break during a Phish show in Deer Creek, Indiana this past June. We didn't get to play poker for obvious reasons but we've played online plenty of times together. This now brings the total to 28 with a few names on the Maybelist and Waitlist. See everyone in Vegas in 6 days? One week from today, we'll all be at Sam's Town.