Easy Money

When one is in desperate need of some cash, there's no limit to what people will do. Some will turn tricks, others will resort to thievery. Luckily for me, I found another way to make money without subjecting myself to being a whore or a criminal: Play poker with other bloggers. There isn't any easier money out there.

Cayne & his roommate Joshua hosted the first of many Seattle Blogger Home Games on Saturday night, with others in attendance including myself, The Wife, Seattle John, meanhappyguy, and Cayne's friend Andre, who will always be welcome at our games after supplying us with a wonderful table to play on. Quite the motley crew if there ever was one.

We got underway with the first game at 7pm, and Seattle John started the game by taking down several pots uncontested. If you're not familiar with SJ or his blog, he's very much an accomplished player, regularly winning at some of the biggest stakes in town. In fact, I had to chuckle to myself when he asked if any of us were heading to the Commerce for the games this month - my bankroll wouldn't even get me a flight there! Anyways, SJ quickly established control of the table, reminding us that, even if we were there for good times & Cayne's alcohol, there was still some poker to be played.

I didn't get much to play with, and resorted to stealing pots when other players showed weakness. I check-raised Joshua with nothing but a Q-high flush draw on an A-high flop, figuring that his limp preflop didn't represent a strong hand. He called my raise but folded to my second bullet on the turn. I think that was the only hand I won postflop in the game.

My stack began to dwindle, and I had to make a move soon. Cayne started picking on my blind, but I called one of his raises with Q8h. I thought about pushing preflop because I didn't figure he had that strong of a hand, but I didn't have the marbles to do it. Instead, I chose to check raise him on a KT9, 2-diamond board. His lead bet didn't seem that strong & I figured I could push him off the hand. He called with a lesser hand, J8, but he also had two diamonds to give him a lead in the hand. The turn was a blank but the river was a diamond, and I justifiably lost the hand.

I can't recall if it was before or after my bustout when Joshua utilized his incredible poker acumen to acquire SJ's stack. The preflop action went raise-Joshua, reraise-SJ, smooth call-Joshua. The flop came A6x when Joshua checked...from the button! Oh, that crafty Joshua, checking out of position to induce a bet from SJ. SJ took the bait and bet out, Joshua pushed all in, and SJ makes the call. SJ shows AK, Joshua shows A6. The 6 on the turn completed Joshua's mastery of SJ and gave him a huge stack that he took heads up against Cayne. After watching that play, I was humbled, recognizing that I was in the presence of a poker deity. I can only hope that Joshua can find time away from hustling players at the Muckleshoot to join us donks in our home game again. Having a poker player of that quality helps give our little home game just a little more respectability.

I ran off to BofA to grab a second buyin, and I come back to find Cayne, Joshua, and The Wife all wearing dorky-ass cowboy hats, reminding me that I wasn't in Seattle anymore. There's proof of this on The Wife's blog. Joshua & Cayne were locked in an epic battle for first place, but Joshua was able to channel his luckbox superpowers and score a victory against Cayne, forcing Joshua to sleep on the couch the rest of the weekend.

The second game started off much like the first - I lost some chips, meanhappyguy folded a lot, Cayne looked generally lost, and Seattle John went out early. I fought Joshua's donkeyness with donkeyness when I stole a pot from him on a KKQJx board with a reraise on the river holding nothing but A9o. Andre fought back from his role as the Gigli in the first game by taking out pretty much the entire table, getting us down to three - Andre, myself, and The Wife. Unfortunately, I was a shortstack....unfortunately for them, that is.

I pushed my stack around like I owned the table, stealing pots, calling down with TP4K and winning, c-betting with A-high, folding to any signs of strength. I was a machine, and before I knew it, I tripled up my stack only showing down one hand. The Wife and Andre went back and forth, with The Wife doubling up with KJ vs 77 on a JJxxK board, but he returned the favor by taking her stack with A9 vs her own 77 when he caught a pair on the turn. Finally, Andre & I were heads up, and I was at least a 2-1 dog. But it didn't last long.

We limped the first hand, and we see a raggedy 347 rainbow flop. Andre bets 3k. I've got 10k total. I'm basically committing my whole stack if I'm don't fold.

Oh wait. I have 56. Raise, reraise, call. Andre shows J7 and doesn't catch a miracle.

From there, I was just lucky enough to catch enough cards to stay aggressive. One thing I notice was that Andre was being very aggressive when I limped from the SB. I utilized this to catch him off guard, and decided to limp with a monster: A3. Sure enough, Andre pushes on cue, and I call, because you can't fold A3. He shows Q2 and his 17:1 underdog hand doesn't find a miracle. Victory is mine! You can see the elation on my face on The Wife's blog.

We played a quick cash game of HORSE, and by quick I mean excrutiatingly long and painful. I made some wonderful plays, like calling a 2-bet with just an OESD, no low, in O8 (which got there on the turn, giving me the entire pot when the river bricked for the low) and 4-betting it on 7th street in Razz with just 7-high (The Wife had the 2nd nuts). Somehow, I was able to end up the big winner of the game, doubling my buyin, which mostly came from meanhappyguy, who, after suffering defeat after defeat all night, has changed his name to meanunhappyguy.

But regardless of the monetary success, it was a hell of a good time. The game was great, the company was wonderful, and the turkey rolls from Costco were incredibly addicting. The evening couldn't have been any better (well, except maybe in Joshua's case, who wasn't able to utilize his text-messaging skills to score some vagina), and I hope that all of us (+ zeem, who was unfortunately absent this time) will be able to do this again soon.