Table layout: Me-Btn, TheConge-Sb, Pokerhontasz-Bb, Jennoi-Utg, Hitmanhead-Utg+1.
Early stage
Armed with bowls of space raiders, hula hoops and yorkshire mix plus a slightly larger than usual starting stack, we sat down to what we hoped would be a more aggressive than usual sit and go game. Our freshly downloaded bwinpoker flashplayer poker timer added an efficient air to proceedings and with a missing 6th player we adjusted the prize structure to favour first place. Hitman quickly established table captain status with a record number of raises, including a funky minraise out the small blind to turn lead on an AQ22 board. With the power of the increased stack I snuck through a preflop stone 4 bet bluff against TheConge in a battle of the blinds, with TheConge later confessing he also held the classic airball in his hand! Pokerhontasz was simultaneously lucky enough to flop the joint and unlucky to have such a strong hand that there was little chance of a payoff. She held AJ on a JJA flop, and called a lead bet by TheConge, checking behind another Ace on the turn. The river brought an 8 and TheConge disgustedly mucked to a bet from Pokerhontasz, claiming she must have drawn out against his made hand. The Conge managed to get all his chips over the line in a massive overbet situation against Hitman, but my scribbled notes do not make sense for this hand: the board was (9hAsQs) in a minraised pot preflop I think. After this hand I gave Hitman was an official warning for minraising which would later come back to haunt me when he began making funny open raises to 5.1X etc. Funny? Like a clown funny? TheConge and Hitman were also involved in some creative play on a 5h Kd 3h (4d 7d) board: Pre flop Dan minraised (again) from the CO and TheConge called in the small blind. On the flop Conge led for a potsize bet and Hitman click raised it back and was called. The turn went check-min bet-call and on the river TheConge led for a sizeable bet and Hitman called, proudly showing As 6h for a rivered straight, beating Conge’s A8h missed and triple barrelled heart draw..
Middle stage
On the hottest October day on record it was not long before the game fully ignited and Hitman quickly 4 bet shoved Conge all in with K9s who turbo-tabled two black aces. The aces held up and Conge was back in the game despite a sweat when hitman turned a flush draw. Jennoi began to get ‘some cards’ which she had been patiently waiting for and caused another consult the hand rankings chart scene against TheConge. On a board of 5c Kc 2s Ks 9s the actions were: bet-call, check-check, bet-phone a friend! Jennoi eventually tabled the surprising J4s for the winning flush against TheConge’s 1010. Since Jennoi is new to poker this could not be classed as a slow roll, it needs a name all of its own so I’m calling it a newb-roll: When a new player agonizingly or unintentionally slowly turns the winning hand, possibly after Googling a hand rankings chart on an I-phone! Hitmanhead decimated most of his remaining stack against Jennoi on a 6c Qd 6h board, reraising Jennoi’s lead bet and getting it all in on a Jc turn card to see his A4o bluff well and truly caught by her top pair top kicker AQo. When Hitmanhead put his last remaining few big blinds in under the gun Pokerhontasz called in the small blind, as did Jennoi in the big. When the board ran out Kc3h6hJh Pokerhontasz check raised all in on the turn, tabling AsKd to dominate Hitman’s 77 but sadly for her, not Jennoi’s two pair Ks6d. The river sealed the fate of both Pokerhontasz and Hitmanhead, and a retrospective analysis the hand revealed a yawning gap where Pokerhontasz’ isolation raise should have been preflop.
Late stage
Three handed play did not last long since the escalating blinds forced the action, and Jennoi had most of the chips in play. TheConge leant on Jennoi briefly and snatched a few chips to go into second place, but he quickly ran into trouble on a low connected board with a pair and straight draw, to lose out to Jennoi’s top two pair made on the turn. I did not think it would be long before I went out, but a combination of good cards heads up and a brief folding spell by Jennoi , put our chip stacks almost level. I may have even had the lead at one point but since my total stack was only worth about 16b and I was pretty trashed on cooking lager, I was looking to get it in rather than play through the streets. I still mindlessly dusted off 6bb with a bluff attempt before shoving over a Jennoi raise with my next hand, AQo. Jennoi tabled KK and the rest as they say is history. I am writing this a few days after the game and I spoke to Jennoi about her newfound but so far successful poker game and whether she now needs to alter her ABC stategy to avoid being too exploitable. The last raise in out game for example was her first big show of strength preflop all game, and perhaps I should have looked at AQo as ‘slightly behind’ or ‘way behind’ her likely range of 1010+ and folded. The fact of the matter is that even if your opponents know that you only raise good hands and fold or limp the rest, many cannot resist playing too many hands and trying to bluff you. In my case I was both too drunk to notice the significance of the raise and felt I was too short stacked to realistically fold AQ heads up. It will be interesting to see how Jennoi plays next time and whether her evolution as a poker player results in any tricky plays to confuse and disorientate, and whether those who have lost to her over the last two games adjust.
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