Away game report

Our most recent home game took place at King Tubby's house and he kindly laid on a smorgasbord of excellent snacks and dips. Jennoi and her beau, 'TheHunter' descended on the fantastic buffet like 'a hobo on a ham and cheese' (Jesse May) after an afternoon in the pub. The Conge forgoed daytime drinking and turned up recharged and ready to rock.  Pokerhontasz and I were both properly knackered but still glad to be out the house for a change. Once we had finished admiring King Tubby's beautiful poker chip set a deep stack tournament 20min blind structure with flat payout was agreed. This would reward loose play in the early game and an aggressive shove strategy later on: something which would determine the fate of and eventually separate our two most active players: TheConge and TheHunter.

The first hand of the night produced quad tens when TheHunter turned a set and rivered the nuts on an Axx1010 board and this set the tone for his becoming table captain early game. His nemesis Conge made a set of 5s twice and they sparred frequently as TheHunter refused to be bluffed off his hands. It was interesting to see a range of post flop bet sizes from TheConge, whose game has evolved from pot betting any untouched flop and I think TheHunter read too deeply into some of Conge's bets, and felt he had to pay off these suspicious-looking amounts. KingTubby took a dent to his chip stack when he was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a tricky situation holding A2 Vs Conge's A6. On an AxK76 board King Tubby paid off 3 streets of value, convincing himself that the 3rd bet must be a bluff and he was therefore way ahead.  TheHunter continued to play 80% of hands, stabbing and taking down a lot of uncontested pots but ran into Pokerhontasz's underfull on an 5566x board, although I can't remember what he paid off her river bet with.

As the blinds began to increase each hand became more pivotal in determining who would make the gravy. Jennoi received a healthy boost to her stack on a Jc6d10h3cboard having flopped the nut flush draw and turned a pair of tens holding ATd. Pokerhontasz raised preflop out of position, but shut down from betting after her continuation bet was called. Jennoi continued to run good but nearly mucked the nuts on a KK2JQ board when TheHunter proudly showed K9 for top set. We had to point out to Jennoi that her pocket jacks were good and she bemusedly raked in all the chips! King Tubby went all in with Q8 on a KcQcAs10s board, only to be called in two spots: TheHunter chipped up significantly in this hand holding AJc which flopped top pair and rivered a straight to beat Tubby' Q8 and Jennoi's AK even though she flopped top two -pair. TheHunter quickly acquired the rest of my chips limp-calling JJ to my 10bb shove holding 55. Pokerhotasz was next out and Jennoi almost crippled TheConge sucking out with J9s to his KK all in as we went 3 handed.

TheConge affected a series of double ups with a series of all in bets that were called by The Hunter and held up to knock him out in 3rd place.  Jennoi gradually blinded out in a short space of time and Conge got it in with 8h2s vs Jennoi's QdTc and the 8h2s runner-runnered an improbable spade flush  on a 4s10s6cAs5s board to lock up the win. This completes a hat trick of wins for TheConge and deservedly so: he is not afraid to mix it up and play a range of hands early doors, and seems to make very thin value bets that still get paid off by worse. He knows when to put the pedal down and shove a wide range of hands, which helps to mitigate the effects of luck in the face of rising blinds. He has also had unspeakably bad luck in all-in pots in our home games so it is nice to see variance turn around and reward solid play.