Live a little

It’s been a while since the sharply honed poker minds of Lamma saw fit to get together to rumble in the flesh. After a slightly delayed start the game rumbled on for nearly 11 hours of play in the end.

Lamma Jim was first to call it a day but was pleased to cash in $260 to the good and demonstrating some improved play and enough flops hit to see him come out ahead. Including Pocket Aces at the right time to send me running for cover with a loose preflop re-raise.

Sham was next to leave and was again able to take some money off the table. He returned later and despite taking down a 3 way all-in pot with KT for the straight he managed to squander his big pot gains but finished a small winner.

I took my one and only felting against Moocher who rather peculiarly chose to call an all-in on the turn for around double the pot with 86 suited.

With Big slick I was banking on being up against a drawing hand, or weak made hand that could find a fold after his small reraise and thought that my gutshot and overcards were likely to be good if called. After Moocher’s call my gutshot disappeared as an out but I was surprised to find myself ahead. With two overcards I was only a 59% favourite and Moocher found one of his many outs. With that being the most favourable circumstances though and 27% equity being the more likely proposition for him I’m not quite sure what his thinking was with the call.

Luck proved to be on Moocher’s side again when his AQ struck against Rummy Coakes pocket Jacks in a pre-flop all-in turned race.

Luck was definitely not on the Rummy Coakes side whose loose-aggressive play generated some additional action to the game. With both Moocher and Bigshot prepared to gamble with him, often very light, Rummy found himself stuck for 5 buy-ins in what seemed very quick succession.

Quads seemed to raise their head far more often than is the norm. Bigshot was the lucky recipient on two occasions who milked the first one up until the turn but didn’t get any takers for his river bet. The second time he over-bet into a pot that would have given any Ace a full-house. If anyone had an Ace they managed to find a fold in what looked like either Quads or a bet to make an obvious split pot one with his name on it.

I managed to catch quads myself and had Bigshot look me up on the river building a pot big enough to get me back on even terms.

With both Moocher and Rummy to my immediate left it was never going to be easy though. I no doubt was forced to lay-down good hands on occasion with draws. I did manage to make one big lay-down with KK against Moocher’s two pair after a flop raise. With any big pre-flop raise likely to get called by Moocher, Rummy and Sham leaving Bigshot reasonable odds to join the party I found myself in a lot of tough spots.

I think it’s a complement to the Lamma Home Game that I would probably have practiced table selection and moved on to an easier table, or at the very least swapped seats had this been online. In the end I made some speculative calls in the last half hour but caught nothing and ended up down $160.

I did manage to take one pot from Sham somewhat unexpectedly with the night’s entertainment substances having taken their toll. Having reached the river with Q9 giving me trips with a Queen kicker I called Sham’s river bet expecting it to be decided by the kicker. When Sham showed Q9 I was about to turn my cards. A moment of horror as I realized that it was indeed Q8 I held was followed by a quick recalculation that Q8 gave me the straight. I opened another beer and took another quick glug to calm the shock. Sorry Sham. Maybe can't be too critical of Moocher really I guess.

Moocher despite being close to 2 buy-ins down deservedly proved the big winner of the night and Bigshot took silver medal. Don deserves plaudits for bringing plenty of action to the game but variance and willingness to get it in light meant his poor record in the Lamma home game continued as he funded the nights two big winners.

With the Moll providing some refreshments and Rummy losing less than a HKPC buy-in it was perhaps better that he hit a losing streak at the lower stakes. With no-shows from all the new prospects it’s looking likely that they will get another opportunity in 2 weeks time as another game is proposed.