Sometimes, It Pays To Make Yourself Go Out
Pirate Rick sent an email earlier this week announcing the monthly poker home game. My first thought was, "Cool!" However, as the really long work days piled up, I decided to pass on the game.
The thought of going home and logging couch time was more appealing than playing cards with the boys.
Yes, I realize how sad and pathetic that sounds. It was that kind of week, though.
As Friday afternoon went on, the lure of the chips started calling me. Then, I saw the updated list of players and more of my buds had signed up which made it even more appealing. At about 5PM, I said to myself, "What the hell" and decided to go.
I wasn't exactly greeted warmly. There were several calls of "The Bully is here, look out!" And, there was some debate about wanting to play at my table to start.
Actually, everyone was really cool and I was immediately happy that I had decided to play.
We had a good group at our table and started playing a pretty friendly game. Apparently between our chatting and spilling beer on two different decks of cards, we missed a structured raise in the blinds. Oops.
I got ahead early then the cards just cooled on me. At the rebuy, I was down from my original stack of $2,000 so I bought another $1,000. It started to become a more aggressive game after that and we lost 3 out of our original 5 table mates with only Toby and me still in it.
Soon enough, we were down to the final table and I was one of the short stacks. As in the past few games, I started hitting the cards when I needed them. I won a couple of big hands, took out one player and crippled another. Wayne and I traded winning all in bets and I managed to become the big stack.
I love being the big stack!
I tried not to be a bully, though. Toby was doing enough for both of us.
Pirate Rick was the designated cockroach of the evening. He just wouldn't go away and, with a few breaks on desperation all ins, managed to make it to the final four. The others being Toby, Wayne and me. We were only paying out the top three so it was fun going there as everyone jockeyed for position. Pirate Rick and Wayne discussed how to get the big stacks to go at it (Toby and me) but we had "Original Table Love" so we didn't bite.
We also didn't get cards at the same time or we wouldn't have hesitated to play against each other, Original Table Love be damned.
Time ran out and Wayne wanted to play it out. Since he was out of the money at that point, I could certainly see why. We agreed to one final hand and Toby used it to make a move into Second, I was firmly in First and Pirate Rick squeaked out Third. Wayne finished out of the money which is an extreme rarity for him. I hope he didn't cry himself to sleep later that night.
As for me, I was happy I passed on the couch potato plan because I ended up netting $118 with my First Place money.
I love poker.
The thought of going home and logging couch time was more appealing than playing cards with the boys.
Yes, I realize how sad and pathetic that sounds. It was that kind of week, though.
As Friday afternoon went on, the lure of the chips started calling me. Then, I saw the updated list of players and more of my buds had signed up which made it even more appealing. At about 5PM, I said to myself, "What the hell" and decided to go.
I wasn't exactly greeted warmly. There were several calls of "The Bully is here, look out!" And, there was some debate about wanting to play at my table to start.
Actually, everyone was really cool and I was immediately happy that I had decided to play.
We had a good group at our table and started playing a pretty friendly game. Apparently between our chatting and spilling beer on two different decks of cards, we missed a structured raise in the blinds. Oops.
I got ahead early then the cards just cooled on me. At the rebuy, I was down from my original stack of $2,000 so I bought another $1,000. It started to become a more aggressive game after that and we lost 3 out of our original 5 table mates with only Toby and me still in it.
Soon enough, we were down to the final table and I was one of the short stacks. As in the past few games, I started hitting the cards when I needed them. I won a couple of big hands, took out one player and crippled another. Wayne and I traded winning all in bets and I managed to become the big stack.
I love being the big stack!
I tried not to be a bully, though. Toby was doing enough for both of us.
Pirate Rick was the designated cockroach of the evening. He just wouldn't go away and, with a few breaks on desperation all ins, managed to make it to the final four. The others being Toby, Wayne and me. We were only paying out the top three so it was fun going there as everyone jockeyed for position. Pirate Rick and Wayne discussed how to get the big stacks to go at it (Toby and me) but we had "Original Table Love" so we didn't bite.
We also didn't get cards at the same time or we wouldn't have hesitated to play against each other, Original Table Love be damned.
Time ran out and Wayne wanted to play it out. Since he was out of the money at that point, I could certainly see why. We agreed to one final hand and Toby used it to make a move into Second, I was firmly in First and Pirate Rick squeaked out Third. Wayne finished out of the money which is an extreme rarity for him. I hope he didn't cry himself to sleep later that night.
As for me, I was happy I passed on the couch potato plan because I ended up netting $118 with my First Place money.
I love poker.
