The Charity Event

Back in November I played in a charity event. Now when I say charity event I mean a fund-raiser for a local softball team. It’s a $50 buy-in event with fifty percent going to the team. I understand that the juice is high but it helps pay for tournament, uniforms, and anything else the team may need. Anyway, It goes to a good cause and in return, some of the players come to my teams’ fund-raiser.

So we start out 7-handed with seven tables with 500 in chips with blinds at 5/10. I’m dealt pocket aces UTG on the first hand and raise it to 30. Button, SB, and BB call. Flop comes 5,8,9 with two clubs. It’s checked to me and I bet 100. Button calls. I put him on a flush/strait draw. The turn is a blank and now my quandary. I have already committed 25% of my chips, can I push him off the hand. I don’t think so. I bet 125 and he cold calls. I’m not sure of his holdings but I think I’m ahead. The only hand that scares me is 6,7 of clubs. He could be slow playing these and in which case I’m way behind. River is ace of clubs. I check. I will throw this away to any bet. He checks and shows the 6,7 of clubs. My aces cracked and I’m down to half my chips on the first hand.

Next hand I get KT of clubs in the BB. Two limpers and SB completes. Flop comes Kd, Td, 3d. SB checks and I bet 60. All fold except small blind. The turn shows x and it’s checked to me. Does the SB have the flush? I check. River is x and SB checks. At this point I’m confused. If I bet, I will only get called by the winning hand. I check. SB had a flopped flush. Two hands and I have 30% of my starting stack.

I did win a hand a little later with a flopped set but it was the only hand I won. After getting moved to a new table I was down to push mode with blinds at 25/50 with 200 chips left. I Push with AQ and get called by the BB who woke up with KK. Game over.

I did last 1-¾ hours with a minimal chip stack but it wasn’t fun. The cash game was better.

It was a nickel-dime NLHE game that saw the first bet as a dollar almost every time. We had 8 players playing with the $10 buy-in limit. I tripled up within the first orbit when my re-raise was called by two LAGs. They each held A7 to my AK. Keep digging into your pockets boys cause the night is young and momma needs a new pair of shoes. One guy re-bought 5 times while three other guys re-bought at least twice. In the end, my old boss, JAG, a buddy of mine, and I were the last three players at the table. We had taken about $150 off these T.V. watching want to be wiz kids, playing nickel-dime, and it was only 6:30. Of coarse at this point we didn’t want to take each other’s winnings so we called it a night and went on our way.

As JAG and I road back to my place we recounted the evening failures and successes in search of the golden egg of knowledge. How could I have taken more money here and given up less money there. These exercises of reflection are essential to individual growth and by going over these together we gain each of our experiences for later use.

The final results were:

JAG +86
Old Boss +16
Poker Enthusiast +52

JAG was down 4 Buy-ins at one time and was all-in with his 5th when he pushed with marginal holdings. He hit a two outer on the river for a major suck out and proceeded to run over the table from that point on. He punished limpers and pushed weak players off their hands.

The old boss started off the night by losing a buy-in when a player hit runner-runner to kill his flopped set of Aces. He played way to tight but got paid off when he hit hands.

I was up big early but gave much of it back on a hand that I tried to push a player off of. Later I was involved in a hand that I had a double gut shot for the strait and folded to a big re-raise. The pot odds weren’t quite there so I laid it down. I should have called based on implied odds on would have won a $70 pot as the river card would have given me the nut strait. I also had fun with JAG late in the game as he knew I was setting traps for his aggressive play and got him to drop his better hands with strong re-raises. I even drop the hammer on him one time, which got a good laugh from the table.

It’s a shame that I don’t get to play with these two guys as much as we use to play but I still cherish the times we get together.

Look for the Daily Home Game report in the near future.