Lambs To The Slaughter . . .

Hello again :-)

I`ve been trying to get a home game going for some time. Unfortunately I don`t really know many players in my area. Well we finally got one arranged and four players turned up at my door tonight to sit down, chat, drink and play a few hands of cards.

We`ve had a few of these in years past and they`re very relaxed affairs with more attention paid to chatting than the cards at times. I`ts not unusual for a hand to stretch out to over five minutes. As I actually enjoy the cards I tend to end up being the one telling people it`s time to act and how much it is to call etc.

Now I`d quite like a formal game but in all honesty the format we played tonight was ideal for me. We played for a little over five hours and put the blinds up just three times. That just gave me plenty of time to play cards and wait for reasonable hands to call with whilst they pretty much played every pot.

They tend to play very passively early on and when I came out firing at an early pot my aggressive betting obviously caused some consternation. So hoping for a repeat game in the near future I slowed down a little. The funny thing is no-one online would have considered the bets huge compared to the size of the pot. It didn`t really matter too much anyway. That first big pot I raked set me up for the game and I really never looked back.

The guy I was most worried about was pretty drunk and tired and his 2nd place stack gave me a huge lead when his AK ran into my AA and he made a crying call on the river with AK high for all his remaining chips.

We`d started with five players and by the time we were down to two I had a huge lead and knew I could only lose the game if I was impatient. My HU opponent proved very resilient raising pre-flop and making substantial bets on the flop. He had recovered to a nice healthy stack but I knew I was going to catch him eventually and get everything he`d won back to my side of the table. Again in part I think it was partly down to stamina that I finally won. I was prepared to play for as long as it took and knew I`d trap him for all his chips eventually. He staged a couple of recoveries along the way but I was not to be denied.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Winning was obviously very nice but it was a fun evening. I knew there was a possibilty I`d get donked at sometime but it only really happened once as far as I can recall.

I did enjoy making an attempt at picking up some tells and spotted a couple that helped me a couple of times. I really must read through Mike Caro`s book if we`re going to play again. I know there are more recent volumes but I think Mike`s book will be more than adequate against players who have no knowledge of the game. Certainly tonight I saw a player either glancing at or actually reaching for chips before it was his turn to bet. That saved me betting a few times and gave me a nice opportunity to trap.

I guess I`ve waffled on long enough in this phoenix like return to blogging. I`ve enjoyed writing this though so maybe I won`t wait three months for the next installment