Saturday NIght...

So now what? I had a few friends over on Saturday night to relax, drink and play poker. I think we all had a good time. It was weird to have people actually over in my house. I don't normally have people over, it's not like I don't like to have company. I don't know it is weird, part of it is because I am a terrible housekeeper so that limits the chances that I would actually invite people over. The other thing is I am a little weird with the whole thing because I was a bad person, long, long ago. I used to steal a lot, nothing major but little stuff, nothing anyone might care about, but it wasn't mine so that makes it wrong. Shortly after that I had several items stolen from my home by a person who I thought was a friend. Karma, right? I know, so basically from that point on I never really invited people over. The problem is I have a strong core of friends now and it bugs me that I can't let my guard down to invite them over, none, and I mean not one would ever even think to take something but it is weird to let down a wall I have built and maintained for so long. It is not like I have a bunch of expensive stuff that would attract anyone to take it, I do have some nice things but who doesn't? I know it has nothing to do with theft at this point but it has been so long. The easy part is that I am so lazy that I can use the housekeeping thing as my excuse so as not to have to confront the real issue. I have had 1-2 friends over in the past but always on a small scale and not for a extended period of time. I feel bad because its almost like I am a bad friend, I mean all of them have made me feel more then welcome in their homes and I have always accepted their invitations. So it made me feel kind of good to have 6-7 guys over to just chill. Hopefully it was the first night of more to come, who knows. I do know that I have weird trust issues that I need to find a solution for, I hope that this was a step in the right direction.

So aside from my little issue, Saturday went pretty well. KG (one of my best friends) made Buffalo Wings for dinner, which were excellent as usual. I was starting to get a little anxious because there was only 3 of us to start off with, while we were planning to have 6-8 people total, but as usual people have lives and they all ran a little late, whew. LOL. We played cards and drank until about 3 in the morning. I drank a little to much, which was weird because I don't like to drink while I am gambling, but it didn't really have a major affect on me. Wait that's not totally true, I talk a lot and I do mean a lot. I think I was talking even more then usual, not mean malicious talk just talk, making jokes and bull shitting a bit more then usual. I noticed everyone else was feeling pretty loose and doing the same, also I feel pretty comfortable around this group so it made it easy. So I did drink a bit much, nothing to make me sick or to act out of control or anything, just to much. I like being the life of the party so to speak but I also wanted to make sure I was a good host and that everyone had a good time, but as I said before I don't have people over very often so the experience was fairly new. As far as I could tell and from what people said to me everyone had everything they could want and they all had a good time, so that was a relief.

My goal at games like these is not necessarily to win, I don't want to lose either mind you, but I am more interested in breaking even and being able to play for a long period of time. Since this was the first game I had held at my home I was just more concerned with everyone having a good time. I think that some people really did want to win and they made that intention clear early into the game. I don't know if they were just trying to pick up a few extra dollars for whatever reason or if they are just hyper-aggressive when we play cards. Case in point, there was one situation where one of the guys kind of went out of his way to break the other, he dint need to and it was going to take some luck to do it but he made it look like he was singling him out to take all his money. We weren't playing for a huge amount of money or anything so I don't know if that was the motivating factor but it seemed weird. Anytime we play home games, I am usually the enforcer as far as bullying the table or just taking over the game a bit. So of course I fell into old habits and I jokingly told the first guy that no matter what it was my intention to bust him out before the night was through. Everyone there knew I could do it and it was not the first time I singled a player out and went after his money, nor was it the first time I had singled out this guy either. All of us have played cards together hundreds of times and this scenario has played out almost as often, they all know it is not about the money it is more about seeing if I can do it. I usually try to dump the money back into the game without making it look like I am and Saturday was no exception. I went down early so that I could come back and be even should I bust anyone out. Of course this worked like a charm until one of the other guys noticed the point where I actually started trying a was playing at about 80% of what I can do. He said "oh I see you lost early and now you've decide to play." I laughed and acknowledged that he was right. You could see the game shift when I shifted, the better players started being a little more guarded, the cautious players started being a little too cautious and the bad players were oblivious to the change all together. I started building small pots that I could lay my hand down to if anyone became aggressive and pushed some really big bluffs into bigger pots that weaker players couldn't hold on to. Spotting the weak play and making the move to take pots away was easy and fun at this point and made it OK for me to show the bluffs. I only like to show the bluff if I know the players I am with and it will induce them to pay me off when I have the goods. This happened on 2 key hands, player A had decided that I was bluffing when he had a big hand and went bust against a full house when he only held A-K and no pair on the river. He was so convinced I had nothing he called my dark all-in on the turn. Unfortunately I do have a hand once in a while, LOL. He was mad at himself for donking all his chips off to me when I had him totally convinced that I was running a bluff. This is where knowing the players you are playing against is so important and why I sometimes have an issue at the casinos with naive, new comer players, they are so unpredictable sometimes that at that point I will never be able to beat blind luck, but oh well that's a different story. So I busted him out a reminded my intended victim that he was next, to which he made some comment for me to go for it. I laugh now because he knows better then that, I have busted him so many times when I said I was going to that he should have just laughed at me then continued to guard his chips. So another half hour or so goes by and I have steadily built my stack to 4-5 times my original buy in. I have dumped about half the chips back into pots and just played what looks like crazy (an illusion I like to create) but is instead controlled aggression. Finally I get into a decent hand with Player B who I told I was going to bust earlier. I flopped top and bottom pair and check to him, he checks, the turn comes off and I make a small bet to which he raise a fairly large amount about 10% of his chips ( I have him cover 4-1) I re raise to 1 1/2 times his raise and he pushes all in, I check the board to make sure I didn't miss anything like a straight or some dumb shit that could have been easily over looked, I put him on a bigger ace then me without a second pair or 2 middle pair, they are the same thing to me at this point, I call his bet and he laughs, the river comes off a blank and he makes a comment about how I was going to bust him, he rolls over 2 pair (the second he hit on the turn) and gives me a wry smirk, I smile back and show him the bigger 2 pair and start to stack all the chips. He laughs and says nice hand and remarks that he hates it when I am right, everyone starts laughing basically and one of the new guys asks how I knew it would happen, I let him know that it always happens. Everyone leaves about a half hour later we all cash out and I secretly give some of the money back. The new guy says thank you and laughs as he says he wants to play again but wants to know how I was able to tell him how I knew what he had in his hand while he was playing hands against me. I told him that it was mostly instinct and years of playing and that I would take it easy on him next time ( I busted him 3 times that night ) and if he wanted help with his game I would help.

So overall a pretty good night, I made back all the Money I spent on food, alcohol and gas running around for the day and was able to dump the rest back to make most everyone else even. So I think it was a pretty good night, hopefully I can do it again.