Saturday, July 5, 2008

July Poker League - Game #2

Recap of Game 2 (Thursday, July 3)

The same ten people from Game 1 were in attendance for Game 2, which was held at My Choice's condo in Hackensack. .com hit a little traffic but once he arrived, the game started smoothly. The initial debate was whether to have all ten people fit into one table and be cramped and hot, or split into two tables of 5. All ten started at the same table and play was underway.

Donkey got off to another rocky start. He lost a large number of chips to Daffy's three aces, and then was slowplayed by My Choice when My Choice had the nut flush and coerced Donkey to go all in. Donkey had another 10th place finish.

Daffy then almost became the first person to win the 7-2 prop bet, where anybody who wins a hand and has 7-2 as their hold cards immediately gets paid $1 from everybody who is in the game. However, he did not push hard enough but he did get accolades from the table for trying.

Play slowed for a while, and at the first break, Daffy was the chip leader. He then came back to the table wearing an Ipod with a serious look on his face. The first two songs he listened to were "Shoot, Pass, Slam" by S. O'Neal, and "I Kissed a Girl" by Katie Perry to give him extra inspiration.

A big hand occurred between Teen Wolf and My Choice. Teen Wolf held 10-8 while My Choice held J-K. The flop came J-8-J and both players checked. The turn came 9. Shortstacked, Teen Wolf went all-in and was called. Almost a 6-1 underdog, Teen Wolf got the 7 on the river for the lucky straight to stay alive and damage My Choice.

True, last game's winner, then went out when he went all-in with pocket kings. Daffy called him and got runner-runner to make a flush. Daffy received 2 bonus points for knocking out the point leader and True finished in 9th.

Chick then dealt another serious blow to My Choice. My Choice had K-K while Chick had A-3. My Choice went all in, but the board came 9-6-5-4-2 to give Chick an unlikely straight. Once again a serious favorite in a hand only to take a tough beat, My Choice was dealt another slap in the face by the poker gods and finished in 8th place.

(Side note: My Choice has played the best poker of any of us for both of the first two games. After the game, he noted, "I always tell you guys that I do everything right and only lose due to bad luck. Everybody just laughs when I say that. I'm glad you're blogging about these games, because now there's a record of this." So far, after two games, his claim is definitely accurate.)

The blinds started to climb and play started moving more quickly. Chick then got hot, taking out .com in 7th place and Lady Luck in 6th place.

Daffy, the one time chip leader, started to get short stacked and made a strange decision of not saving 15 chips and not going all-in to a 150 chip pot. It turns out his 9-3 in the small blind would've lost to the 9-2 of the big blind - a wise fold. However, now short stacked, Daffy eventually went out in 5th place earning another point. The game was now down to four people - Zeus, Teen Wolf, and the two women of the game, Karma and Chick.

Zeus had quietly regained his poker form throughout the night, but eventually a big hand occurred where Teen Wolf took out his father Zeus catching a river flush. Zeus finished in 4th place, regaining much respectability.

As it often happens, leads swung quickly once there were three players left. Chick, who had been hot earlier, eventually cooled off and went out in third place.

Teen Wolf and Karma then went heads up. Much trash talking ensued. The crowd was pulling for Karma to win, but Teen Wolf eventually prevailed to finish in first place. Next Monday promises to be even that much more exciting! With a couple of players due to join the fray potentially on Monday, we could see our first two-table action of the season. Play will move back to the Daffy residence on Monday. Mrs. Daffy is out of town with Daffy's three kids...

Points (Total):

Teen Wolf - 10 (11)
True - 0 (10)
Karma - 7 (7)
.com - 0 (7)
Chick - 5 (5)
My Choice - 0 (5)
Zeus - 3 (3)
Daffy - 3 (3)
Lady Luck - 0 (3)

2 comments:

Matt Dabney said...

2 comments...

There is no way that My Choice has been the hands down best player this season.

I did save my last 15 chips and I was the one who held 9-2, not 9-3.

Anonymous said...

My bad. I meant "did save" the last fifteen chips, and I forgot those details of the hand. My poker notes were messy - 3 or 4 beers will do that to you!

Who do you think has been the best player? Or do you just think that we've all been about equal?