Poker with the Boys

I have played very little poker since returning from Vegas. I have played two home tourneys, one a few weeks ago when Dude was in town and one last night where I ran into some funny hands.

It was the first time I have played at Jim’s since early in the year. It brought many of the same characters from Mike’s game, but also a few rare faces. I sat between Jim’s brother Jeff that I had only met once, and a new player, Trey, a neighbor from down the street. Jim’s a pretty big guy, but his brother Jeff is a giant. Not only did he play the giant at the Indiana Jones show at Disney, but he recently had a speaking part in Mission: Impossible 3. I haven’t seen the movie but I suspect he plays a badass henchman. I also learned last night that he played for the University of West Virginia football program during the Major Harris days.

Anyway Jeff’s chip stack is dwindling and he jokes that we should really decide the winner of this game through a wrestling match. Trey, shorter than me and probably 100 pounds lighter than Jeff, says in earnest that he’d be more comfortable in a fight rather than a wrestling match.
Jeff asks, “So you’d fight me?”

Trey says, “Yeah, I am trained Jujitsu.” and then added something about military training. He did it with such a straight face that the rest of us were speechless. Maybe in the movies puny guys can bring down a giant through some tricky eastern movies, but all I could imagine was Jeff’s giant hand grabbing Trey’s small forehead and trey’s arms flailing away like a 2nd grader trying beat a middle school kid during recess.

Trey played so conservatively that he was eventually blinded off, while Jeff was knocked out aggressively pushing too hard with second best hand. Their poker styles probably mirror their fighting styles.

I had some opportunities that didn’t quite work out either. I picked up AK three times in a row and it was a winner only once costing me a net loss. The time I hit my Ace on the flop Eric laid down JJ.

My best opportunity of the night was picking up KK In the big blind. Tony, one of the better players, made a 4x raise in late position. I decided I’d smooth call and try and hide my strength. The flop brought KJ9 with two diamonds. There is no way I could put him on QT, and I decided to risk that he had two diamonds by checking and hopefully raising. He did make a big bet at the pot and I decided to push all-in and make him call for everything to beat me. He immediately called and turned over 99 for bottom set against my top set. What happened? The turn and river brought a Q and T for a straight and a counterfeit hand.

Not long after I pick up AQ in late position and made a 4x raise. Eric called me from the blind. The flop brought Q53. He checked and I made a big bet that he called. The turn brought an off-suit 8. He makes a pot bet and I push all in. He turns over 88. Why in the world did he call me with the 88 and not the JJ earlier? So in about 5 minutes I push on a hand where I’m a 94% favorite and lose on a hand where I was a 91% favorite.

I found my way to the couch to watch Notre Dame struggle against Georgia Tech. Jeff then told me about his WV days and playing Notre Dame in the National Championship game in 1988. Major Harris went down early in the game and Notre Dame slaughtered them. I asked him whatever happened to Harris. I remember he was hyped quite a bit as a guy who would be a great NFL quarterback. Jeff said for starters Harris left after his Junior Year. WV was horrible the next year and Harris wasn’t ready for the NFL. The Raiders drafted Harris in the last round and suggested that he play a year or two in the Canadian Football League to prime himself for the NFL. Everything was going good when he signed with Toronto until Doug Flutie signed a few weeks later and he was relegated to backup. Harris spent two years there in obscurity and then wound up in the Arena league, where Jeff, after having spent two years in the NFL himself, was also playing. The punch line is that Jeff winds up sacking Harris in a game which, I suppose, is about the best ending that story could have.

I wish I could have had a better ending. We did play an abbreviated second game and I got down to the last 4 players only to lose with second pair. Jared was the winner of that tourney. I had played with him once before months earlier, but he’s been absent since. Jared is kind of torn about poker in general being a pretty religious guy. He reconciled by deciding he would give his winnings to three girls from their youth group that baby sit free for their kids. All night the guys were teasing Jared about his apprehensions. They kept saying “WWJD – What Would Jared do.” Winning, I think, took the monkey off his back.

I need to get the one off mine. And then blog some Vegas anecdotes.