Spontaneous Poker

A bunch of us were hanging around after work on Friday, trying to figure out what we were going to do that night since our significant others had all made plans that didn't involve us. And lo and behold a poker game sprung up!

We went over to Aaron's and played a few short handed tourneys. There were six of us, five of the better players from our monthly game, and one guy who could be good if he wanted to, but he seems to have fun playing anyway and doesn't seem to want to dedicate the time to read a book on strategy. It was a good mix for a friendly poker game.

The first two games we played were holdem. I finished second and third. It was a low buyin event and we were just messing around, so I was a little more aggressive than I would normally be, which I think did me in. I was bluffing a lot, and willing to put all my chips in with hands I usually wouldn't consider playing. That ultimately led to my demise in both games, as the more patient players took my chips.

But the holdem wasn't the interesting part. After those games someone suggested mixing it up a bit, and we ended up playing Omaha. I'm probably the second most experienced Omaha player in the group and I've probably seen under 100 hands in real games. So there was some obvious confusion as no one knew what makes a starting hand, or what you should chase or how many cards from your hand you get to use.

Smack was the only one of us who really knew what he was doing. Not that it helped him much. The turn would almost always give him about 20 outs and the river would always be a blank. And then he would whine about it for the next three hands. So he busted first. I don't remember when I went out, but it wasn't much later than Smack.

So I then got to sit there and watch Jason, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing run over the table. He would bet more to be confrontational than because he new what he had, but it worked, so who am I to criticize?

Since that wasn't confusing enough we decided to play some razz. Noah and Smack had both played a little razz, but I think I was probably the best/most experienced out of the group. I used to play micro limit razz when I was drunk and wanted to play poker without wasting a lot of money. So as I was saying, I was probably the best razz player there, which of coarse meant I went out first.

Razz is known as one of the more frustrating games you can play. Rather than drawing to a hand, you start with a hand and hope you don't draw out of it. Nothing is more frustrating than starting with four to a good low hand and then ending up with three pair.

So playing razz is rather frustrating. Dealing razz, can be quite fun. Especially when you get to laugh at your friends as you deal them quads and get beat by a pair of kings. Good times. At one point Noah claimed, and I think he's right, that he had the bring in eight hands in a row. And when he wasn't starting with paint as his door card, I was pairing just about everything he had.

And he was losing to Jason who, like the other games we played, doesn't have a real firm grasp on appropriate strategy. Jason was starting with something like Q[J7] and hitting a seven low on the river with unbelievable regularity. I don't think I could have stacked the deck better. And he won again. The worst poker player in our group by far took 2/4 events. And I took none. But I still had a great time. Hopefully we can turn this into a more regular event and start introducing more games. I can't wait to get a guts tournament going. (Kidding John. I still refuse to acknowledge guts as a legitimate poker game.)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com