Weekend Update

This weekend will have to go down as one of the more boring weekends I can recall. I did get a little playtime in Friday night at a small homegame in Wallingford. There were 6 players with a $60 buy-in and we decided to play $1-2 No Limit Texas Hold'em. The night got off to a great start for me when the action broke loose on the very first hand! I was one seat off the dealer button and was looking at the Ace-Eight suited in clubs. I limped in for $2 as did the button and small blind, but when the action got to the big blind he raised it up to $6 and now I had a decision. I put the player on a bigger ace-high hand than mine, which would make me about a 3 to 1 dog before the flop, but I decided to see the flop and make another decision then since I would get to act after him. The button also called the raise and the small blind folded so it was three players to the flop which came with 3 clubs, including the king, giving me the absolute nuts! Since my original thought was that the raiser might have Ace-King, this was a great hand to slow play so when he bet out I just called and the button called, as well. This was great for the first hand of the night. The turn card was a blank, I think maybe a red three. The original raiser bet out again, I called and the button folded. The river card was another club and the raiser checked this time, so I bet out the last of my chips and he goes in the tank like he can't decide what to do. I still put him on Ace-King which wouldn't be a bad hand if there weren't four clubs on the board. He seems torn and is mumbling out loud that he doesn't think I have the flush and finally calls my all-in bet. I turn over the nut flush and he turns over his pocket aces! Tough beat on the first hand and I know pocket aces is hard for alot of players to fold after the flop, but with the clubs out there I would have thought he'd pick up on that. Anyway, I doubled my buy-in on the first hand and was off to the races. We played for about 4 hours and I would have won more, but the poker gods were not on my side for the second to last hand and I lost a $100+ pot to a lucky river card that made my opponent a higher pair. He had no business staying in the hand with the substantial bets I was making, but some people don't know when they're beat, stay in a hand on a draw and get a lucky suck-out sometimes. They are losing players in the long run, but that's poker and you have to deal with it. All in all it was a good night for me and there was over $600 in the pot because of the other players having to rebuy more chips. I will definitely play in that game again next time I am invited.