Home game and heads-up

It feels like an age since I have written, thanks to a bank holiday yesterday. It has been an eventful few days too; the home game on Friday, moving into my friend's house for two weeks to cat-sit, another huge argument with the girl I am seeing and - of course - some online poker.

The home game was quite fun, mostly for the conversation which encompassed drugs at the Olympics, training spiders to fight, viagara, flak jackets, massage parlours and god knows what else. The poker was less fun, for me at least. We played three £5 tournaments (seven-handed) and I came nowhere, nowhere and nowhere.

In the first I played looser than usual to try to hit some unlikely flops, and succeeded to become chip leader. I proceeded to play a large stack really badly; I didn't use it to put people to the test, I didn't sit on it and wait for good opportunities, I just blew it in small increments by calling raises and so on.

In the second, I made an unwise call of A's all-in with 99. He showed QQ and I was the short stack after two hands. My call was mainly because A had blown half his stack in the first hand with a really bad play and looked likely to be making a silly move out of annoyance and desparation. I expected to see a weak Ace at best, but I was wrong. I wonder whether Andy played on the fact that we would think he was steaming, or whether he simply tanked all-in with two Queens. He was pretty drunk. Make that very drunk.

Third game, I hung on in without really winning any pots and was one of the last three (first two got paid), but with the smallest stack. G had a big stack, accumulated when he called two already all-in opponents, leaving himself with one chip, with A7. The other two had AK and KQ but G hit a 7. It irks me to see such a poor call rewarded - G is a good player, a betting machine, but that was a downright awful call.

Anyways, I flopped the nut straight on an all-clubs flop, with the Queen of clubs also in my hand. He check-called my flop bet, then stuck me all-in when the turn bricked. I called in an instant, figuring him for one club in his hand. Sure enough he had the King of Clubs and absolutely nothing else. Eight club outs, and it was gutting to have to deal the killer river card with my own hand! G went on to win the heads-up with A7 versus AJ.

I played a bit of five card stud and heads-up limit hold 'em when I got in at about midnight, finishing about $2(!) up before the alcohol and tiredness took me to bed.

Saturday was lovely. I woke in the empty house, threw on a dressing gown, fed the cat, made a cup of tea and booted up the lap-top. I played $1/$2 five stud for a bit, winning ten bucks after an annoying outdraw on the end when my (A)A was cracked by (5)532. Then back into heads-up, where I made over seven big bets in about quarter of an hour against four different players - the first three quit on me almost immediately, and I had to quit when facing a weak-looking dude because my girl turned up.

She went out on the town with a friend in the evening, so I had a mammoth session. The heads-up was fun, but in just over two hours I could only bring in four bucks! The first two guys were quite tough and I broke even. The third was pretty weak, and frustratingly I had almost relieved him of his whole $20 buy-in when he drew out on me and proceeded to play with a 'fuck it' attitude of reckless abandon. I was still better, but in the end he quit having only lost four bucks.
I joined a PLO sit and go during that last game. Those are perfect second tables, no matter what you are playing, because it is auto-pilot strategy stuff. I played well, and for once built a decent stack quite early - I went for it with a big straight draw on the flop against an aggressive guy who turned out to have nothing anyway. From there, it was a cruise into the money, and I had half the chips with three left and a 4-1 lead at the heads-up. I won it with ease, the best part being that I have now won two in a row for the first time ever. J from the home game reckons the $10 ones don't play much different, so I will certainly be playing those wherever possible - they just don't run as frequently.

Buoyed by that, I sat in a decent-looking stud game. First hand was (A)A. I had three callers of my bets and raises to fourth street, thankfully (miraculously?) nobody showed a pair on fifth, and I took a nice pot. From there I bobbed and weaved, played a couple more hands than usual, got further ahead but quit after forty minutes with a profit composed entirely of that pot. I quit because I was tired, which is something I have become better at doing lately - and that is all part of your poker game.

I also managed to get a little bit more heads-up in on Sunday; just over an hour of actual playing time, five opponents, four of whom left and one I busted. Total profit $30.

I will pull together the stats for my heads-up play very soon, but I know that considering I am playing 50c/$1 limit that it looks pretty healthy. Of course, it is a small sample size - but you do get in an awful lot of hands at heads-up. The stats on my site can't even cope and just say that it is over 120 per hour.

Anyways, I think I will be playing a lot more of it. It is great fun (on the whole), keeps you constantly involved and at the level I am playing at right now I have not once felt markedly inferior to an opponent. Another advantage is that there is almost no rake - they only start raking when the pot reaches $10 as far as I can tell, and in the games I play that is quite rare. (I expect in 'better', more aggressive heads-up play a ten big-bet pot is more common).

Having not felt outclassed is nice. There have been one or two players who have been challenging, and I have been tempted to simply run away like so many guys have against me after only a few minutes.But sticking around I have usually managed to adjust to their particular styles and get more or less even - in fact, the most I have lost to a single opponent is 4 dollars, and then he left. On the other hand, I have played numerous guys who were so downright weak that it was just a matter of how quickly would I take their money, not who would win. Really, playing a weaker opponent heads-up must be the most positive EV situation in all of poker, wouldn't you think?

So: I continue note-taking religiously on the people I play, be prepared to quit a game if I really do find myself outclassed (its bound to happen), read the '2+2' headsup forum, and aim to move up the limits I suppose - gradually!

The only downer about my very current games of choice - heads-up and five card stud - is that neither is viable for multi-tabling. Headsup would just be impossible (at least for this mere mortal) and the need to remember folded cards in stud renders that bad news for two tables also. Never mind.

In other news, I already mentioned me and the girl argued again. I am getting quite emotionally drained by it all. I don't want to hurt her, but I can't let myself get in too deep. I am such a selfish human being.