Home Game Again. Jiggety-Jig

I talked to R earlier in the day and he said there was going to be a good crowd for the Friday night game. His driveway was full and there were two full tables for the tourney. Only two players had been knocked out when I arrived, so there was a bit of a wait for the cash game to start. Oh, we could have played 3-handed, but no thanks. I was planning on sticking to a budget, buy in for $50, and work with that all evening. With .50/1.00 blinds, my $50 wouldn’t last long 3-handed.

4-handed, it didn’t fare much better, yet we moved into a 7-person game fairly quickly, and I still had $40. Still, a new batch of players was buying in for $50 and $60, so I bought another $10.

Like a lot of other home games, this one can be pretty loose. An opening 3-bet means nothing. This can work to one’s advantage, or drain one’s stack in short order. I limped several times from early position with PP, someone 3-bets, and five people have called before it gets back to me. Of course I call, but no set. This happened at least three times. I had Qs UTG, 3-bet, five callers. The flop is 7, 9, 2 with 2 hearts. I bet 3/4 of the pot and everyone folds except the Button, who triples my bet. By now we have a full table, so, I buy another $20. I’m down $40 inside of an hour and a half.

After some big pots get taken down by questionable calls (had I played as loose as the rest of the table and seen a turn or river a couple times, I would have cleaned up on some gutshots), things start to settle down and the table becomes a limpfest. I follow suit with 69o in the SB and flop a boat. I check it, and as I hoped, someone bet a draw, then four callers, including me. The turn helps a str8 and I open with $2 and everyone calls. The river makes 3 to a flush and I check. The earlier bettor bets half the pot, everyone else folds and I double his bet. He says, “OK, I’ll pay off your boat.” I had regained more than half of my losses.

All of this time I’m just not feeling it. I’m looking at the clock. I told my dear wife that I’d wrap it up by 2 o’clock, and that’s an hour and a half from now. I take down a small pot with pocket nines, fold, fold, fold until 1 o’clock and say “night folks.” I just didn’t feel it. I wanted to be home.

I like playing with these folks. When I come in the door, I am greeted warmly and roundly. The mix of players is good: a couple players are very solid; more than a couple are extremely loose; and a couple more are almost certain to leave all of the money they came with. My ROI must be at least 50%. But something’s not right.

Once again this week, F took out our host in mere minutes of when he first sat down. And R had, once again, failed to make it into the money in the tournament (extremely unusual). And R’s girlfriend must have moved in, for once again, she had retired to the bedroom for the evening (pleasant woman who has stated that she wants to learn the game), so R is calling it an early night. That leaves 10 people sitting in his living room, whooping it up.
My dear Mother wouldn’t approve.