Weatherford (December 8)

Last Saturday was the final game in Weatherford for the year, and I ended on a high for 2012.  Winning $210 for the evening put me in second place for most money won this year among the group who plays in my favorite home cash game.  A guy named Brandon earned more than $2,200 this year and I finished with a profit of $1,690 in a total of 12 games.

For the entire year thus far I have profited $1,365 and am hoping to play one more time before 2013 rolls around.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any great hands from the night to discuss.  I did make one really good call with top pair, seven kicker on the river against a player I read as bluffing.  My call paid off as he didn’t have the pair of aces beat.  It was a good read on my part and I was proud of myself for trusting my gut.

On Saturday, I played for 8.25 hours, resulting in a $25.46 hourly rate.  I’ve had a good year, but didn’t play as many hours as I planned or won as much money as I would have liked.

Whether I play one final time or not, I will do a yearly recap on my games and update how much I won and the hourly rate for the year.  It will be interesting to see how this year compares with the past three years that I have been keeping up seriously with my poker play.

Casa de Cook ($20 re-buy tournament)

In an attempt to bring poker back to Arlington, we held a home game tournament last night at my new house and had eight players show for the event. That is the most we have had for a game like this in a long, long time.

The structure was slightly different than our old games in that we only started with $7,500 in chips ($10,000 is the norm) and the blinds started at $25-50 with re-buys being allowed for the first four rounds. Rounds lasted 30 minutes each.

I want to start keeping track of who re-buys, who goes out when, and other things about these games to see if there is a pattern. The following is the structure of the tournament, when re-buys took place and players eliminated.

$25-50: No rebuys
$50-100: 2 re-buys (Josh, Matt)
$75-150: 1 re-buy (Hector)
$100-200: 4 re-buys (Bart, Slope, Bart, James)
$150-300: Hector eliminated
$200-400
$250-500: Josh eliminated, Slope eliminated
$300-600: Bart eliminated, Danny eliminated
$400-800: Matt eliminated

James had the lead going into heads-up play with Clint, so they chopped the pot $175-125. It was supposed to be split $200-100.

The official standings look like this:
1st - James
2nd - Clint
3rd - Matt (same bubble spot as always)
4th - Danny
5th - Bart
6th - Slope
7th - Josh
8th - Hector

We had a good time and everyone said they want to make this a normal thing. Hopefully we can get a game together once or twice a month.

Give Thanks For Poker

One of my new favorite things about Thanksgiving is playing cards that night in Weatherford.  In 2010, I won $120 on Thanksgiving and this year I more than doubled that.

The most interesting thing to happen at this year's game was I flopped four aces while holding pocket aces.  I've had four aces before and I've flopped quads before as well, but I've never flopped the biggest of pairs while holding the only other two in the deck.  The overwhelming mix of emotions I felt is near undescribable.  To see a pair of aces in your hand is already a great boost to one's confidence, but to then see the final two aces roll over in the first three cards makes your mind go crazy.

However, the best part of flopping my four aces was that I actually made some money off of it.  My buddy Jay bet the flop and the turn.  I then made a bet that would have put him all in on the river and out of friendship and mutual respect talked him out of calling.  He wasn't going to call anyway, but it was still a nice gesture on my part.  I ended up making about $70 on the hand.

I profited $245 in four hours.  This gave me an hourly rate of $61.25 and brings my total for 2012 to $1,155.