Saturday

Sometimes I forget how poker can be fun.

When I first started playing it was always fun. I was still learning how to play, which was exciting. The amount of money changing hands was amazing to me. The other players at the table were interesting and talkative. Lately the tables aren't as talkative and the players are more serious. I've been desensitized to the swings of 1-2 no limit and though I'm no expert poker player a lot of the play seems routine.

Saturday at Pop's place was fun poker again. It seemed like a lot of the old crew was there, which meant plenty of jabbering. Also getting 500 for 150 made it look like there was tons of money on the table. The 30% game is great, looks and plays like a 2-5 but you actually risk less than a 1-2 game. It was also a mixed pot limit game which was extremely refreshing. PLO, PLO-8, Holdem and Deuce to 7 single draw.

Deuce to 7 was definitely my favorite game, mainly just for the novelty. No one really knew how to play it so I felt like I was on a level playing field. Some people pretty much folded the entire round just to avoid it and others went with the check/ call, if I have a decent hand, strategy. I chose the aggressive route and definitely won a lot more pots then I should of. Because no one really knew how to play the pots stayed small. The deuce to 7 rounds were great for getting your aggression out. Of course as the night went on people started calling me a little more liberally.

I have a terrible memory when it comes to hands I played but I really can't remember playing more than 2 holdem hands. I know I played AK twice but other than that I can't recall any other hands. Wouldn't of hurt my feeling if they pulled holdem out of the rotation.

Most of my big hands came in the O-8 rounds. One hand stands out where I made a pot re-raise after Pops made a pot bet and Keenan called. I flopped the lock low with A2 and had a 3 in my hand which made getting counterfeited pretty difficult. I also had a back door straight possibility (which I didn't think was any good). I knew the only part of the pot I was getting was the low but it looked like P. and K. only had high hands and if one of them had A2 and another miracle 2 or A came out I would still have the lock low. I thought getting the maximum in from 2 big high hands was the best play. I have no idea what the PLO-8 "correct play" is in that situation but worse case (short of having runner, runner to counterfeit my low) is I get quartered. After the hand I got the old "grrreat raise", so it probably wasn't the best play. There was no way I was folding so I figured why not try to win half a big 3 handed pot instead of half a smaller pot.

I wish I could of stayed at the game longer but my legs and back started cramping up. I also didn't want to spend all day Sunday catching up on sleep.