Poker Night Success

Party last night was an awesome time. 8 people total, which worked out perfect for the amount of space, chips, and everything else. The funny part is that the group of people just ended up being my standard AD&D group of friends plus 2 other friends. And a lot of us hadn't even seen each other in some time, so it was great to just socialize for awhile using poker as the excuse. Had some college hockey playing in the background, pizza, snacks and good times.

We started the first hand going over the rules and trying to emphasize the first few hands being "practice", but with real betting. What happened next was hilarious. Now, keep in mind, technically speaking, this is some low stakes poker. Betting starts out with white chips, that from a dollar value, are .02 cents a piece. Yes, 2 pennies. But what happens? A few people have really good hands and all of a sudden people are throwing around their highest value chips ($2 dollar chips). Off the first hand, one person basically took 2 people down half their chips. So much for "practice" hands!

First person went out shortly after 7pm, and the game lasted until just before 11:30pm. Some highlights include one guy getting pocket Aces TWICE in a row. The odds of getting dealt pocket Aces is around 220 to 1, and this guy got it twice! I got pocket aces once, but didn't show them (won the hand without being called). The highest hands all night were full houses, no 4-of-a-kinds all night. There were a quite a few number of Full Houses though, including a hand where two guys both had full houses. One had 7s over 6s and the other had 6s over 7s!

In the end, I made it to the final two, but I was severely short stacked. I won a solid all-in with 3 10's when my opponent had 2 pair 10s and Jacks. But he had so many chips that he could just keep bleeding me. I tried a few bully moves that didn't work out. Despite all that, as it got down to the end, he goes blind all-in against me (all-in without looking at his first 2 cards). I had Ace & 2 of spades, a solid opener. So I said what the hell and called. He flips his cards over, 10-4 off suit. I'm clearly ahead at this point. Flop comes up... 10-4-Ace. So now he has 2 pair and I have a pair of aces, but I'd need a 2 or Ace to come up to win. What happens? Another 10 or 4, I honestly don't remember. Point is, he gets a friggen Full House off a blind all-in! Crazy. So I came in second, but had a great time.

Everyone had so much fun, that I might even be motivated to do one more this year, in late fall before the winter sets in.