SFPT 2015: A Good Night

The tournament went off as planned, and personally, I think it went great.  The atmosphere was relaxed, everyone remembered how to play (even in a few split-pot situations), and we had fun.  There was interest in doing it again before the night was even over, and that will happen, likely sometime in January at the earliest.

My play: pretty good, actually.  I won the first pot of the year/night, folded quite a bit after that before taking down a couple more, and eventually got short-stacked (though not by much) with five remaining.  In the small blind, a great hand - A/A - which was a no-brainer shove when action came back to me.  Only Matt and Tina were still in the hand; the former folded despite "really wanting to call because I know you have ace-something".  (As an aside: NO ONE, not even Tina, can read me like Matt can.  He's not always right, but more often than not, he is.  It's uncanny, and unsettling.)

Tina called, and we flipped.  I was ahead, but not by much, over her pocket tens.  Despite the long-standing belief that "aces never win", I was confident.  After all, the math was on my side, right? Yeah, not so much - the flop contained a 10, the turn and river were duds, and that was it for me in fifth place out of 9.

So, a middle of the road finish, which isn't great, but we all had a good time which is even more important.  Matt ended up winning the whole thing, outlasting CJ whose second place finish was easily the best of his life.  The biggest surprise of the night, though? Not a single winner on the nine $5 lotto tickets.  The big win is still elusive, and we will keep chasing.


10k progress: 2.5 home game hours, 156.75 total home game hours, 268.25 total hours

2015, Once

In the last post, I said it may be "many months" until the next time I play poker.  "Many" turned out to be "12" - a year-long gap that was, I believe, easily the longest since the SFPT began. 

What will, I'm 99% sure, be the only tournament of 2015 is coming up this weekend.  So far, we have six players confirmed, with the likelihood of at least two more. It will be a first in SFPT history as well: the first time we've attempted an "adults-only" evening.  It was no secret to anyone that the older the kids got, the crazier they got having to be cooped up in the house, and the more uncomfortable it was for everyone whether they were playing or simply hanging out.  I'm hoping that with no kids, people will be more relaxed and everyone can have a good time, including some adult conversation.

As for my play: at this point, I have no expectations.  I've joked with a couple people that it's been so long I've forgotten how to play.  This may not be technically true (we'll see), but to say I'm rusty is an understatement.  We all are, because no one I've talked to has played at all since last November, either.  Tina, Matt, and I had a chance at Turning Stone over the summer, but declined - ironically, because it had been so long and we feared being rusty.  Better to shake off that rust in a home game, it goes without saying.

Watch this space for an update come early next week. Should be interesting.