Texas hold'em -- July 16, 2005

6 players tonight. Clockwise around the table starting with 1st deal: Tom, Ken, Frenchy, Clint, Nathan and myself. Jonathan ducked out and Craig has been MIA since his car broke down; Frenchy said he hasn't shown up at the dojo for the last month either. It's time to open it up to fresh blood. As far as past players go -- haven't heard from John Jones in forever; Steve Rankin, by his own admission, has no hand and can't get permission from his wife; John Roach only plays occasionally; my brother Victor and Sam Straight live in Ann Arbor; Eric Stark doesn't seem interested. We need at least a couple new guys.

Back to our regular format after last month's fiasco.

Nathan and Frenchy took early chip leads. As we've all come to expect, the early game lets everyone relax, bullshit and settle into their groove. There's usually not enough chips in the pot to matter over the long haul, so everyone gets to stay in even on marginal hands.

I played loose early, intending to change up to tighter play later. I managed to frenchy Frenchy with A-K to his A-Q.
[Getting "frenchied" means to get beaten by the lowest possible hand that beats yours. The term arose early on in our game's history, and every time we get together, someone invariably gets "frenchied", to the endless amusement of all.]

By the time we hit the no-limit mark, I was down a couple thousand, but I had also won a hand with the Hammer (2-7 off-suit) by bluffing big when everyone had checked. At that point, Frenchy and Ken had pretty good chip leads while the rest of us were struggling.

On a flush draw, Clint and Ken locked horns and neither backed down. They kept raising over several rounds until finally Ken bet enough to put Clint all-in at the showdown. Ken had the flush with 9-10 suited; Clint mucked his hand, confessing later that he had pushed his suited 8 too hard and had gotten caught in a bluff gone bad.

Nathan started strong on the night but kept having to fold as the blinds increased. Nathan went all in and got burned when Tom landed the gutshot straight 7 to J when 8 came up on the river. Adding insult to injury, Tom had played a shitty 7-3 hand only because he was big blind and no one raised pre-flop.

Tom had been getting shit for cards all night. With a few thousand left, he doubled up successfully once, but was forced to go all-in again against Ken's ace-high straight on the flop.

I was hurting from having to fold quite a few 1000/2000 blinds. I had doubled up against Frenchy a couple of hands earlier. This time, Frenchy said "No-uh-uh" to my all-in desperation ploy, busting me out with undisguised, unmitigated glee.

With Ken and Frenchy in heads-up and approximately equal chip stacks, they traded blinds for awhile. Frenchy couldn't hold out against Ken's incredible ability to turn a shit hand into gold on the river. Ken won and took home the $120 kitty.

I think tonight makes Ken's 3rd win -- his first since last October.