Five hardy souls braved the hail to attend the 4th Poker evening held last Saturday in the salubrious surroundings of a Fitzrovia public house. Ann, Pete, Christian, Amanda and I met for the now standard 2 Hold’em tournaments. Congratulations Amanda for being the big winner on the day, with Christian just edging out myself in the winnings list.
The first game started slow with few big hands, small bets and a great deal of bluffing (at least from myself). At one point my bad dealing allowed some people to see that one of Pete’s pre-flop cards was a jack. He decided to keep it and displayed it for all to see. When the flop was jack-high, everyone folded except Ann. When another jack came on the turn, the bets got bigger and the quips began “Ann, do you think he’s bluffing”? In the end Ann’s J10 was better than Pete’s J6. As soon as the half hour mark was reached and the blinds increased the game became much looser. Amanda was out first, then Ann tried to catch my bluff with KQs against my heavy betting, but I wasn’t bluffing with QQ. Soon Pete was out and it was Christian and I, man-to-man. However, Christian’s luck ran out shoving against my A10 with his pocket pair. It was all over in under an hour.
The second match began with a furious pace. Early on Pete and I were quite aggressive and on a couple of occasions got caught in bluffs (I did and it looked like Pete did too). Myself, Amanda and Pete went out in the first 30 minutes and rebought. I was out again soon after, going all-in on the flop with a mid-pair and flush draw. Ann was again sure I was bluffing, and considering my roughly 35% change of getting the flush she wasn’t too far off. Later Pete pushed preflop and most of the table folded. As two 4’s came on the flush Ann was visibly disappointed - she had folded the other two 4’s. The commiserations didn’t last long as in the next hand Pete’s AKs was beaten by Amanda who had four 5’s! With Pete and myself out it looked like the game may settle down as the next few hands were quite passively played. However, Amanda soon took up the mantle of aggression with relish, building a stack that would win any game of desktop defense. With consistent betting she gave no clues to her hands. At one point Amanda with 27o (the worst possible hand) matched big pre-flop bets against Ann with JJ. When the flop and turn came with two 7’s and not much else, Amanda bet big and Ann again tried to catch a bluff. Thus, a very small stack Christian played Amanda heads-up. Amanda continued to push every hand (“poker is easy when you have such a big stack”) and Christian was soon left as the big blind with only a small blind stack. With Christian all-in just to make the blinds, the hole cards were dealt face-up - his AA won the smallest possible pot! Christian’s luck came too late and the game was over on the next hand - Amanda was the winner.