The Fish Bowl

Fish bowl game didn’t workout in my favor as usual. Ouch. I didn’t actually lose a lot. The lost profits are what really hurt. Crazy night. Biggest game yet. 9 people showed up. The usual and 2 new guys were in attendance. A regular’s younger brother and his young friend; I’m guessing 21 to 23 year’s old. One sucked like his brother. LOL.

The brother’s friend AJ knew how to play, but was a fish no less, just not small fry. The thing was I could spot that he was the 2nd best player at the table besides me. I stayed away from him and watched his game. I really had nothing to fight with anyway. He might have pushed me off a hand or two. He knew how to check-raise and value bet, so he had some skills. The kid’s big problem was trying to muscle out the fish bowl’s calling-stations. He would play solid poker and then blow it all on a huge semi-bluffs, which were called with marginal holding and taken down. I saw him have A8 and reraise allin, which was a huge overbet, with 3 spades on the flop. His Ace was a spade, plus he had middle pr with the 8. EP bet. MP raised. He pushed with his marginal hand + the possible. EP dropped. MP thought about it for merely a second and tossed in the huge call with TPSK. The kicker was like a 3 or something sad like that. I would have folded to that bet in a heartbeat. But Phil called, no spade came and he took down the pot. AJ kinda ran his mouth about the call, but of course I said good call Phil, way to not let him bluff you. It was a horrible call but, but hey that is how I usually make my money. He did a similar semi-bluff move later in the night and was called down. He bought in for $30 and ended up buying back in for $20 or$30 more. He ended around $40 up for the night because he won the last 2 hands of the night. All in all, he was an alright player. He was the only guy at the table that I would have to watch really close if we got in a hand together. I’m sure it will happen sooner or later, because he won some money and he saw the soft game, where he sees some easy money potential. He’ll be back. Kinda sucks having someone else with skill horning in on my fish game. LOL. Oh yea, he won the last 2 hands both on the river to boot. He was the aggressor the whole time and came from behind on the river to win it. One I would have been raising also just like him, but the other one was a strong-armed bluff hand that ended with a nice river.

We played for 4 hrs and I won 4 hands all night. That is super card dead. One of the hands I won was a nice pot. I had 2 horrible hands that took my total for the night to $52 in the hole. 10 min into the game I look down at AA. Phil to my immediate right raised PF. I triple that bet. My ISO works and everyone folds back to Phil who calls. Flop comes K-high. He bets out and I raise big; he calls. Turn is x-small. He bets again. I push and he calls. He turns over pocket cowboys and shoots my $30 down with a flopped set that cracked my Aces. With him leading out every street I probably should have just called him down and took a semi-small ass-whippin’. But with some of the crap these guys play and bet with I just had a hard time slowing down here. I watched him lose a huge pot later where he kept leading out the whole hand with pocket ducks. When the other guy scooped the pot he didn’t see his play as folly. Once again that is why I usually cash every game. The other hand that totally killed me was where my nut straight got river by a paired board. Flop comes 987rainbow. I check, Chris bets, and I raise a nice smite. He calls. Turn comes an A. I lead out big-time. He calls. River comes another 8. I push the last little amount that remains in my stack. He calls and turns over 98 for the 2 paired boat special. The 4 outer. That really hurt. So if, if, if, I would have won those 2 hands I likely would have been up $75 or so. I am happy with my play. My loss was due more to two tough hands than me playing poorly.

Quick rundown of the night’s winners. AJ sucked out 2 big hands on the every last 2 hands of the night to go from do $40. AJ, if he comes back will win more often than lose, I think. He’ll win a lot if he learns to not bluff the calling-stations. Chris was the big winner with about $120. He rivered that huge hand off me. He also rivered a few more hands throughout the night with crap that panned-out in the end. But most of his money came because he had good cards all night and played them hard. He is the one player that is getting better every time we play. And then there is Philly-Dilly-Dilly-My-Boy. He won $75. That is only like the second time that he has won. They remember their wins more than the pain of tons of loses, so he will be back often. Phil is a fish that will never get better and I don’t have the patience to teach him. He still tries to check from every position PF. Oh, I forgot, so I have to put in $.50 to see the flop, damn.

One key hand was the last hand of the night. I was not in this hand. Flop comes AJx. AJ had AJ. Maki had JJ. VH had A8. Bets. Turn x with bigger bets. River A. Everyone went allin. VH with trip Aces. Maki with JJJAA. AJ with AAAJJ. Ouch.