Thursday, August 11, 2005

Home Game #3 Recap

Last night was Big Game of Brooklyn Rooftop Poker #3.
We were back on the roof after the last home game was forced inside by rain.

More beer, more Zaytoons, more low-stakes poker action.

I ducked out of work, grabbed some chips from the supermarket, and set up the rooftop casino. Huh. Maybe I'll post pics next time.

I'd planned to play HOS (a hand of hold 'em, a hand of Omaha/8, then a hand of 7 card stud). Downstairs neighbor and card shark Underground (because he lives on the floor beneath me) came by early and we played some no-limit Texas Hold Em hands (my first) for play money chips. It's kinda hard!

Then Old Testament showed up. We bought in for our regular budget-busting $5 stakes and played three hands of HOS. Honestly, it took us about a minute to figure out who had the best Omaha/8 hand.

The sandwiches arrived.
Tenderfoot came by and expressed her distaste for gambling.
We started to watch the "sex ed" episode of "South Park."
Spoiler: Kenny dies.

Evenstar, Bootlegger, and Iron Maiden showed up, and we watched the rest of the episode and ate our sandwiches.

Surprise guests Smokin! and Totalis came by. By this time we had stuffed the fridge with beer. Next week I'll ask people not to bring.

So!

We all climbed up to the roof, set up, bought in, and started playing. This week's big improvement: a bowl to hold the chips we put in the pot.

Also: We dealt and played the game clockwise, just like Hoyle's says to.

I layed down the house rules: no beer on the table and no kicking the table by accident. I policed both rules like a fascist, then quickly broke them both.
They're more like guides for my own self-improvement. I should have included
"Don't let The Litvak raise on the river in this game without the nuts."

Table was me, then (clockwise) Evenstar, Bootlegger, Old Testament, Underground, Iron Maiden, Smokin!, and Totalis.

John, Tenderfoot's ex-co-worker who lives nearby, came up after a bit. John's roof is much bigger and grander than mine. Great views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Plus, he's a class act. I'll get him a nickname ASAP.

Poker was played.

Either Evenstar or Iron Maiden said "Punani," but I think she heard it on Ali G, not from hanging out with sailors.

Bootlegger and Old Testament did okay, I could tell they were thinking pretty hard. They're ready to move up to $0.50/$1.00 with the heavy hitters.

Hard to tell who had good or bad cards, I don't think we had more than 20 hands.
Still, Underground did a good job of taking some pots and mucking lousy starting hands. I wish I had a little more self control. It's hard to care in a $0.10-$0.25 game-- I raise when I know I've lost just because losing's so cheap.

Iron Maiden's poker face got better through the evening. First, when her cards looked good, she'd sit up straight, lean forward, grin from ear to ear and bob her cards up and down. Still, she seemed to stop and took some pots.

Smokin! kept trying to raise after his bet had been called all the way around the table. He just has too much gamble in him for the limit game. God bless you, man.

I got peeved when Totalis tried to turn over my mucked hand. It would, like, totally give away the intricacies of my strategy. Tenderfoot teased me. Then we all bonded over Totalis's tragic story of playing high school basketball ... before his hoop dreams were shattered by a debilitating case of "White Man's Disease," which limited his vertical leap to something like standing on tiptoes.

My roommate Guile (after the Street Fighter character... I dunno) came by with some cookies he'd baked with his girlfriend. I felt just like Bugsy Siegel raising $0.10 into a $0.40 pot while eating a freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie.

Car Bomb (kinda rhymes with her name) came by from Prospect Heights looking for a game of spades but didn't want to play poker. She spent some time cracking jokes and catching up. How often do the Manha'anites come out to visit us in the BK?

That is all. Stay tuned for next week's recap!

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