Home 25p/50p Cash Game

Held my first home game of the year last night. Decided to kick things off with a cash game. Only 5 of us due to people being busy/working, but this suited me as I enjoy short handed games.

I'm going to go through a few hands that I thought were of interest. I'll start off by listing the people present, and how I perceive their games:

Andy: Quite loose, opens a lot of pots with raises. Will usually cbet flops.
John: Tight, if he opens a pot usually has a good hand.
Gary: Tight, if he opens a pot usually has a good hand. Plays a smallball style postflop. Capable of firing off big bets as bluffs.
Tim: Very loose, will call raises with a wide variety of hands. Somewhat passive postflop.

The first interesting pot of the night came against Tim. We both had about £50. Tim limped and I raised to £2.25. (my standard raise being 3.5xBB + 1 per limper). Tim called and we see a flop of 532cc. Tim checks, and I cbetted £3.25. Tim then check-raises to £8. Thinking Tim was just making a play here, as he knows I cbet very often, I raised it up to £20. Tim then thought for a while before shipping in the entire stack, making it £30 for me to call. I started wondering what could he have: AA/KK? No, he wouldn't have limp/called preflop. A straight? Highly unlikely, besides, wouldn't he flat my £20 hoping to get the money in on the turn? A set? Same argument. I then told him I had QQ, and offered to let him take the £30 back, and we'd just run out the board for the current pot. He said no to this, but thinking about it he had to say this. Saying "yes" is admitting he doesn't want a call, which will make me call, so he's hoping I'll fold. And if he has a hand beating mine he obviously doesn't want to do this. Deciding that he didn't have a hand better than mine I eventually called and he turned over K3cc. Given how many outs he had (2 3s, 3 Ks, 8 clubs) I then offered again to take back the £30 and play for the £40-£50 in the middle. He accepted, and I won the pot, obviously now wishing I hadn't made that offer again. But I didn't really want to lose an entire buyin like that.

Not too long later there was another interesting hand against Tim, who was now down to £25. Andy opened the pot for £1.50. Tim raised to £4. I reraised to £10 with AKss. Andy gets out of the way and Tim curiously just flat calls, leaving about £15 behind. I decide I'm pretty much open shoving any flop, but when the flop is QT8ccc I can't do it, as this is an awful flop for me. I check, and Tim checks behind too. Can't remember the turn, but I have to check/fold to Tim's shove. Tim is annoyed as he had JJ and was beating me, but I point out that all he had to do was shove preflop and he'd have doubled up.

I then proceed to not play many pots. I open a few for my standard £1.75, and take them down with cbets. But generally I'm not involved much, and am folding to people's raises, even when I'm told I'm getting "value" to call.

A bit later on I do something I've not done all night: I open limp UTG with 43dd hoping to see a cheap flop, but deciding not to raise this time for variety. Gary after me raises to £1.25 (a pretty small raise given I've already limped). Andy then reraises to £4.50. It then folds back to me and I have an interesting scenario. I'm aware that this is the first pot I've limped into. I'm also aware it's been an aggressive table in that there's been a lot of preflop raises, but not so many 3bets. Figuring I could sell a big hand here I raised to £14. Gary quickly got out of the way, and Andy then folded too. I think he had AJ in this hand. Thankfully Andy came up with the same reasoning that I was trying to sell.

I played a rare pot against Andy when it folded to me on the button. I raised to £1.75 with KJo. Gary folded the SB, and Andy called from the BB. We saw a KXXss board. Andy checked, and deciding to slow play a hand for once, I checked behind. Turn was a non-spade 5. Andy bet £2.50, which I called. River was the 5s, which was a pretty nasty card. Andy led out for £4. Deciding he probably didn't have the 5, and that I've acted pretty weak throughout the hand I decided my top pair was probably ok, so I called, only to be shown the flush - gah.

Later on I raise to £1.75 on the button with K6cc. Gary in the SB raises to £3.25, and Andy calls in the BB, giving me a pretty straight forward call too. Flop was AXXcc. Gary leads for £4. Andy folds and I call with my flush draw. Turn was a blank, and Gary checks. At this point I fired £12 into the pot. His check to me suggested he didn't have an A, so I could represent one. And If I do get called then I have my flush draw as backup. Also worth noting is Gary only had about £20 or so behind at this point, so if he does push then this prices in my flush draw. He thinks for a while before eventually folding TT.

There were probably a few more interesting hands, but those were the main ones. Next time I'll take a piece of paper and write them down as I play so I can remember more of them. All in all I started with £50, and ended up on £120, so a nice little profit there :)