The Players

The ATM
Loose and a bit passive. Thinks he's one of the best players, he isn't. Will always slowplay a set or better. Actually gets better after he drinks since he tends to bet bigger and more often then.
Tells: Proportional betting, classic sighs and sad sounds when he has a monster

Superfish
He's read SS2 and obviously not understod a single thing. Favorite plays include limping behind on the button with QQ-AA then raising all-in on any flop. He goes all-in a lot, doesn't understand position and will call raises with total junk from time to time.
Tells: Usually bets fast when he's bluffing and takes his time when he has a good hand

Taggy
Good solid player. Very tight, understands position, good hand selection. Has watched the Lederer DVD's and read at least two poker books.
Tells: Acts very casual when he has a monster, usually just calls then puts in a value raise on the river. Other than that no tells at all

New Crazy
First time I see this guy, he's a friend of Superfish and seems to have learned by watching WPT, ie: he's raising and betting all the time, for real, all the time.
Tells: Strong means weak... or does it? He doesn't seem to know whether his hand is strong or weak sometimes

Gluesniffer
Total idiot. Will try all kinds of "advanced" plays like limp/re-raising with junk, going all-in in a small pot, betting TP no kicker all the way etc etc. He's a muppet.
Tells: Impossible to know what he has or is doing since he doesn't know himself half the time

Mr Tricky
Loose and tricky player. Definetely the one that is best at reading people. Likes to sneak into pots with marginal hands and loves suited connectors. Is more concerned about being tricky than winning money sometimes it seems. He doesn't like aggressive tables though and usually performs poorly then.
Tells: None

Hero
TAG with a *very* tight image. Claims he will only play AA and maybe KK if the pot is unraised. All the LAGs are always gunning for him and seem to call him down a lot.
Tells: Probably way too many



The Hands
Blinds are 1/2 and people buy in for 200. People are sitting in the order described above. The hands are not in the right order since I can't exactly remember which came whem but they are at least not completely chronologically out of whack.

JTs
Folded to me on the button(!), I bring it in for 8. SB folds but Superfish re-raises to 18, I call. Flop is J4x rainbow. Superfish checks I bet 15, he calls. Turn is a Q, he checks, I bet 30 he calls. River is an Ace, he pushes I fold. He shows A4 for the rivered two-pair.

AJs
I limp in EP, Superfish raises to 7 and New Crazy calls in the SB, I call as well. Flop is a beautiful Jxx with the two x's being low cards in my suit (clubs) for TPTK + Nut Flush draw. New Crazy leads for 30, I call, Superfish goes all-in, New Crazy calls (he covers us) and I call all-in. There's a side pot with 8 between them two since I haven't reloaded after losing the last hand. Superfish shows AJ in a different suit so I am freerolling against him, New Crazy shows K8o(!) for no pair no draw (2 overcard outs). Turn is a blank but river is a beautiful and I tripple up with the sidepot going to the K8o of New Crazy.

AKo
New Crazy opens for 50 utg. He's playing maybe 60-75% of his hands, raising maybe 25% but usually raises 10-15. Folded to me, I fold my AKo. He shows a random junk hand. I figure why call a huge overbet when I have nothing invested and I'm not holding the nuts. KK I would have considered. I doubt anyone at the table would have agreed with my fold, except Taggy maybe.

22
I limp on the button into a family pot. Flop comes K42 rainbow, everyone checks to me and I check behind. This means NOBODY has a K or even a pair. I decide to slowplay it hoping someone will pick up something on the turn. Turn is a T putting a flushdraw on the table, checked to Gluesniffer who bets 10, I raise to 40, everyone folds (he was obviously on a total bluff, he would probably not have folded the T or a flushdraw).

55
I limp in EP, The ATM raises to 8 and gets 2 callers, I call as well. Flop comes K5x all diamonds. I check, planning to make a move on the turn as long as it isn't a diamond. The ATM checks behind (this means he doesn't have a K or the , so most likely two missed high cards like AQ/AJ. Turn is a brick, I bet pot and everyone folds.

99
I limp behind Gluesniffer in EP, The ATM raises to 10, gluesniffer re-raises to 85, I fold, The ATM pushes. Gluesniffer thinks for a while, I say something along the lines of "We all know you got junk, now you just have to decide whether to back that junk with the rest of your stack", he folds. He claims he had A2 (very likely), The ATM has KK.

AKo
Folded to me on the button(!!), I raise to 10, blinds fold. Yay!

AQs
I limp in EP, Taggy and New Crazy sees the flop with me and maybe one more. Flop is Q86 with two clubs. Taggy bets 6, New Crazy raises to 26, I re-raise to 76, Taggy folds (phew, he's capable of betting out with a straight/flush draw or something there but will never chase without the odds) and New Crazy calls. Turn is another club. New Crazy bets big, representing the flush. My read says he is bluffing (staredown etc) so I just call, deciding to call any non-club river. River is a Q giving me trips with top kicker, New Crazy pushes. I think for a long time but my read says he's bluffing so I call, he shows A8o for middle pair (he had the ).

77
Limp, call, no set, fold.

ATs
I limp in EP, pot is unraised and comes KJx with two in my suit, giving me the nut flush and gutshot draw. I bet 10, The ATM miniraises and everyone else folds. I call. Turn is a brick, I check, he bets 1/2 pot. I figure him for a monster with this betting sequence (he knows how tight I am), and flat call. He's got a big stack and I figure that I will stack him if a Q comes and will probably be able to extract a nice chunk with the flush too. River is another J, I check and he checks behind with KT, so much for my read.

TT
I open in MP for 10, Superfish calls. Flop is A8x, I lead for 10 and he flat calls (no ace, either a PP or a piece of the flop.. or some junk). Turn is a low card, I bet 20, he calls (damnit, is he slowplaying?). River is another A, I check, he checks behins with JJ (I should have figured him for a PP bigger than the middle card on the flop, which means I only beat 99.

QTs
I limp behind two others in LP, button and SB comes along so we are 5 to the flop that comes QJx with two in my suit. I have TP and the flush draw (again). Checked to me, I btp, Taggy calls. This worries me. Why would he call? If he has a Q or a set he will raise to protect, knowing that I would be likely to bet my flush draw. I can't put him on a hand, is he trying to catch a bluff with the J? Turn is another Q, I bet 20, he folds his AJ, I show him my Q (I want him to know that when I bet into him I have a hand, I know he won't get tricky then, we respect eachother and try to stay out of eachothers way).

QJo
MrTricky openlimps on the button and I complete in the SB, BB (The ATM) makes a small raise to 7 and I make a bad call (I say to myself, this is a bad call as I am doing it, shesh). Flop comes A78, it is checked around. This means The ATM either is afraid of the A or hit a set. I bet the turn representing the Ace, The ATM raises and I fold. He shows 77 for the set, I figured him for AA but a set is a set.

87s
I limp on the button after two more limpers. Flop comes Q45 with one in my suit. Checked to Gluesniffer who bets 5, which seems very weak. I decide that with my TAG image fold equity is huge so I raise to 20 with my gutshot and backdoor flushdraw. Yeah right, Glusniffer comes over the top and I fold. Duh!

AQs
I limp in MP, flop comes QJx. New Crazy checks(!) and Gluesniffer beats weakly, like 6. I don't feel like getting re-raised so I just flat call with my TPTK, New Crazy comes along. Turn is an Ace. Gluesniffer bets weak. I figure the Ace scared him and my hand is most likely good, but I decide to just call hoping that he will bluff the river and also I am a bit worried about what New Crazy has, he doesn't usually check/call... actually, he never does, so I'm a bit worried. River is a brick and Gluesniffer bets semi-big, something like 38, I just call hoping for an overcall (not a raise) from New Crazy, who actually folds. Gluesniffer shows Q4 for Middle pair no kicker and I drag the pot.


The Other Things

I only raised two hands preflop the whole evening, both on the button when it was folded to me. With the amount of action and aggression preflop I didn't want to get stuck with a marginal hand so I decided I would only raise big pairs, I never got any. Since some you had to have a crowbar to get people out of the pots I figured I woule be better off limping hands like AK-AJ hoping to trap people, raising and betting unimproved was extremely unlikely to win a pot, most hands went to showdown.

After a while Mr Tricky got busted (-400) so we were down to 6 players, when Superfish busted (-800) I shut down the game by quitting too. I figured that playing that shorthanded would make the crazies style of play close to the correct one, reducing my EV, and I also didn't want to play SH against maniacs with such a deep stack (I had 800 and was chipleader, they had ~4-500). Not sure about this decision, rationally it should be +EV to keep playing these guys and I shouldn't quit until I have all the chips but...
1. Their style (superLAGy) is approaching optimal strategy for very shorthanded games
2. I don't feel comfortable gambling with 800, they love it
3. If I actually manage to bust everyone I might not get invited back
4. 600 is a good solid win

End results:
Hero +600
The ATM +500 (had KK three times and got paid off)
Taggy +200
Gluesniffer +-0
New Crazy -100
Mr Tricky -400
Superfish -800

Craziest call has to go to "New Crazy" for calling an all-in with K8o for no pair no draw in the biggest pot of the night, he doubled up twice against Mr Tricky (KK with a set against Trickys TP/str8-draw, and K9 against Q8 on a 985 flop) and still ended up down.

Dumbest flop award goes to Mr Tricky, who raises on the button with JT and gets two callers. He's the dealer and deals the flop 789 with a heart draw, but he just keeps going and deals out the turn card by mistake so it's a do-over. His opponents would have had a worse straight and a nut-flush draw (without hitting) respectively, so he would have trippled up if he hadn't messed up the deal.

Worst preflop hand selection goes to Superfish who got busted with T6s (limp/calls preflop, then pushes with middle pair) and 95o (calls a raise, pushes with top two but called by an overpair and the river pairs the low card).

I think I misplayed a few hands, and I am unsure about some others. Was a pretty good evening result wise (I average about 400 or so I think at this game), but the action was a bit too hot for me to feel comfortable, I really need to learn to gamble.

awsome post man but how the hell do you remember so many details...
you must have an amazing memory..

god id be lucky to remember 1 hand from a homegame..

god i wish my friends would play for a serious amount of money like your game...

im lucky to convince them to play $10NL...

for some god unknown reason we usually have to play $5 buyin with 20c big blind...

makes for a very painful evening of poker.

is this euros, krona, or what?

i'm going to go out on a limb and say krona, as that would put your win at about US$75-$80.

I don't know if my recall is above average I just try harder to observe and remember since I am very analytical.

This is all SEK, the Swedish currency (krona). A 200SEK buy in is like a $25-30 buy in.

This is a semi-regular home game made up of a total of maybe 20-25 people. Some of them I have played a lot with 10+ times), some only a couple of times and often there's a new guy or two. Yes it would be bad if they read this but I doubt anyone would, I'm not sure Gluesniffer could focus long enough to even if I gave him a link.

I was hoping for more/longer replies but now that I look at my original post I realise it may be too long for people to read through and comment. Maybe I should just have made seperate threads for the more interesting hands.

Ok, what about the AK vs the huge preflop raise? Anyone call or raise there? I discussed it with Mr Tricky afterwards and he said he would have re-raised it preflop.

The ATs hand, should I fold the turn now? Is there anyway else I can play it? I could play back at him on the flop but he's giving me very nice odds with that miniraise.

I think I played the second AQ hand meekly, since I was afraid of a re-raise, do I want to go to the mat with TPTK in an unraised pot?



(I spent an hour or so writing the original post and I'll be damned if this is all the feedback I get )

It's hard to comment on so many different hands.

But I really didn't have a problem with the way you played any of them. I guess I would have raised somewhere during the second AQ hand, but the way you played it worked out awful well.

And you might as well reraise your AK if he's raising 25% of the time. Make it big. Hell, just push it all-in preflop. AA or KK are the only hands you fear and those are only going to be his hands 1% of the time, or 1/25 of the time he raises. If his raise is bigger than normal that indicates to me a worse than usual hand not a better one from a typical "crazy" guy.