Rick's Cafe Americain

My friend Toni has not only started playing poker, she has started hosting no limit tournaments.  This is the first game I got invited to and I was anxious to get into the game. 

My old law firm was having a reunion, so I happened to run into an old friend.  Rick is in town, staying with his family en route to a post-bar island getaway with Ilsa.  Rick took me up on the invitation to come down to the tournament after we finished the reunion dinner.  (I’d throw a chicken link on Ilsa - who hadn’t yet arrived from the coast - but she had no way of knowing that a poker game would be waiting for her.) Ferrari didn’t show up at the reunion, so no invitation could be extended.

To the tables!

One talking point - I don’t want to give you the impression that it is always 100% wrong to bet into the side pot with a player all-in.  There are times when it is advisable to do so (you flop trips or better; you are a short stack yourself and need chips; or a significant number of chips have gone into the side pot pre-flop).  It’s just that, barring these limited considerations, the better play usually is to just check it down, even with top pair, since the all-in player is invulnerable to a bluff and beating any other players in the hand will not get you anything extra and may inadvertently wind up causing the winning hand (v. the all-in player) to fold.

I got that. Maybe I didn’t articulate it, but I know.

I had to explain it to a guy on Party today.

Jet-lagged as I was/am, I don’t really remember much either.  I can tell you that I played tighter than usual but still looser than I probably should have (in the first game.  The second tourney was tilt city from the get-go).  However, for the first time I felt I could read people pretty well, and I played the people.  I got lucky in that I think the better players got knocked out early, so the “final table” was full of (fairly) predictable people I at least thought I could read.

Thanks for bringing me along, Ugarte, it was good to see you.

This is why you missed my party????? Consider yourselves banned! (Where are the devil smileys...that’s what you get, a devil’s smiley.)

Let me know about the next one.  Sorry I missed you Rick.

On the talking point, I think that is an interesting discussion.  Certain factors like what stage of the tournament it is at, how many players, size of pot and blinds, whether you think you can suck the other live player into contributing to a side pot, what the all-in player is likely to have gone in with, etc., are all considerations.  Though obviously you need stronger hands to bet with (with some limited exceptions) and it is pointless to bluff or semi-bluff, unless there already is significant money in a side pot and you think you can get the live players out.

Dawn,

We missed your party because your party ended at a ridiculously early hour.

Ugarte, ditto your comedy show last night.  I was helping Sister of Rick I and boyfriend of SORI move.

hahahahahahaha