Poker - 'The Hammer' comes through
In my weekly poker game, I have the joy of playing with some of the coolest guys I've met in this town. Lotta high-tech guys, which one would think means a lot of cash in play, but that doesn't really hold true.
Our game: we play a 'low-limit, no-limit' game where the blinds are .25 and .50, and the betting is no limit up to $20 (meaning a player has no more than $20 at risk on any one hand). Typical pots are around $20-30, and we play for about 5 hours before the limit comes off. I go home at that point.
Well, my weekly game hasn't been played in several months, due to the host having taken a job that keeps him out of town a lot. Well, I hooked up with one of my coworkers who just moved here. He hosts a weekly $10 buy in tourney with unlimited rebuys for the first hour. The crowd is mostly college students.... college students who watch a lot of poker.
As most hold'em players know, the worst pocket cards you can have are 2 and 7 off suit, because they are the lowest cards in the deck that cannot be used together. In my ring game, the hand is jokingly called the hammer. This is a garbage hand. Well, last week, my first week at the game, I find myself in the final two players with about 20-23% of the total chip-stack. I'm at a huge disadvantage.
Well, he's pushing me around, and the blinds are killing me. I lose about 5% of my stack with every hand I fold without betting. After three bad hands, I get dealt 2-7 offsuit! I internally sigh and muck it when he bets. Next hand, I'm small blind and look down at my cards to see 2-7 suited. CRAP! Two in a row?!?!? Well, out of frustration, I call the big blind and he checks his option to raise.
FLOP: Jack, Two, Seven RAINBOW! I check, he bets about half my stack, I go all in. We flip 'em up. He's got J9o and can't believe he's about to go down to the HAMMER! He gets no help on the turn or river, and I take it.
He's still in the lead with about 60% of the chipstack, but he's rattled. Next hand I get AQo, he gets JTsuited. He goes all in, and I call, winning the hand on just the Ace high... after that, it's pretty much over.
Moral of the story: Watch out, cuz the Hammer might just nail you!
Our game: we play a 'low-limit, no-limit' game where the blinds are .25 and .50, and the betting is no limit up to $20 (meaning a player has no more than $20 at risk on any one hand). Typical pots are around $20-30, and we play for about 5 hours before the limit comes off. I go home at that point.
Well, my weekly game hasn't been played in several months, due to the host having taken a job that keeps him out of town a lot. Well, I hooked up with one of my coworkers who just moved here. He hosts a weekly $10 buy in tourney with unlimited rebuys for the first hour. The crowd is mostly college students.... college students who watch a lot of poker.
As most hold'em players know, the worst pocket cards you can have are 2 and 7 off suit, because they are the lowest cards in the deck that cannot be used together. In my ring game, the hand is jokingly called the hammer. This is a garbage hand. Well, last week, my first week at the game, I find myself in the final two players with about 20-23% of the total chip-stack. I'm at a huge disadvantage.
Well, he's pushing me around, and the blinds are killing me. I lose about 5% of my stack with every hand I fold without betting. After three bad hands, I get dealt 2-7 offsuit! I internally sigh and muck it when he bets. Next hand, I'm small blind and look down at my cards to see 2-7 suited. CRAP! Two in a row?!?!? Well, out of frustration, I call the big blind and he checks his option to raise.
FLOP: Jack, Two, Seven RAINBOW! I check, he bets about half my stack, I go all in. We flip 'em up. He's got J9o and can't believe he's about to go down to the HAMMER! He gets no help on the turn or river, and I take it.
He's still in the lead with about 60% of the chipstack, but he's rattled. Next hand I get AQo, he gets JTsuited. He goes all in, and I call, winning the hand on just the Ace high... after that, it's pretty much over.
Moral of the story: Watch out, cuz the Hammer might just nail you!
posted by Jake Barnes @ 5:59 PM
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