Back to normal… bubbled out of a $30 Omaha8 SnG last night, crippled by a flopped boat losing to a turned boat. Such is the fickleness of O8, every hand is a drawing hand and you can almost always lose on the turn and/or river. All you can do is maximize your odds when you put your money in. I was 3rd with the leaders having over 3000 chips each and shortstack had 700 when I was dealt 6322 double suited. I called UTG and the other three limped. Flop was 552 and I’m thinking scoop with the flopped boat (albeit a really really small boat, maybe a dinghy), and the low draw possibility, so I push until me and the shortstack are both all-in. He shows TT4A, so my low is dead unless he gets counterfeited with an Ace or four, but I’m looking good for a split until the @#$%^&&%! Ten hits the turn (a tidy little four-outer). Now I needed an Ace or four to split the pot or the case deuce to scoop (which would've been a five-outer), but an eight gave him the scoop and left me with less than one BB, which was blinded away on the very next hand.

In checking back over the hand history, I found some shaky calls short-handed that reduced my stack prematurely. I arbitrarily lowered my requirements for playing a hand simply because the table was down to five people, when there really wasn’t a good reason for doing so. That’s an easily pluggable hole though, and it was really really basic play that got me to the shorthanded stage, so I have confidence that I should be able to play O8 profitably at this level.

On a separate note, I received my new set of poker chips yesterday. I promptly sat down with my son for some quick no-limit poker on the living room rug. And lost. And I quickly discovered the reason I don’t like playing low buy-in no-limit ring games at Party/Empire. It’s like play money there to some of the people. You can’t push them off a hand with a raise. My son was calling with all kinds of shit because it wasn’t real money, and sucking out. Sooooo, I had him BUY chips for the next round (just a dollar, so put the phone down and stop calling child protective services), and the game changed significantly. Now my raises caused him to pinch his lip, push up his hair, and generally, act like Phil Hellmuth contemplating a call. Oh, and I won and took his money. That’ll learn ‘im.

Now, I’m gonna start gathering some of the dads in the neighborhood for a regular poker game. I’ve heard there are a couple of guys who also have chips, so we should have no trouble getting enough players. Most of our wives play Bunco (if you don’t know, don’t ask, but it’ll reach your neighborhood of bored soccer moms soon enough) so we have a built-in excuse for a Guys Poker Night. I have a question for my three or four readers: what is the best structure for games, blinds, food/beverages, etc. for a home poker game? Is it dependent on the number of players? Should I restrict the invitations to keep it to a certain level? Some background for my area: some of the dads play poker online, most have significant discretionary income, almost all have kids between 8-14, all drink beer but not liquor (at least not that I know of). Any hints?