Y'know, some people just can't stand success. A little 2nd place in the Blogger tourney and I get all FUBAR and can't play correct poker to save my ass. Tonight, I played SnGs all over the place. Cashed +$30 at Pacific (4/20), bubbled thrice at Empire (-$44), and clunked two more at PokerStars (-$18). Sheesh. Just plain bad.

Hi boys and girls... our word for today is "fluke". Can you say "fluke"?

I took Saturday off from the tables to focus on setting up my home game. Bought beer (Pyramid Hefeweizen) and some of those yummy fruity Smirnoff thingies (raspberry). Bought some smoked almonds and some guacamole flavored chips and Mrs. Commish whipped up a spinach-veggie dip in a loaf of sourdough. Moved the dining room table into the living room and covered it with a blanket [wtf do you think this is, Vegas?]. Counted out nice little piles of chips for the $20 buy-in and settled down to watch the World Series. Mrs. and the two little Commishes went to see "Shark Tale" - verdict from Mrs. was so-so, kids liked it.

First guest arrived 15 minutes early, four others showed up right on time. After the requisite introductions and collection of $20, we settled down for some discussion of the rules. The one other guy with any extensive online poker experience was already pretty lit, so he launched into a rambling tutorial of limit Texas Hold'em with blinds. A couple of the guys had some trouble catching onto the concept of blinds (predictably, they ended up losing the most), and we started with .25/.50 blinds and .50/1 limits. They were playing pretty much any two cards, and each flop had at least five callers with very few preflop raises. Of course, with schooling like this, there were HUGE suckouts and I didn't adjust very well initially, dropping half my stack in the first half hour, but I built it back slowly. One guy, Paul, asked if we could go to Dealer's Choice. Everyone agreed, so he immediately launched into 7/27. I held my nose, and planned to fold out of this game as soon as possible... until I drew 7 on my first two cards. Then I just built and built and built the pot with chasers galore. By the time I finished, my half of the pot was about $15 which helped replenish my stack and my will. Each circuit of Hold'Em was punctuated by one of Paul's crazy games. 7/27, Chicago-low, Indian poker, you name it, he played it.

As host, my job was to make sure that everyone had alcohol or food in front of them all night. As the empties piled up, a few guys had to re-buy but didn't seem to sweat it much. Basically, it was just a good time. At midnight, a couple of the guys bailed (strangely, the two guys that were basically even), so we were down to five-handed. That led to our one foray into Acey-Deucey. We anted with $2 each, so the pot started at $10. I took a small piece of it by betting $3 and winning with a 10/2 (7). Next circuit, the pot was $16. I got an ace, called it low, and got a queen. I bet the pot with 44/50 outs and took it down with a jack. We played one more circuit of Hold'Em before one guy got down to the felt and decided to call it at -$40. After all cashed out, I figure that I won about $40, which about covered the beer and snacks budget. Of course, I still have some beers plus lots of leftovers from the guys who brought, but didn't finish their six-packs, so I'm probably net-positive on alcohol. Everyone was pumped up before the game and everyone said they had a good time (a couple of wives talked to my wife today). They all seemed to want a repeat at Paul's new house (just bought), so we'll probably see some more wild games there. I need to brush up on my Low-hole wild game.

Sigh, these home games are KILLING my online game!