Poker in the Northwoods of Wisconsin…LOL

Back to the Lake of the Torches for another few rounds at the cash game.  I get to see many of my friends again: Stephanie, Phyllis, Dean, Greg and Frank.  Who?!?  Just the LotT poker regulars there to take tourist money slowly but surely with their very tight, mostly aggressive brand of poker.

Except this night we have Chad at the table.  Chad is kind of crazy.  He likes to raise with anything.  He’ll raise with anything between king-high and the nut flush.  He won’t fold on the flop to any bet if he has at least middle pair.  So Chad has slowed down some of the regulars even further.

So tonight has become the night of the limped family pot.  Besides a home tournament with a $2 buy-in, I’ve never seen this kind of family pot action.  Several times I fold marginal hands in early position and I’m the only one not playing.  I turn to Frank a few times and tell him that if I’d known everyone was going to play I would have played too.

This hand was too funny not to share.  I’m in the small blind and the whole table has limped around.  I look down at 2 8 off suit.  I seriously consider folding for just $1 even with $17 already in the pot.  I turn to Frank as I throw in my money “I said I wanted to play too if everyone else was going to,” and loudly tell him “and I’ve got one of the worst possible hands you can have.”

The flop comes 2 6 8 rainbow.  I check.

Greg bets $5 from MP, Chad calls $5 from LP.  I raise to $25.  Chad and Greg both call.

The turn is a blank.  I check and Greg and Chad both check, looking baffled.

The river is a 2 and I just made a full boat on the river with the second worst hand in poker.  I bet $40 and Chad looks over.  I tell him that I’ll probably show him if he folds.  (I hope he thinks that this means that I want him to fold).  He thinks for about 2 minutes before calling.

I tell Frank that if that had happened on Full Tilt the comment window would have lit up like Christmas saying “Internet poker is rigged, FT is rigged”.

This actually reinforces my thought that raising pre-flop in a weak game like this one is always a good play from any position if you’re going to play (with some minor exceptions).

I ended the night up a good amount and feeling very good about how I played except one hand where I had QQ and re-raised PF and got 2 callers with a flop of AJT.  I bet it out on the flop and got one caller and then let him take the lead on the turn and river where he extracted even more from me with his ace-weak.

Any time I have a pair of queens it kills me.