Card Night 20-May-2008

Monday night, Warren calls and says that Ike would like to play.  Great!  We’ll have a full table of eight players:

1. Mark DeVol
2. Mary
3. Ike
4. Mark Huyser
5. Paul
6. Warren
7. Bill
8. Lyndon

Tuesday morning, Mary calls and says that she probably won’t be able to play because Frank is recovering from a procedure on his back.  No problem.  At least we’ll have seven players.

Seven o’clock rolls around, and Warren arrives.  “No Ike,” he proclaims.  “Don’t know where he is.”  Hmm.  We’re down to six.

Paul arrives, and moments later Mary walks through the door.  Great!  We’re back up to seven.

Lyndon arrives shortly thereafter, but as the hour approaches eight o’clock it’s apparent that Mark Huyser won’t be showing.  (What’s new?)  We’re back down to six.

Hey, where’s Bill?  He’s usually pretty good about letting us know when he can’t make it.  After several attempts to get through to him on his mobile phone, he finally answers.  There’s loud music in the background.  “I’m in Cancun!  I told you last week!”  Nobody recalls Bill saying anything about Cancun or about not being able to attend Cards tonight.  We’ve got five players.

Five players again.  And we were lucky Mary and Warren showed.  WHAT’S GOING ON?

---

Paul called a variation on Omaha Hi-Lo that offered some pretty interesting situations.  In this new version, the deal was the same, but players could use any combination of the four cards in their hands and the five cards on the board.  You weren’t limited to using just two cards from your hand.

The “8-high or lower” rule was still in effect, but now there were many more ways to make your low.  For example, if you had four low cards in your hand, you’d only need one low card on the board to make your low.

On the high end, any flop could potentially give a player a straight flush, four of a kind… anything.  (For example, the flop is Q♥–7♣-2♠.  A player with A♥–K♥–J♥–10♥ has a royal flush.  A player with 7♦–7♠–7♥–3♦ has four 7s.)  And that brings up another point: Whereas being dealt trips in regular Omaha is a horrible hand, getting them in this variation is terrific, because of all the full-house and four-of-a-kind potential.

However, it did take some getting used to, since we’ve been playing traditional Omaha for so long.

---

 

Mark D	+$11.00
Mary	+$2.00
Paul	+$40.00
Warren	‑$71.00
Lyndon	+$20.00

Card Night 13-May-2008

Once again we had only five players tonight. What’s going on?

Paul, Bill, and Mark DeVol had to play three-handed until 7:30 when Lyndon showed up. Mike arrived sometime around 8:00.

---

Bill’s bad night started early with a mistake.

We were playing three-handed Omaha High Only.  Bill bet on the flop, Mark DeVol raised, Paul folded, and Bill re-raised.  Mark called.

On the turn, Bill bet.  Mark thought for a long while and reluctantly called.

On the river, Bill bet again.  Mark said, “Boy, I’m making a crying called here. I think I’m beat,” and tossed his chips in the pot.  Bill then announced, “I misread my hand. I thought I had a full house.”

Mark’s three 10s beat Bill’s three 4s.

---

Bill called Blackjack with a $5.00 maximum bet. “Lucky” for him people only bet one or two dollars, because it did not go well.

---

Bill started to make a bit of a comeback from his early losses, but then things started to slip away again. He finished the night down $104.00.

---

 

Mark D	+$67.00
Paul	+$30.00
Bill	‑$104.00
Lyndon	‑$19.00
Mike S	+$5.00

Card Night 06-May-2008

Paul and Bill got off to huge starts tonight, each going up anywhere between $40.00 and $60.00.  Mary, on the other hand, took a nose dive, quickly getting stuck for around $90.00

But as the evening went on, the worm started to turn.  Mary came all the way back, and more, finishing the night ahead $45.00.  Paul and Bill then went on nose dives of their own, finishing at +$19.00 and -$4.00 respectively.

---

On one hand of Omaha Hi-Lo, Paul raised pre-flop and said, “I hope this flop hits me.”

The flop came 9-A-9.

Bill asked, “Did it hit you?”

Paul said, “No.”

Bill asked, “Seriously?”

Paul said, “No.”

Now, did that second “No” mean, “No, the flop didn’t hit me,” or did it mean, “No, I wasn’t serious when I claimed the flop didn’t hit me”?

Whether it was a slip of the tongue or not, the flop did hit Paul.  He had pocket aces.  And poor Bill had A-9 for a lower full house.

Paul would wait until the turn to raise Bill, who had led out the betting on the flop.  Paul took down a big pot.

---

 

Mark D	+$73.00
Mary	+$45.00
Ike	‑$84.00
Paul	+$19.00
Warren	‑$52.00
Bill	‑$4.00
Lyndon	+$7.00