Monthly Archives: October 2010

Card Night 26-Oct-2010

It was jackpot fever tonight!

As jackpot grew past its previous record high of $141.00, every hand was scrutinized for its jackpot potential.  When a player would flop a set, instead of betting and raising as he normally would, he would just check and call to prevent everyone from folding and thus not getting to see a turn and river that might give him quads.


Before a round of Happy Pineapple (Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo Declare), Mark DeVol made sure that everyone knew that the Omaha jackpot rule (which states that the four-of-a-kind jackpot can only be won when the player has two of the four-of-a-kind as his hole cards) also applied to Crazy Pineapple.  Moments later, Mark himself made four-of-a-kind deuces… with three on the board and only one in his hand.  No jackpot!


A few hands later, also during Happy Pineapple, the flop was 4♥5♥6♥.  Play came to a standstill.  For the straight flush jackpot, did a player have to have two cards to the straight flush in the hole?  Or could he have just one?  The hand was halted as the jackpot rules were consulted, and there was nothing that said a player had to have two straight-flush cards in the hole for Crazy Pineapple.

This was especially significant for Paul, who had 3♥5♠5♦ in the hole.  Normally he would keep the 5s and throw away the 3, but with jackpot so big, he had more jackpot outs if he held onto the 3.  (The 2♥ or 7♥ would give him the straight flush jackpot.  If he held onto the 5s, only the 5♣ would give him the four-of-a-kind jackpot.)  So, he discarded one of his 5s.

Meanwhile, Mike had already discarded and was left with 8♥8♠ in the hole.  The 7♥ would also give him a straight flush!  And when the turn brought the 8♣, he was also drawing to quad 8s!

But the river was a blank, and jackpot remained unclaimed.


By the end of the night, no one had won jackpot.  That makes eight Card Nights in a row.  Jackpot now stands at $151.00, a new record high.

A record-high jackpot win is not guaranteed however.  The biggest jackpot payout was when Paul won $85.55 with a straight flush back in 2004.  If someone were to hit four of a kind with jackpot at its current value, he would win $75.50.


Since May 2001, Paul has had the best win-loss record heading into each Card Night.  However, with Paul’s loss tonight and Mark’s win, Mark has taken over that honor.  Mark’s record now stands at 286-184-5 (+21.70%) while Paul’s drops to 287-186-5 (+21.35%).

Paul does still hold the record for most money won (+$5,902.40).


 

Mark D +$17.00
Paul ‑$96.00
Phil ‑$113.00
Bill +$66.00
Lyndon +$94.00
Miguel +$91.00
Mike S ‑$41.00
Glen ‑$36.00

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Card Night 19-Oct-2010

We celebrated Mark DeVol’s birthday with cupcakes and pie.  Mark celebrated on his own with a $147.00 victory, after having been stuck for $60.00 to begin the night.  It was his second best Card Night ever.  (His best was earlier this year when he won $181.00.)


During a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo, an ace came on the river.  The three players still in the hand (Mary, Mark, and Paul) all checked.

“Kings and jacks,” declared Mark, turning over his hand.

“Kings and jacks here too,” said Paul.

Mary mucked while Mark got down to the task of splitting the pot between Paul and himself.

Paul looked at Mark’s hand.  “You moron, you’ve got aces and kings.”

Mark did a double take.  “Oh, I guess I do.”

“Happy birthday to me!” Mark loudly and annoyingly declared as he scooped the pot.


For the first time in recorded Card Night history, no one has won jackpot for seven weeks in a row.  We’re now at $133.00.


 

Mark D +$147.00
Mary ‑$62.00
Paul ‑$64.00
Phil +$84.00
Bill ‑$80.00
Jeff ‑$44.00
Lyndon +$45.00
Mike S ‑$44.00

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Card Night 12-Oct-2010

Early in the evening, Phil called 2-7 Triple Draw.  Despite the game being well respected by professional poker players (and even being featured as a tournament in the World Series of Poker), the game didn’t go over well with the group.

One of the problems might have been that there were nine of us, and we had to shuffle the cards in the middle of each deal (in accordance with Rule 6 of the Card Night house rules).

Another problem was that in 2-7 (which is a lowball game), aces are high, and twice players forgot that fact.


Speaking of aces being high in 2-7:

In the middle of a hand, Bill had folded and was looking over Paul’s shoulder at Paul’s hand.  When Paul drew one card on a drawing round, but held onto an ace he thought was low, Bill said out loud, “That’s high, you know.”

One player per hand, please!

(It turns out Paul didn’t hear him, and ended up holding onto the ace all the way to showdown.)


Jeff had his best Card Night to date, pocketing $96.00.


Mike Stefanidis suffered his second worst Card Night ever, thanks in no small part to two bad Four-Three losses.  First he had to match a pot of ~$26.00, then right after had to match a pot of ~$52.00.  He was never able to recover, and bought in for $5.00 at a time for the rest of the night.


Bill’s terrible 2010 continues as he dropped $50.00 tonight.  He’s only won three times this year, and is on pace to lose over $1,000.00.


Bill called Chase the Ace towards the end of the night.  Mark DeVol beat seven other players without ever losing any of his two-dollar stacks.  On three separate occasions, a player passed an ace to him, and he passed an ace right back to them.


For only the second time in recorded Card Night history, no one has won jackpot for six Card Nights in a row.  Jackpot now stands at $115.00.

The highest that jackpot has ever gotten was $141.00 back on 14-Jan-2003.  Mike Coyne won 50% of it ($70.50).


 

Mark D +$54.00
Mary $0.00
Paul +$101.00
Phil ‑$32.00
Bill ‑$50.00
Jeff +$96.00
Lyndon ‑$79.00
Mike S ‑$162.00
Glen +$56.00

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Football Pool 2010 Week 5

This season has been a hard one to handicap, as is evident by the low number of winning picks it’s taken to win the Football Pool each week.

This week Ken won the pool by picking just 8 wins out of a total of 14 games.  That’s only a 57.1% winning percentage.  (On Week 9 of the 2003 season, Paul also won the pool with 8 wins out of 14 games.)

The lowest winning percentage we’ve ever had was back on Week 6 of the 2001 season when Mike Stefanidis picked 7 wins out of 13 games (53.8%).  That same week, Frank and Warren only picked 2 wins!

Twice players have won the pool by picking the winner of every game.  On Week 9 of the 2005 season, Mark DeVol and Michael Farrell tied for the pot with 14 wins out of 14 games.  Then on Week 5 of the 2006 season, Mark and Michael again picked 14 out of 14, but Mark won the Monday-night-score tiebreaker and scooped the pot.

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Card Night 05-Oct-2010

The games went by quickly tonight, thanks to a lot of Razz and Texas Hold ’em on a table with seven players.  As a result, we contributed $22.00 to jackpot (a new Card Night record).

In addition, this makes the fifth week in a row no one won jackpot, sending it soaring to $99.00.


An interesting theory was proposed tonight.  Paul hypothesized that a player’s bet, raise, call, or fold can actually changed what cards will come off the deck, and in some cases change what cards are actually in the player’s hand.  Since there is no way to disprove it, we’ll have to accept the theory as valid.


 

Mark D +$49.00
Paul ‑$47.00
Phil ‑$58.00
Jeff ‑$28.00
Lyndon +$90.00
Mike S ‑$7.00
Glen ‑$21.00

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