another standstill

Tonight was the third time I played in the Friday night game, and the players were Big Dan, John, Dale, Eric, Trey, Mike, and me. Again, I seemed to tread water in this game, but I believe overall I played fairly well and was simply getting cold cards. However, to put it in perspective, I'm still $10 in the profit margin overall tonight, which is of course better than a loss.

While waiting for the game at "the office" (though it's really a house, it's used as an office for the business run by some of the other players in the game) to begin, I went to Chip and Chris's and played a 0.05-0.10 they were having. I did fairly well in the hour I was there, and left up $8 to go to the office game - the real Friday Night Game. The game was a little short-handed, so I called Dale, who was also playing the 0.05-0.10 at Chip and Chris's, and he drove out. I treaded water for a while, still a firm believer in my stick-to-the-good-cards strategy against the maniacal play of my opponents. I was up about $5 when the following pot played out:

I was in the small blind, and John, who was first to act, folded. Dale, Trey, and Mike limped in, and I looked down at the jack of spades and the jack of diamonds. I decided I needed to thin the field, and made a raise to $2.50. Dan called in the big blind, and Trey called as well. The three of us took the flop, which was a questionable one for me at best. K 8 3, all clubs. With second pair and no club, I knew that if my hand was good, it was extremely vulnerable. Not wanting to give up from my preflop aggression, I fired out $5 (a debatable play). Dan called, and Trey raised all-in, for $12.50 more. I didn't feel Dan was too strong here, and I felt sure he was going to fold a likely draw or second pair regardless of my move here. However, here's the thing: Trey is the loosest and perhaps most out of line player there, and likes to bet and call with nothing because he "felt it." I don't know how to explain exactly how or why other than that, but I felt there was a reasonable chance my jacks were good in this spot, even with no club. I agonized over it for a while, and made the call. Trey turned over the deuce of clubs and the ace of . . . hearts! He had bluff-raised all in with ace high! I was extremely excited to have made this read here and called with slightly the best of it here, and was even happier to see the queen of hearts fall off the deck on fourth street after Dan - as I presumed he would - folded. Unfortunately, the river was the sick, sick seven of clubs, giving my opponent a flush to beat my jacks on the river.

Down to $4.50, I purchased another $20 in chips and spent the rest of the evening clawing my way out of the red, with the few cards I could get a hold of. Also, it's interesting and somewhat unusual that these two jacks were the best hand I saw preflop the entire night, which was certainly not the case for Dale, who finished a huge $120 up from his $30 stake! I, on the other hand, only cracked it for two bucks this week. However, next Friday the action will be just as loose as it has been, which will put me in a good position to take the money next time. I feel that though Dale did much better than I did this evening, that I still rate to be the favorite in the game overall, if not by sensible play than by amount of experience playing.

Though I can't wait to get back in action at the office, I also have the Monday Night Game coming up in a few days, and I'm currently ahead big in the points, so I'll have to defend my lead there as well as try to squeeze out some wins in the potential cash games in between.