This home game took place almost a month ago, so my memory is far from perfect. Also, I've only picked the interesting hands, I obviously played a lot more hands than these since the game went on for about 8 hours.

Blinds are 1/2, buy in at 200.

Seating:

Seat 1: Me
Seat 2: Good LAG
Seat 3: Good but predictable TAG
Seat 4: Good LP, best reader
Seat 5: New player, seems loose and bad
Seat 6: Fish (my favorite ATM)
Seat 7: Maniac
Seat 8: New player, seems tight and good


JJ in the BB
Seat 7, the maniac, has raised to 12 in the dark on the button. Seat 2 makes it 27, maniac calls and I call. Flop comes T25 with two spades. I check, Seat 2 checks, maniac bets 50, I push, Seat 2 folds and macian calls with 64s for a flush draw and gutshot. My hand holds up. The reason I checked was that I wanted to see what Seat 2 would do. I know that HE knew that I needed a decent pair to call that, and I was fairly sure he wouldn't bet this flop without an over pair. Maniacs bet means he's probably got a piece of the flop but I think most of the time my hand will be good here.

QQ utg
I make it 15 to go and get two callers, one of them is Seat 7, the maniac. Flop comes Qxx with no draws. I bet a measly 15 to encourage action, maniac calls the other guy folds. Turn is a rag completing the rainbow, I check, maniac checks behind. On the river I bet 30, maniac calls and mucks. I guess I should have just bet the whole way. The funny thing was that when I made such a weak bet I could *feel* Seat 4, who's probably the best of this group at reading people, thinking "Top set". I gave him a glance later in the hand that confirmed this and when the maniac called my river bet I said something along the lines of "What do I have?" indicating I knew he knew... he said "Queens". Funny, that's what happens when you play too much together I guess.

54o in the BB
Two limpers, I check. Flop comes 36T, I bet out about 8, my favorite ATM calls me. Turn is a 7, I bet 20 or so, ATM calls, river is a brick, I valuebet 35 and he calls me with a stupid pair of some sort.

54s in the SB
This is the very next hand. Seat 5 (who's short) makes a small raise to 7 (his preflop raises are always small), I decide to honor my previous 54 by calling this small raise, the BB calls as well. Amazingly, the flop comes 236, with two in my suit. I check, the BB bets 15, raiser calls and I call. The turn is an Ace, BB bets 25 (I needle him a bit for bluffing, he claims HE has 54 this time), raiser calls, I re-raise enough to put the original preflop raiser all-in. BB folds and muppet calls with AQ drawing dead.

JJ utg
I limp, a few others limp behind, maniac raises to 12. I re-raise to 62, everyone folds to the maniac, he re-raises to 262, I fold. Took me a LONG time to fold that one. At this point, the maniac had rebought and managed to build up a pretty big stack of 400-500, which was about the same as I had. He had done so by raising pretty much every hand and betting out people post flop, as well as showing down a few marginal winners. I decided the chance of a coin flip was too great, and that I could find a better spot. I regret raising, should probably just have called and hoped for a set or overpair. A few days ago I asked him about this hand, he said he had K6s, which I believe (he's very honest).

99 utg
It's really late, this will be one of my last hands. The game is 6 handed now and I raise it up to 10 and get 2 callers, then the BB, Seat 8 directly to my right who is the big stack, makes a mini-re-raise. I call and the other two does as well. Flop comes a beautiful J9x rainbow. BB bets 40 into the ~80 pot, I just flat call hoping for a raise or overcall from a Jack but both limpers fold. Turn is another J, BB bets 50. Now I'm thinking "crap, this J will scare him off his AA/KK" so I just mini-raise it to keep him in. He calls. River is a brick but he leads out for 75. This doesn't make sense. I am actually close to just calling this bet, fearing quads, but that would just be super-weak so I mini-raise him, he calls with AA. If I had just popped him on the flop there's a good chance I would have gotten him all-in and would have doubled up.


I finished the session up 840, so I'm very pleased with the result. I didn't really get a lot of great starting hands but I did hit some flops and as usual, people were happy to call me down. However, I am sure I left money on the table and I wasn't 100% happy with the way I played the hands. Other than the semi-bluff with the straight draw I barely bluffed a single time. For some reason, these guys are intent on keeping me honest. It's crazy.

I wish my hands held like that. Good play. I'm confused about your 54 hands. You are in the SB for the first one and the BB for the next hand and you say the BB calls. Do you mean you are one the button? Hell of a pair of hands.

I probably would have lead out or check raised that flop with the 99 hand as his mini raise preflop is often AA or KK.

I got confused. The FIRST 54 was in the BB of course and the SECOND was in the SB. Edited to show that.

With 99 the BB is first to act so I can't lead out or check-raise.

Ok, i misread that. I raise that flop though to get him committed. If you don't want to scare him, don't make it huge. If he won't fold to the raise on the turn when the J pairs, you should be able to get money out of him anyway.