Old Friends

I played in the usual Sunday afternoon homegame that is the mainstay of my poker playing life. An old friend from my college days at University of Houston stopped by and joined us for most of the session. It was darn good to see Terry and he seemed to enjoy hanging out with all of us degenerate, drunken, and downright rowdy poker players. He has to come all the way down from west Houston to the Island so he probably won’t become a “regular” but we sure hope he will join us from time to time as his schedule will permit. I had a decent day (up 2.5 buy ins) and won most of my pots with middle pairs. I was dealt several in late position and each time I would make a pot sized raise to about 8xBB after a bunch of players limped in ahead of me. I was called each time by one or more players with unpaired overcards and my hands held up each time. A few guys exclaimed (after seeing my hand at showdown), “you raised that much with 9-9?” Yes, gentlemen, that’s how I think it should be done. After all, if they had
9-9 beat, why did they limp in? In another hand, I was dealt K-K. I re-raised my buddy that opened the pot and he looked at me, thought about it, and then announced “call” tabling his 9-9. My Kings held up and I doubled through him. He had me covered 3 times over so he could afford to gamble and he said, after the hand, he thought he might be behind but he did not put me on that big of a hand since I had been raising with middle pairs, A-Jo, and A-Qo all afternoon. After I went home, I fired up the new pc and played for about an hour or so online. I ran into another old friend of mine from High School that now lives in central Texas. That is one of the great things about internet poker, you can connect and re-connect with friends despite a great deal of distance. My buddy, Travis, is an avid poker player but can’t routinely drive 3 hours to come play cards on Sunday. However, thanks to the miracle of internet poker, we got to play some cards and chat together for a while. I still find it incredible that Congress took it upon themselves to pass the UIGEA despite the clear majority of people that believe it is OK. Wake up, guys. Remember us? The voters you are supposed to be representing? I sure hope all poker players are registered to vote and actually do vote this year. We are legion and together we can make ourselves heard. By the way, just to put my money where my mouth is, I am a registered voter and a card carrying member of the Poker Players Alliance. You can bet I will be voting against any Senator or Congressman that supports the UIGEA every chance I get. Anyway, I got dealt pocket Aces twice during the session and they actually held up both times! Amazing! I used to expect them to hold up but lately, I almost expect them to get cracked. I had a good session and ended up 2 buy ins. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable Sunday of poker with friends.