The Mistresses of The River

Sometimes, people get on runs of form where they always seem to hit their draws. On Saturday night, at Jody’s home game in Cheltenham, it was the turn of Shazbo and Debbie to experience this wonderful phenomenon, predictably against their respective other halves.

We played a £100 tournament, with 10k starting chips and a 30 minute blind. There were only 7 runners (myself, Shazbo, Jody, Debbie, Hugh, Sir Mike and Debbie’s brother Pete), but it was a good number for the circular table we were playing on.

I explained to Hugh, who was unfamiliar with deep stack play, that he should be cautious and that there was a lot of play with the 30 minute clock.

Anyway - THIRD hand.

I limp for 50 with Js10s
Debbie and Shazbo call. Jody pumps it up to 200, which is called by myself and Debbie

Flop J♦ 3♠ J♣

Jody leads for 300. I raise to 1000. Jody reraises to 3000. Now against any other player on the table I pass, but it’s Jody who can be a bit loose at times. At the time, I justifed my push all in with the fact that he could have AA, KK or QQ, but looking back the 300 lead on the flop was not consisent with that - I think he’d have bet out a bit more with the overpair there. Anyhow - he has AJ, and I am bust third hand.

After a 2 hour drive to get here, this is somewhat disappointing, but thankfully the table allows me a rebuy. This snowballed into Sir Mike and Jody (twice) also rebuying, so we had 110k of chips in play between 7 players!

Enter the “Mistresses of the River”…

Jody has about 20k in chips now of course, and is looking to take control of the table. He quickly gets involved in a decent sized pot with Debbie. I don’t know his hole cards, but by the end of the betting Jody has been rivered by an obscure straight, and immediately hands over about 4k of his loot.

Blinds are up.

I find 7♦9♦ in mid position and raise to 300. Called by Debbie and Shazbo in the SB.

Flop is J♦ 9♣ J♠

I lead for 500, called by Shazbo

Turn is 2d, giving me flush draw and 2 pair.

I bet 1200, called by Shazbo.

river is 10s

Shazbo leads for 2k. I’m struggling to think of a hand she has here as surely she would have re-raised with a Jack to get rid of the drawing hands. I call, and she shows K♣Q♣ for the dirty, rivered, gutshot straight ;)

The Mistresses operate their rotating substitution policy, and it’s now Debbie’s turn. Jody raises and is flat called by Debbie.

Flop has 2 spades and Jody bets out 120% of the pot. He then adds “if it helps this means you don’t have the odds to call the draw”. Debbie ums and arrs and then calls. The turn is a spade as we all knew it would be and Jody bets, but instamucks to a re-raise.

I should add at this point that both of the Mistresses played very strongly, and the outdraws dried up from here on, although not too early to save them from their new nicknames. Debbie was to go on to win the tournament in aggressive style.

Over the next hour or so, I start to play well, and hit a few cards to boot. I have worked my stack up to 25k, with a number of hands without showdown. Myself and Jody are the most active players on the table at this point, and it’s going pretty well as we approach the end of the rebuy period.

The next key hand occurs between myself and Sir Mike.

I find 22 UTG and limp for 200, as do Debbie and Shazbo. Mike in the SB raises to 600, and both myself and Debbie call.

Flop 9, 9, 2 (the ducks have done it again - all is forgiven!)

I lead for 1500, Mike pushes for 6.5k more and his pocket Aces can’t catch up.

This hand means that at the rebuy break, I am chip leader with about 33k. However, things are about to take a turn for the worse.

Terminal Hand (1 of 2)

Blinds 200-400

I raise to 1200 on the button with 6♦7♠

Called by both Debbie and Pete.

Flop 7♦ 8♣ 9♠

This is a pretty good flop for a big stack to be aggressive with - a pair with an open ended as back up.

Blinds check, so I lead for 2000.

Debbie folds but Peter re-raises to 4000. Hmmm. This is an interesting one. From my chats with him the smoking area, I gather that this buy in is higher than is normal for his bankroll. I got the feeling that cashing in this tournament would mean a lot to him, so I push all in, thinking that he won’t call without a monster hand, as he has been playing pretty solid and would still have a decent stack if he passes.

I am the master of timing. Pete has THE NUTS - Jack Ten for top straight. I can’t even win. A 10 on the turn completes my useless straight, and in fact gives the chance for a pretty sick split, but it doesn’t arrive and I am down to 16k.

Terminal Hand (2 of 2)

Blind now 300-600

I have regrouped and have tightened up my range considerably. I find A♠Q♦ in early position and raise it up to 1800. Called by Jody in the BB.

Flop 2♠ 6♦ Q♠

Jody pushes in from the BB! It’s a huge overbet - about 11k more. I don’t think he does this with a set, and 2 pair seems remote on this board. I think he has a draw here - spades. A craftily played overpair is also a possibility, but I think I am probably good here to call with TPTK.

Jody shows J♠9♠ so I’m looking good to get the big stack back.

Turn is blank, but then I realise that Shazbo, one of the Mistresses of the River, is dealing the hand, and sure enough, with a flutter of the eyelashes, a spade pops up on the end. That is me pretty much done for the tournament. I play shortstacked for a few hands but am soon gone, and able to practice my dealing skills.

A very enjoyable evening, as home games always are. I will hopefully host one next month before we get ready for Vegas.