Friday Cash - 2023.02

 It had been a while since the last poker in the garage, but the time was once again right to gather around and throw down in the best time you’ll ever have at Pepper St., playing a cash game!

This time around it was a little different, we have had no limit hold ‘em only nights before, but never have we gotten rid of the quarters and just had a single dollar blind. It made for much more efficient and less confusing play, and throughout the night the pots were not bigger than usual and the action felt about the same. I informally polled everyone at the end of the night and the consensus was that it was better, but not a huge difference.  So I think we are going to stick with this system for hold ‘em only nights.

I think for mix game nights, which will be the next cash game, we are going to keep quarters in the mix and keep the same betting limits. The big difference of course will be using a bring-in, in pot limit games and only having quarters for the blinds.

But even though we were in a slightly different format, the big talk of the night was not the poker itself but the summary waterboarding of Los Angeles last night. We were warm and dry in the garage, but outside it was an absolute tempest.

I made sure to send a text out an hour before gametime that all would be forgiven if anyone had to cancel because they did not feel comfortable driving in the rain. We actually did have one person who has a low to the ground sports car and lives over the hill pass on poker last night, which is totally understandable and completely fine. Much better to be safe, and of course there’s always another game! 

Yes as you can see we had a bomb pots, every 25 minutes or so everyone would throw in three dollars and we would go straight to a flop. Made for some exciting action!

We also returned to a high hand for the night competition, which was locked up annoyingly early when Colin turned over quad aces. For the rest of the night we all basically paid a “Colin tax” of a dollar for every pot of $15 or more. In the end the grand total at 11 PM for Mr. Colin was $62, which helped him finish up for the evening instead of down.

I still think the high hand competition is a fun and worthwhile thing, we have had it on other nights where the high hand holder changed a half dozen times in the course of an evening. It’s supposed to stay competitive and stay fun, and I think it will. If anyone has any suggestions on how to tweak it a little bit, I am always open to new ideas. 

The evening started with eight players including yours truly, Mike C, Lea Anne, Priya, Allen R., Babs, Art & Colin. Barbara had an early night with a couple of bad beats, but within a half an hour Jeff G arrived to fill the seat.  Mike C was the only one to get felted several times and call it a night before midnight, but several others finished down slightly. Several others also finished up a bit, including yours truly who was in for $170 and out for $322. I think Allan R had a bit more in profit than me, he had a nice stack when he cashed out.

And that’s the great thing about Cash games, unlike tournaments where three out of four people walk out empty-handed, last night it was only a couple of players who left with nothing. Most were down a little about even or up a bit. And best of all, the cash game brought the social chatter as only cash games can. With no time limit and no escalating pressure, the atmosphere is always a lot more relaxed and jubilant. 

Hope some of you mis-reg tournament addicts will join us someday for cash, remember we will have a mix game night and a hold-Em only night every month, there’s lots of opportunities to take the plunge and discover how fun live games can be. 

Our next super fun cash game evening will indeed be mixed games, the Evite will go out in a little bit. In the meantime our next tournament is Saturday, March 11 at 5:30 PM. The Evite already went out, be sure to get a hold of me and let me know if you didn’t get it. Very much looking forward to a lot more poker in the very near future!

Until then, peace and we out!