Yup, more stories with a capital P

Shown: two nights ago, after poker with Ed, Mark and Dominik. Ed won $10 from Mark. I won $5 from him. Although just one win out of 3, it was a great win for me. With a K high flush on the turn, bet about 2x pot. Ed sheepishly asked if I would show him the cards if he folded, I responded with a resolute no. Ed though about it, went all-in with ace high, which I too quickly called. Ed wasn't too upset about it, not as upset as Mark, who cried at Ed for giving me the huge chip lead. If you cry like a loser, I'll bet on you to become one.

Poker last night at the Hawaian Garden, about 5-6 hours of 1-2 hold'em with Mark. Ed and Dominik played blackjack, paigow, and $100 buy-in no limit. From the last few orbits that I saw, Ed's play was surprisingly good with several very tricky gear shifts. He played tight in the beginning (from when I started to watch), folding A6o to small 2x blind raise, folding QTo to no raise--hands that he would've gone all in at our home games. Then he started to catch some cards--and I mean catching hole cards AND friendly flops--44 with 4 on the flop, JJ with no overcard, QQ with J high flop, A3o with A high (against an unraised big blind). Then all hell broke loose. People were afraid to bet into him, and he bluffed a couple of hands with next to nothing, and checked more than his share of maginal hands to the river (55 wins a small pot against 3 overcards). Even pulled off and showed a semi-bluff to the table: the board showed both flush and straight possibility, it was obvious that both Ed and the Angel hat unabomber were drawing at something with their 4 to 1 pot-size bets and timid calls; river was a J that would've completed both a flush and a straight; unabomber checks, Ed overbets $80 into a $30-$40 pot. Unabomber folds and turns over his Q high straight, Ed slaps down his Q high straight along with some commentary (it would've been a very, very impressive play, putting maximum pressure on straight, ignorant straight, and even low flushes--if he had known that he didn't have the best hand, which he later admitted that he didn't; so in the end it was a very, very dumb play). Ed ened up with, counting his paigow and blackjack losses, plus 91.

Dominik didn't do so well. I only saw him win one small hand with a set, and several limp-in attempts held up. Which is to be expected I guess: you can't really sit down at a $100 buy-in no limit game with just $100 as the 2-1 short stack against half of the table. He said he was down about 2 bills. Despite all that Dominik seemed to play with more composure (or maybe it was just misread resignation) than fidgety Ed.

Mark did exceptionally well with plus 70 or 80. I have no idea how the hell he does so well at 1-2. He claimed that he bluffed his share, which I saw no evidence of. Even if he did, I only remember the tabled folded to him once, maybe twice. He showed down at least 15 hands to every supposedly successful bluff (which, I guess, is a good bluff ratio for the table). Well, I suppose there were some shown down hands that would've been bluffs if not for the friendly turn or river or both. There were some unfriendly ones, but they resulted in chops--which Mark got visibly upset about, and I mean slap-the-table upset--that's the kind of night he was having. The one play that was particularly memorable was a shown down K high complete bluff(KJo or KQo)--but you still need to catch cards for these posturing/advertising maneuvers to gain action later.

I won exactly 10 dollars. My biggest pot was an A high flush that I chased all the way to the river against a Q high flush made on the flop, with at least $30 and a very displeased Asian lady in that pot (she can be upset all she wants, my flush chase was a by the book no brainer; with 4 players in a raised pot and 3 remaining on turn, I had more than enough pot odds to bet and call a 2-1 draw on the flop and 4-1 draw on the turn; it would've been stupid not to draw at the nut flush). The Asian lady was solid and tricky: checked her top-pair until the river to hustle a big bet out of my Ace high, and yet showed down the bottom pair against the loosy-goosy Armenian. I caught her watching me through her orange-tinted glasses many times after I looked up from my hole cards. Subsequently I gave her a good share of my own stare down as well. Besides her, the rest of the table were filled with obvious fish. $10 for 5-6 hours of 1-2 worked out to be exactly 1 big bet per hour, which isn't bad for a now professed grinder like me, but I would still rather catch a hot deck and double up like Mark did.

I still don't understand how he pulls off huge wins like this, 3 out of 4 times now. I guess it can't be all luck, but I just didn't see the skill in filling up full houses.