Aug 04 2008
A SLOW Game… No Raising Allowed
Played in a small home game this weekend at the house. Some buddies that I hadn’t seen in quite a while and after dinner we decided to play a couple tourneys in the basement. First game was 6 handed and I immediately noticed something… no one was raising. Limp, limp, limp. Naturally the next hand that I had I switched gears and popped it up before the flop. What I got was completely unexpected… 5 callers! Now you and I both know that there was no way that all 5 players had a hand that could withstand a raise. But nonetheless, we went to the flop 6 handed. I made top pair on the flop and fired away. 4 callers… something fishy going on here. My hand did not improve on the turn so I decided to check. The rest of the table checked and we were off to the river. I made a small bet on the river and was called by one player who had caught two pair on the river (both smaller than my top pair, but two pair regardless). Needless to say I was a bit miffed, but I don’t bitch about luck in poker so it was off to the next hand.
The evening continued with no raises and tons of limping. I also quickly realized that there was no bluffing allowed in this game either. I realized this when I put a bet out on the river (thinking I was bluffing with 4th pair on the board) and got called… by A high. So even though I took that pot down I was not happy about the situation I’d found myself in.
- No raising before or after the flop.
- All bluffs were being called.
This left me in a situation where I was forced to sit back and wait for a hand. I managed to be hanging in there until I got my favorite hand in the big blind:
I of course checked when it was limped around to me and got a dream flop:
This is the beauty of a hand like 74 — NO ONE sees it coming when you flop a big hand. Of course, more often than not you flop nothing, but that’s another post entirely 
The small blind checked and I made a modest bet. I of course was called by two players and the small blind actually released his hand.
The turn came a 
and the river came a 
leaving no straight and no flush possibilities out there. The only real hand I was worried about at this point was QJ which was a real possibility in this game cause of so much limping. I made a big bet on the river (about a quarter of my stack) and got called by AQ which was music to my ears.
More about this game later…
