Happy New Year

I had a somewhat mixed start to the new year on the gambling front. Thursday was the 1st and the phone rang early with info on "a good thing for Crayford" and another strongly fancied second runner for the same trainer. Now I'm more of an on course punter than a betting shop man but when this guy rings I make the trip to town or get on the phone and on Thursday I went to the shop to watch both dogs run. But a 4th and 6th place finish--the "good thing" was sixth!!! didn't exactly ring in the new year for me. But like any punter I didn't sit on the sideline for long. Tom was hosting our first house game of the year eleven of us sitting down with 11,000 starting stack and a 20 min. clock. We where only on the 75-150 level when a massive pot hit with two all-ins took place. Jim raised to 400 from early position and was called by Liam in middle position. I picked up pocket 5s in the big blind and joined the party. Flop comes j-h 10-h 5-s. Hitting my set I bet out 700 Jim re raised me to 2000, I'm putting him on ace jack and doesn't want me drawing to a flush or straight I'm happy. But then Liam calls, I'd go with a flush draw but now we have a real big pot and I want it. I shove the rest of my stack into the middle. I had started the hand with the chip lead of over 13,500 and pulling this down now will leave me very strong with my two most feared opponents on the back foot. What happened next was not part of the plan. Jim called with a stack between 9,000 and 10,000 now I'm thinking trip jacks or tens I'm in big trouble AND THEN Liam calls with just over 12,000 WHATS HAPPENING. Could he still be on that flush draw??? I turn over my pocket pair sure that I'm about to be crippled. Jim turns over Ace Jack-no heart WHAT, and Liam shows the Queen and Nine of Hearts for an open ended straight flush draw fair enough he has a bucket of outs but it looks a lot better than I was expecting. Turn comes a black 3 and the river is 5 of diamonds YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Two of the strongest players out and I have a monster stack yea I'm happy.
I have to explain Jim's call. It wouldn't be fair to let it go without comment. Jim is my twin brother and we talk poker all the time. We always tell each other what our thinking on a game is and how we intend to play certain hands in an upcoming game. Well all week I'm telling Jim that if I hit a set on the flop when I am not the open raiser that I am going to bet out and what do you know??? Jim just happens to be the that "open raiser"!! Of course Now he thinks I'm putting a play on him--as if I would risk my chip lead on a monster bluff?? ME!! So sometimes knowing what your opponent is at can work against you.
Back to the game. After that big hand the carnage continued and I strangely got a little sidelined. James (my nephew) took center stage and only two hours into the game we are down to four. James and I have a reasonable chip lead over Tom and Maggie but as its so early I suggest a deal as it lets the other 7 back in for a second tournament on the night. We carve it up and everyone its in again slightly smaller stacks same clock but we start the blinds at 100-200. To cut a long story short Maggie took it down Sean K. runner up and again I cashed in third. Maggie is on a good run having loosened up her game a little bit while still able to take advantage of her image as THE ROCK. What she really has done is bring her online game to the live table and it is working time.