Dynamite Game

I few weeks ago I wrote a post bemoaning the demise of the NYC club scene. FTrain called me chicken little and seems to have been right as the scene seems to be slowly reawakening in the aftermath of the FührerMayor's reelection.

At any rate I was genuinely concerned that I was not going to have a decent live game closer than a 2 hour drive down the Garden State Parkway. The low stakes home game I used to play in that had run over from law school typically featured 3-5-7 over hold'em and was not conducive to improving one's game. More to the point, the host recently relocated to California. So I began putting out feelers for a new game with buyins at or around the baby NL level spread in the clubs.

FTrain and the bloggers in New York that I know didn't seem know of such a game and hosting one is impractical for me since no one wants to make the trek under the Hudson (from the average New Yorker, you'd think New Jersey was across the Continental Divide). So I was quite happy to receive a comment to my post that with a little more effort yielded an invite to the legendary Kid Dynamite's home game.

Who the fuck is Kid Dynamite you ask?

(Well, at least that's what I asked.)

I think he can tell you about himself better than I can.

So I really had no idea exactly what I was getting into when he e-mailed me a West Village address. I told the Korean ATM and asked him if he were interested in checking out the game in his downtime from hitting 4700 hours at BigFirm--he painted an image of me locked in a closet with a choker in my mouth (Who's Zed? Zed's dead baby Zed's dead). I can't say I was quite that worried, but I did quickly doff my Red Sox hat at the door in case I was about to make a first impression on some Yankee nut.

No fears as he answered in a Red Sox cap and a Pats sweatshirt (I should have reread his blog on that account). Moreover, I knew him from Playstation days. Right up to Black Thursday, we probably played 20 or 30 hours together, including one hand that he kept mentioning to me everytime we met back then where he had called my preflop bet, flopped a straight flush, bet out and saw me fold (I think I had suited connectors).

Good news: less concern about waking up with my hands tied behind the back.

Bad news: this didn't look like it was going to be a fish pond.

Addtional good news: KD has a very nice pad, proper poker tables, and "Kid Dynamite" custom made chips complete with KK on the face (Kid Dynamite doesn't need rockets).

Game was to be 1-2PLHE 200 max buyin, but we only had 3 players to start, KD, Brett and myself so we started a warm up 1-2PL freeze out with 25 chips. That was the highlight of my session as I got very good 3-handed cards and managed to book a whopping 8 profit when Alex, our fourth player, arrived and we just converted our freeze out chips in front of us to regular chips.

Most memorable hand that I wasn't involved in: KD rereraises all-in over the top Greg/Gary (sorry names are foggy) for a pot of over 300. KD flips over AQ clubs and Greg/Gary King Kong. Flop is Q77. Turn is 7. River is 7. Ouch. Counterfeited by quads. That's got to hurt.

Session went from there, with JJ being the best preflop cards I got for the afternoon (took down small pot preflop). I did get to drop a fake hammer (suited) on Brett for a nice pot taken down on the turn, but generally met with little success as the table wised up to the fact that I was pushing with some dubious hands. Memorable hand of this vein:

Dealt J8 spades UTG, I made the standard opening (pot for 7) and got both blinds as callers (big blind was Greg/Gary). Flop was two spades with a king queen. Trying the old semi-bluff, I led out with 20. Lost the small blind but the big blind wasn't going anywhere--so much for Plan A. Plan B part 1 worked as he checked the blank turn to me, giving me the free card I wanted but part 2 failed as the river was an offsuit ace. I figured I'd try Plan C with a river "value bet" bluff of 30, figuring he's got to fold unless he has an ace there (can't put him on set or two pair here with the free cards he'd been giving me). Figured wrong, as after a long swim in the think tank he illustrated the definition of no respect: preflop UTG raise and continuation bet, AKQ board and called down with TT.

It's not always bad when the table comes to believe you never have the goods, but for this to help, you do need to starting getting some cards, and Mrs. SoxLover and waiting mother called me back to Jersey before this could happen. I'll just have to hope they'll remember my fishy play next time (well, reading this will probably help).

It was a fun time and a great place to spread a game, if not the highest EV table. Thanks KD, I hope to be back again.