Vegas June 2019 (WSOP)

Day 12 - HORSE

Last Updated: 2019-06-17 14:25:56

Had a typical morning, rushed around a bit to get to the HORSE tournament at 11am since I had bought in the night before to avoid the line, but then as I was getting fairly close to ready the thought popped into my head "wait a second, does this one start at 1pm?".

Yup. So I had a couple of hours to kill, got myself a couple of slices for lunch and headed over to my seat.

Didn't need to buy in the night before either. 29 people to start. It would get into the 70s eventually.

First hour and a half was card dead, very little playable. Then I got moved to form a new table. Unlike 8/b a couple of days before this table move was fine. Decent group of players, I like predictable.

That lasted about two minutes when a guy sat down who was determined to give away all his chips. Literally. Was raising blind when first in pot, flat out said it, and bet every street unless someone came over the top of him (at which point he would actually look at his cards).

I got in two pots with him, both huge pots that ended up getting chopped. Both in stud 8/b.

First hand I start out with rolled up trip 4s, catch a full house by 6th street at which point we capped the betting. I showed my full house, he showed his 3-7 straight and started to muck his hand because he didn't know it was stud 8/b, thought it was stud high, and he had a low (which I cannot have with a full house). He gets half the chips, if he just mucks his straight instead of showing it to prove he really had a hand I scoop.

Reminder: "rolled up trips", starting out with three of a kind in stud, only happens about 1 in 400 hands. Pocket aces in hold'em happen about 1 in 200 hands. It's very rare, and it's a bigger monster in stud than aces are in hold'em. The only hand you'd ever consider slow-playing in stud, tho not so much in stud 8. And as I think about it I should talk about this hand more...

I start out with 4-4-4. Thing of beauty. Someone "completes" and I reraise and get two callers. Why does someone usually raise with a 4 in stud 8/b? Because they have a strong low draw and a lot of people have face cards. Why else would you? (hehe)

My next card is a 2, it checks to me and I lead out.

So how does this look to the rest of the table? We're playing high-low and I'm pounding the pot with 4-2. What do they think I have? Why a huge low draw of course!

Next card is a Q and dude who wants to lose his chips bets into me! Why? Because he improved for high and thinks I've just caught really bad for my low draw.

I pair 2 on 6th, I've made my sneaky, sneaky boat because it looks like another terrible card for my low draw and I get betting capped! On the river I caught another Q which at that point technically improved my hand but didn't really - if 4s full of 2s weren't good 4s full of Qs aren't any better. Not like hold'em where we share cards and someone could have a better 4's full.

Long, heavy sigh when dude rolls over his low straight. This is the kind of situation you dream about in stud 8/b and he was on the one kind of hand I didn't want to run into. Oh, wow ... I just realized he caught the case f-ing four to make his straight/low! Another long, heavy sigh this morning as I'm typing this up...

Hand or two later he's showing 3 face cards and I have a made low (not positive of order but I think it was 3-5-4-7-A) with a double-gutshot. Again betting gets capped on 6th street when I catch a 2 for a wheel! Unfortunately he hit a gutshot straight draw I think was 9-K so A-5 straight good for low but not for high...

19600 at the first break.

Only 25000 chips to start in spite of the higher buyin, but a great structure. Almost every betting level was played twice in a row so it was going to be a fairly "deep" stack tournament. Of course stack size doesn't matter as much in limit games, but still when you're deep you can take a little more variance now and then.

Shortly after break I take down a couple of Razz pots at 5th street when I caught good and they caught bad both times. The first one I had a legit made 7- or 8-low by 5th street (not sure), second one I was semi-bluffing with 3-6 hidden and a 4-7-6 board.

(As always, when I show a stud hand the order of the cards will be my two down cards followed by the board in the order it showed up, followed by my final down card)

On to stud high. Start out with T-8-T and my ten was the biggest card on the board. I think someone else completed so I reraised.

At a competent table most people who enter pots in stud high have pairs, most pairs involve the "door card". If you have the biggest door card and you have a pair, you generally have the best pair. That means you should be raising when action gets to you (which means you should always complete or reraise as appropriate). Simple game right?

But...I never improve, someone else catches two pair.

Get them right back in the opposite situation. I raise out with 7-8-9, small cards and two queens behind me so figuring they're less likely to have a pair (which is not correct I learned later that night! If you see two people with same door card MORE likely someone has a pair! I have to adjust strategy!) so I raise out and a baby card goes over the top!

Alarm bells! A big hidden pair! I call...

Long story short I improve to two pair, I start leading out, end up with three pair with 7-8-9-8-7-X-9 and he rolls over his unimproved AA.

I roughly break even on the two hands.

On to Razz and I start out with 2-4-A, guy completes, I raise, he 3-bets, me and another guy call. See my 8-game entry ... I probably shouldn't have reraised, he definitely shouldn't have 3-bet.

I catch a 6, he catches a king, I bet, he calls. I catch a 2, he doesn't know I have another 2, I bet hoping to get rid of him, he calls. I pair my 4, he now bets, I call. I pair my ace on the river. Are you kidding me???? 3-pair (2-4-A-6-2-4-A), I have to play a pair, I lose to a king because he also paired.

Fucking Razz.

Before that hand I was a good bit above starting stack, that just dropped me back to starting stack. We actually played a little quickly after that and wrap back around to 8/b in only about 15 minutes. And I finally get a big hand.

Start out A-2-5-K with K-5 of clubs. 3-way flop comes 2-3-K two clubs. Lots of betting and raising to this point. Turn pairs the 2, river is a face card, I get two more streets of betting and scoop a sizeable pot with my full house.

Back to Razz again. Start out with 2-4-3 vs a 2, again we 3-bet, my board goes 2-8-A while he gets 9-8-9 so I have a made 8 against at best a made 9 and his best case scenario is an 8. I river a 6, he goes away.

LOVE RAZZ!!!

25,500 at the next break.

4.5 hours into the tournament Mr Tom McEvoy sat down at my table as a late reg. I've read a few of his books, also played with him before (I believe in a HORSE tournament definitely at MGM Grand, there's definitely a BLOG but I'd have to find it...).

Unfortunately not long after he sat down things started to go a little south.

I raise out with Q-T suited in spades in Hold'Em, two callers. Flop comes 4-4-3 with two spades. I lead out and get raised, call. Check-call a blank turn and a Queen river only to be shown pocket 3s for a full house. Drawing dead, perfect river for the guy to get paid. Probably would have gotten paid more if a spade had come so I guess I should be happy about the queen.

Moments after that Mrs Linda Johnson joins the table in a table balance.

On to Omaha 8/b, on the button I decide to raise out with A-4-8-Q with a suited ace. Admittedly not a great hand but a decent blind stealing hand. Both blinds call unfortunately.

Flop comes A-Q-2. Checks to me, about as good a flop as I could ask for so I bet my top-two, crappy low draw. Call, call. Turn a J, again checks to me, again I bet top two hoping this looks scary, call, call. I'm surely ahead, but they're getting the right price probably. River is a 3.

Small blind checks, big blind can't get a bet out fast enough. This dude has not once in hours led out OOP without a big hand. He was drawing to a wheel (probably had 3-4-5 or something close) and caught his card. I have to go away and just like that down to 16k on those last two hands.

Very next hand I look down at KK95. With a very deep stack I limp and hope to get lucky, but short stacked have to fold. Flop a K, river a K, quads would have scooped a nice pot.

I'm not results oriented, but that doesn't mean a I can't lament the situation now and then. Hate when I do the right thing and I should have done the wrong thing. But ... I keep doing the right thing... :-)

Get a little back on a small pot, don't really remember the hand.

F-ing Razz. Start out with 3-4-6 vs a ten who I guess didn't believe me raising out preflop with my short stack. I catch a 9, he catches a Q. I bet my 9 draw heavily dominating this guy. I pair my 3, but he doesn't know that so I bet hoping a big bet (and I'm still dominating) will scare him off but no. Then I catch a K and he catches good so I have to stop betting.

I river a 3. With three of a kind I have to play the K and lose to his ten low.

Fucking Razz.

As you can see I have a love-hate relationship with Razz.

For the record, anyone on the planet who plays mixed games a lot and loves playing mixed games has a love-hate relationship with Razz. Every last one of us...

So the next hand I play is going to get me back in it or cripple me, I'm down to 11K. Limits are 800/1600 so one hand of stud with just a completion plus one bet on every street is a total of 6400, and that's without any raising.

Stud high I've got split jacks with a king. McEvoy raises out with a 3, I raise, he 3-bets, I call. OK he's either got a hidden pair, probably better than JJ, or he's rolled up with 3s.

He picks up a 5, I catch a 3. He bets, I call. I pick up another three and now we're in big bet territory. I believe one other 5 was dead. He catches one of my jacks, I catch another three.

At this point I've made two pair. McEvoy cannot be rolled up, a 5 is dead and jacks are dead. I have to be ahead, I bet, he calls.

I catch a blank I don't remember, he catches a K. I have a K and I also believe a K was folded preflop. Ks are dead! I bet, he calls.

River brings me no help. I bet, he raises, I have to call. I guess I could have gotten away from it but I think I was too invested. He rolls over three aces. He caught an ace on the river.

He had soooo few outs. A 3, two 5s, one J, one K and two aces. All his two pair cards were so dead. 7 outs. And he had to know I had two pair...

Long, heavy sigh.

I'm crippled down to 2200. Get all my chips in in stud 8/b with two low cards (I was down to 1600 because the couple of hands before were worse and I had to ante...), pick up a good low draw on 4th street but catch another face card, an 8 and then another 8 so crappy pair of 8s and I'm looking at someone with 99 showing in a 4 way pot. Done.

For Monday I did have brief thoughts of playing PLO over at Rio. But I decided the smarter choice was hold'em possibly twice at Aria today instead. Two tournaments with a better chance of getting to a good payout instead of one big one with a long road to admittedly a huge payout is the better decision.

I'll be registering late for their 11am, and if that doesn't go well I'll jump into the 7pm.