O-Poker

I turned on my laptop last night around 7:30 and, on a whim, decided to play a $35+$3 satellite for the Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. tourney on Full Tilt Poker. I had never played a HORSE tourney before, but have played all the games. I won the satellite and was on my way to my first ever HORSE tourney - the $215 Sunday Night HORSE tourney on FTP.

I'm sure most of the people reading this know what games are included, but for the rest:

H - Limit Holdem
O - Limit Omaha H/L
R - Razz
S - Stud
E - Stud H/L

I would say that Holdem and Razz were definitely my strong suits. Omaha H/L was probably my weakest game. I have actually played 1 Razz tourney and made the money in that tourney.

I got off to a good start when I made a A-5 straight flush in Stud 8/better and got paid off. It was all downhill from there. I became the short stack pretty quickly after I had two big starting hands in Razz that turned into horrible hands. A24 became A24KJ; A35 with the Ace up became A35AJ. I had to lay both of them down when my opponent in the hand caught low card - low card. Razz can be frustrating, but I actually like it.

I was in the bottom 4 from about 28 players on with 16 places getting paid. I had only one goal at that point and it was to at least squeak into the money and see what happens from there. I played very patiently. As we got down to the bubble (17 players), we were back to holdem. I am not sure how the button is decided in the holdem round, but I had to post the $1k BB as the game switched. I literally got no cards and folded all the way around to my BB again. I was just about all in and was going to have to go with any 2 cards. I was dealt 93o and it actually folded around to me. Strange - but I'm not complaining. Two hands later, it folds to me on the button and I'm dealt 33. Another short stack is in the BB. We get all our chips in and my 33 holds up against his Q4. This hand allowed me to squeak into the money.

I was saying Razz was one of my strong suits (as compared to some of the other players), but it also cost me most of my chips. When we were down to 11 players, I get dealt A5J with a 5 showing. It folds around to me two to the right of the bring in bet. I raise, commiting myself. The guy to my left re-raises. I call all-in. My A5J vs. his 1024. I made one of my best hands of the Aces full of Jacks. Too bad we were playing Razz.

Not a bad night for never having played HORSE before. I finished 11th for $508 on a $38 investment.

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The $50k Challenge is progressing well and I will update my stats for the 1st month on Wednesday.

cmitch