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2008/2010 WSOP
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HORSE $3000, posted 6-20-10 |
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Back on the Horse Starting event #37, I was very relieved not to see my Greek dealer Michael at my table who has been my first dealer at my other 2 less than lucky tournaments. I did have a dealer named Michael who said he would try to redeem the unluckiness of the name. both Michaels seemed quite nice and were fine dealers. A french-speaking man with a perfectly coiffed beard sat in seat one. I was in 2 and a Swedish talkative guy was in seat 3. And that was all. There 3 other stacks of $9000 in chips but no players and we started. The guy in 3 had the greatest advantage as he had best position to pick up the dead money, plus he seemed very aggressive. During this part of the action, I did surprisingly well, hitting 3 or so holdem hands and being the table expert at omaha. We had a ski-hatted tattooed guy come to seat 4 and guy who looked like our friend Dave sit in seat 7. Though their stacks had been blinded off, for some reason the floor came and refunded the blinds that had been taken. Ski hat seemed very hippity skippity, and had a heated and snotty interchange with our French gentleman that he kept bringing up. In stud, he raised up with a king showing–I had the bring-in with a trey but had pocket 7's. I hit a 7 on 4th street and started betting it and surprisingly, he didn’t raise. He hit a king on 6th and started betting, and I stayed with in case he was just very optimistic with a smaller pair originally, but he ended up with kings full and I guess fortunately for me, my 7's didn’t fill. We got some sort of European gentleman in seat 5 (in shorts, do they never outgrow the desire for lieterhosen?) and a New Zealand pro in 6, who was card frisky and table friendly. The five seat did not get the refund of his blinds and the pro got a whole new stack of fresh $9000 which was like being refunded so wtf. The 8 seat stayed empty until level 3. On the second level stud, seat 4 and I tangled again. I had an ace showing with kings under and raised it up. He called with a 9 showing. He straightened out with black cards, but nothing too threatening while I had ace, king, jack, six of diamonds plus the pair of kings. On the river, I hit the 10 of diamonds for the flush and checked it to seat 4 just as I had with trip 7's and he bet and I checked raised what I thought was either a straight, 2 pair or possibly a low flush. He called and was crippled with a hand he didn’t show. But I for sure had a target on me then. You could see the waves of steam come off him. I ended level 2 with $11,000 from the original 9000. At level 3, Chris Ferguson, oh yeah, main event champ of 2000, came to our table in seat 8. Pretty much all the pros came in at level 3 with the full $9000, Howard Lederer, Jenn Harmon, Doyle and Todd Brunson, Joe Hachem. Ellie Elezra, Marcel Lusk (though he had been in since the beginning) Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, Scotty Nguyen. Chris knew the pro in seat 6. I raised in stud, level 4 with a pair of kings under a jack up, and a nine was the only one to stay with me. I led the action all the way and on sixth street had the kings plus 4 clubs, plus an inside draw to the ace-high straight. 6 seat looked like a straight. My under card was a third king, so I checked and called and of course, he had the straight. That took a big chunk out of me and I was down to $5000, not from wild play, but just from the high stakes of the level. At stud-8, level 4 I raised with a pair of fours and a six up and was called wildly by hands that mainly looked like they were going for low. I hit a 10 on fourth street and a six low bet and we called. On fifth street, I hit a second 10 and bet it, and it looked like I had 2 low draws staying with me. On the river, I hit a miracle 10 and bet. The 6 who had bet before raised and the one seat thought for a long time and called. I raised again thinking the other raiser and I would be splitting for high and low and taking the one seat's money. One seat folded and the 6 showing had been rolled 6's that filled with jacks and my full house was higher, and the guy who looked like our friend Dave was all but out. 3 more hands and he was done. We had a dealer come in our 6th hand of stud and he started counting down the hands the wrong direction, giving us extra hands of stud. I don’t believe anyone else noticed and it was totally to my advantage so that round was HORSSSE, 12 hands instead of 8. I finished at the meal break with $13275 Rounds five and 6 were very up and down. Unlike most of my play, I decided to play in stud-8 with a king, 6, 4 of spades with the king showing. 2 low draws stayed with me. When on 5th strees, they had both hit bricks twice, I bluffed with my king and won the pot, with no help to spaded or king. I also made a nice hand with aces and a low to scoop a pot. For all that, the rates were so high that playing any hand was extremely expensive. I maybe got as high as 17000, but also as low as 8000. We ground out the ski hat in 4 who was replaced by Annie Duke. She’s all she appears to be, table captain, labelled by Ultimate Bet, alternates between appearing disinterested and staring daggers. Comments for everything. Hard not to want to beat her which might be part of her strategy. Something about her eclectic appearance says Russian mobster’s gypsy girlfriend. In her monolog of how she would never trash anyone, a long harangue about how people pester her with their bad beat stories. Her aggression at the table would have been very tolerable except she was an amplifier of seat three’s aggression, so everything came around with a double whammy at the stratospheric levels. I ended up playing 2 hands of omaha with great starting hands, both of which went nowehre and went from about $13000 to $8000. I was then trying to get out of holdem alive when at level 8, 600/1200, I was in the big blind for 600. Seat 3 raises to 1200, Annie raises to 1800, and I look down at queen, jack offsuit. I actually think about it, since this is about the best hand I’ve seen in 2 rounds, but then think, do I just want to play this because Annie is musculing around and wouldn’t it be better to let the bully in seat 3 knock her out. I fold, the flop comes jack 4, 5, tutti-fruity, then jack, queen. My hypothetical full house would have beat Annie’s pocket 10's and seat 3's pocket 8's but it would have taken all my chips to play that hand. The same situation comes up at the end of omaha: in the blind for $600, seat three raises to 1200, Annie to 1800 and I look down at jack, nine of clubs, and 8,9 of spades. The only thing really going for it is double suited. Not even that connected and missing the 10, the magic straight card as all straights have either a 5 or a 10. What would you do? It will take all your chips. I folded. The flop comes 4 of hearts, jack of spades, queen of spades. The turn, 10 of spades. The river, king of spades. They tie with ace, king each for an ace high straight while I would have made a straight flush. I’m now on life support and pick a razz hand, 5,6,7 and lose to a 76. Very frustrating as I could have made something work but it would have been very bad poker. Had I been shorter stacked that I had no choice, I’d have been better off. |
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Sorry to have been so incommunicato, but I picked up a bug and pretty much slept for 2 days, just started on food again yesterday. The HORSE tournament. Thrown and stomped. The first 2 rounds went well, and I liked my table. One of the guys there had made a deep run into the 7 stud hilo tourney and we had watched him play at Phil Ivey’s table with a monster stack. He hit some rough patches after that though and still made the money. Some Austrian Full Tilt pro was at the table, but not that intimidating as this didn’t seem to be his best game, but maybe that was an act. So after the first 3 rounds, I’d worked my chips up to 6300 from 4500. Rounds 3 and 4 were still ok as I stayed above average and finished for the meal break with 5400. Where the wheels started to come off the wagon was in round 5. We came back into Razz and I ended up in a three-way pot with a draw to a smooth 6 (6, 3,2,ace) and someone else who appeared to have a 7 low made and a 3rd guy clearly on a draw. One the river, I hit a 5 for a 6,5,3,2,ace. 7-low checks, (he also had ace, 2,4,7 as his upcards, so I thought he could have a draw to a perfect low ace,2,3,4,5) so I checked and drawing guy bets. 7-low thinks a really long time and calls. I know I have 7-low beat, but have no idea where drawing guy is. I call too and drawing guy had ace, 2,3,4,5. At that level a huge pot of 7-8 thousand and I go from healthy to 2500. I worked it back up with a couple ace,king’s at holdem, and aces at stud, but was still around 4 to 5 thousand when we went into omaha. in round 6. Every hand was raised, and if I threw away a garbage hand, it made a big full house or quads. If I played a premium hand, I got slaughtered. Ace, Ace, deuce, 7, double-suited to each ace, went down hard. I went into razz with $1200. I had already had my only rolled trips (queens) in razz, the one place you really don’t want them, and here in round 6 I get my second set, rolled eights in razz again. In about the 4th hand I get ace, 3,4 and go all in for my last chips against 3,4,5 and he makes a 6 low and I make a 98. All done. Extremely brutal. The only recognizable person at my table was after stud hilo guy busted out, a Russian guy who doesn’t know a lot of English came. I recognized him from the 2008 main event coverage (I think) as having a run-in at Phil Ivey’s table where he moved a whole stack forward and then moved it back and then made a smaller bet. The table called for the floor as that was forward motion, but the supervisor ruled that since he never took his hand off the stack, that it was a legal bet and was still part of counting off. This made a big splash at the table and eventually Russian guy reacted to the abuse, in Russian, which got him a warning for non-English. He was just as aggressive here, and I was able to check-raise him a couple times. There was quite the bimbet in seat 1 I was very sorry not to outlast. I think she might have learned HORSE online as she never knew what to bet, had trouble handling and sorting her chips and never seemed to know when she was beat. I took her a few times, but would have liked to play her more. Saturday, will be time to get back on the horse again. Hopefully for a better ride. |
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For anyone who wants to follow the running commentary and chip counts, here is the link: http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=764&tid=10852 Don't worry if you don't see Coralee's name in the chip counts as they typically only follow the 'name' players until it gets down to the final couple of tables. |
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$1500 HORSE posted 6-16-10 |
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Well, I’m about to head off for the $1500 HORSE event, #31, 5pm Vegas time, 7pm to Minnesotans. I don’t know how everyone will be with poker jargon, so I’ll try to go over some here. I hope the rest will be in context enough to make sense. HORSE is a mixed game which is played with 8 players at the table. Each game has 8 hands played which then repeats for the 60 minute round. Wherever you are in the rotation when the round ends, you continue on at the higher limits of the next round. It’s a limit game which means you can’t just push your chips into the middle and say "All in" like with no limit holdem on TV. But the limits go up continually, so unless you keep pace with inflation by winning chips, it begins to play like no limit anyway. The game is: H-limit holdem, 2 cards in hand, 5 on the table, best 5 carded high hand wins. O-omaha hilo, also called omaha 8, 4 cards in hand, 5 on the table, best high hand made from 2 and only 2 cards from your hand, and 3 cards from the table wins high, best 2 from your hand and 3 from the table to make a five-carded low under 8 high can split half the pot. There’s not always a low and you don’t have to use the same 2 cards from your hand for high and low. Best low is ace, 2,3,4,5. R-razz, a 7 card stud low ball game. Straights and flushes don’t interfere with the low and there is no minimum low, king high or even a pair could still win if everyone else’s low is worse. Ace, 2,3,4,5 is best hand. S-7 card stud high only. E-7 card stud hilo split, also called stud eight, thus the E in horse. The low is like in omaha, 5 unpaired cards under 8, you don’t need to use the same 5 cards for high and low and best low is ace,2,3,4,5. We’ll start with $4500 in tournament chips as we did in the stud hilo. This is based on triple the buy-in price. It was double when I played in 2008. I’m very happy with my draw, seat 5, right in the middle of the table to see everything. I expect a large field, 1000 or so, and a lot of the heavies unless they’re occupied elsewhere with a no limit tournament. Wish me luck, say a little prayer, whatever you think will work. |
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Hello All, The first day of tournament play and celebrity sighting:
Daniel Negraneau who is even skinnier than he looks on TV
Ted Forrest who is not as pumpkin-headed as he looks on TV
Annie Duke who is as 1980's looking as she looks on TV
Andy Bloch, who I knocked of the 2008 Holdem Shootout and passed by me without recognition
Marcel Lusk who is as dapper as he looks on TV except his iron-on poker stars patch on his sleeve was peeling off
Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem who looked exactly as you would expect them to At my table, none of the biggies, which is good. I was in the three seat with a kid I had seen on TV to my right.
A bit pumpkin-headed himself, lots of jewelry and talk. Berating the dealers, full of stories about
mammoth pots, bad beats, robberies, cheaters, and the unethical running of the WSOP. I may now be deaf
in my right ear. Still, a good place for him and his aggression, on my right. Across from me in the 7 seat was a guy Ray was calling Saide because he looked like the guy from Lost.
His name was David and he knew all the dealers and massage therapists, esp. the female ones.
Micheal Mizrachi, who just owon the $50,000 8-game Chip Reese Championship, stopped by to wish him luck.
Later, Ray said his name was David Levy. He was very hippity-skippity in his play and spent much of the
first three levels on the phone, roaming around the room, possibly on his phone or sleeping. We started with $4500 in tournament chips and for the first 2 levels, I did really well staying out
of losing hands, scooping or splitting all the hands I was in but one:
I had the bring in with a deuce and jacks underneath. I stayed until 6th street, looking like I
wanted a low, until another low-seeker hit and ace which I thought paired him. (I was right.)
I scooped with straight and a low, 2 pair and a low several times. At the first break, I was up to $6275. which I called to report to Ray, who told me he was busy moving
us to a new room in the hotle and the fire alarms were going off and he could see smoke.
Down the hall from our new room on the 16th floor, a light above a room door had burned up, as in
burst into flame and bits of burning plastic had scorched the carpet and caught the door on fire.
Security or somebody had broken the glass and gotten out the fire house,
though that seemed not to have been used and the fire extinguisher, which did seem to have been used.
My chip report did nto interest him at that time. For levels 3 and 4 I went card dead and while I managed to stay out of trouble, I couldn't find three
cards to rub together. Meanwhile, David went a card-rack tear, rolled eights which filled, every raggedy low,
calling the completion bets of aces and kings with jacks to make 2 pair and win.
People say it is better to be lucky than good. At the meal break after level 4, I was at $5500 chips which was above the $5200 average.
There had been 644 players and we were down to 550 or so. I hit several speed bumps after the break and while I managed to eek out some wins with queens and
a low, I was on various levles of life support from then. A few key hands could have made a big difference:
5,6,7,8 of spades then brick, brick, brick.
Ace, 3, 7, to make a pair of 7's at the end.
and the hand that knoced me out in level 8, 4,6,7 of hearts to make 2 pair, 4's and 6's.
though David Levy could prove me wrong, you can't win a tournament only on luck, but you
cant' win without it either. I think i did all that I could to pilot the boat, but at the end of the
the day, she sank. I went out in level 8, finishing in about 240th, 2/3''s of the way through the field. |
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