From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

I was playing a little HORSE yesterday and made a read/laydown that might be standard/uninteresting for serious Stud/8 players but that made me happy. The villain, Berry Johnston, won the 1986 WSOP main event, and actually he and I played together live at Day 1 of the 2006 WSOP, though I'm sure he doesn't know that.

Frankly, he's pretty loose in Razz and Stud/8, so I didn't make too much of the fact that he called two bets cold on 3rd street. His 3-bet out of nowhere on 4th street threw up some red flags, though. At first I was concerned he might have rolled-up 3's, but obviously 5th street eliminated that possibility. However, his next most likely hand was a buried pair bigger than Q's.

Even with the pot as big as it was, I wasn't getting anywhere near the right odds to chase after two pair. For one thing, if my read was correct, Queens up would be no good anyway. And there was only one Queen left in the deck, so my odds of drawing to trips were pretty slim.

FullTiltPoker Game #7320121581: Table Hill (6 max) - $10/$20 Ante $1.50 - Limit Stud H/L - 20:19:34 ET - 2008/07/21
Seat 1: FanProphet ($521)
Seat 2: spadez67 ($89.10)
Seat 3: Berry Johnston ($300.25)
Seat 4: Pink DuffleBag ($2,307)
Seat 6: Foucault ($573.25)

*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs] [Qh]
Dealt to FanProphet [Qc]
Dealt to spadez67 [Td]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c]
Berry Johnston is low with [3c]
Berry Johnston brings in for $3
Pink DuffleBag completes it to $10
Foucault raises to $20
FanProphet folds
spadez67 folds
Berry Johnston calls $17
Pink DuffleBag calls $10

*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs Qh] [4c]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c] [Qd]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c] [7d]
Foucault checks
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $10
Foucault raises to $20
Berry Johnston raises to $30
Pink DuffleBag calls $20
Foucault calls $10

*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ks Qs Qh 4c] [3s]
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c Qd] [3d]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c 7d] [2h]
Berry Johnston bets $20
Pink DuffleBag calls $20
Foucault has 15 seconds left to act
Foucault folds

*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Berry Johnston [3c Qd 3d] [Th]
Dealt to Pink DuffleBag [5c 7d 2h] [4s]
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $20
Berry Johnston calls $20

*** 7TH STREET ***
Berry Johnston checks
Pink DuffleBag bets $20
Berry Johnston calls $20

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Pink DuffleBag shows [Ac Kh 5c 7d 2h 4s Ts] Ace King high, for high and 7,5,4,2,A, for low
Berry Johnston shows [Ah Ad 3c Qd 3d Th 8c] two pair, Aces and Threes, for high
Berry Johnston wins the high pot ($137.25) with two pair, Aces and Threes
Pink DuffleBag wins the low pot ($137.25) with 7,5,4,2,A


For what it's worth, Pink's play here is pretty awful on 3rd and 4th streets. AK5 is garbage for a starting hand, especially from first position with several babies left to act behind you.

Labels: HORSE, poker, poker strategy, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Sweet run, bro, congratulations. Rouhani wins it, but Chambers down 140K for 2nd. Not too freaking shabby.

Labels: O8, poker, Stud/8, wsop

Stumble It!

Tom Chambers, 2+2's LearnedFromTV, has just made the final table of WSOP Event 10! It's a $2500 tournament that alternates between Omaha 8-or-better split and Stud 8-or-better split. Tom is a former math teacher and a mixed games expert (he's got a win in the Stars $200 Sunday HORSE under his belt), so it's no surprise that he kicks ass at these games. He's also a good friend of mine, so I'd be pulling for him regardless, but I'm especially excited because I have 10% of his action!

Here's the final table chip counts according to CardPlayer:

Farzad Rouhani - 513,000
Greg Pappas - 304,000
"Miami" John Cernuto - 285,000
Tom Chambers - 235,000
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi - 231,000
John Racener - 180,000
Daniel Mowczan - 122,000
Yueqi Zhu - 87,000

At 4 p.m., the eight of them will battle it out for the bracelet and $232,911 first prize. Stakes start at 10K/20K and the average stack is 195K, so Tom's 235K puts him in pretty good shape.

One time, dealer!

Labels: O8, poker, Stud/8, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

This was a $200 Stud/8. I got off to a great start and scooped like three reasonably sized pots in the first level. Unfortunately, the first level of a limit tournament is pretty irrelevent. After that I was getting run down incessantly by a reasonably good NLHE tournament player who evidently had no clue how to play Stud/8. To some extent that's understandable, but there's also a degree to which core poker concepts ought to carry over, and if they aren't, I have to question just how well you even understand NLHE.

Unfortunately for some reason my HH from this tournament wasn't recorded, but great example of this came when I opened first to act with an A in the door. This player called the raise with split K's and then called me down all the way. As it happened, I had just a low and he got half the pot. Even players who don't play split pot games usually know that you aren't supposed to play for half the pot, but that's not my point here.

I feel like anyone who genuinely understands reverse implied odds in NLHE (which I guess a tournament specialist might not) should intuitively recognize how bad this is. His hand is essentially face up at every decision point, and even if I don't have him crushed already, he knows I've got at least three outs to beat him for the high pot plus I'm freerolling for the low.

Anyway in addition to that hand he was doing stuff like calling raises with AQ5 and ending up with a better low and a better pair than mine, etc. I did manage to scoop him once with a five-card baby straight when he actually had a legitimate hand (AA4 or something), but it was small consolation.

The hand that really crippled me came about two hours in. I raised with buried Q's and a 6 in the door, which is a great deceptive hand because it looks I'm playing low. I got called by the 8h. He caught a big heart on 4th and I caught a third Q, so I check-raised him and managed to get four bets in. On 5th he caught another heart, which I figured was bad news, but at that point he only had like 3 BB left so we put them in. It turns out he actually had a pair, a three-flush, and a three to a low when he 3-bet me on 4th (which is an alright play, because it doesn't really look like the Q helped me) but he rivered a flush to scoop me for most of my stack.

Today I played the $500 PLO, and I'll have a report on that tomorrow, but I think I'm going to skip tonight's $100 rebuy. It'll probably be one of the better events of the series, but I leave tomorrow for a week-long road trip with the girlfriend, who's moving back across the country to DC (just in time for me not to have a place to stay for the WSOP!!), and I still have a lot of stuff to get done.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, Stud/8, tournament

Stumble It!

An illustrative S/8 hand I played recently:

Hand #15452617704
7 Card Stud *High-Low* ($10/$20), Ante $1

*3rd Street* - (0.60 SB)

somebody: xx xx Ah___raises___calls
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s___raises
badabang: xx xx Jc___folds
luckymonkey9: xx xx 7c___folds
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d___calls
umhmm: xx xx 3h___folds

*4th Street* - (6.90 SB)

somebody: xx xx Ah Qc___*checks*___calls
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s 2c___bets
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d 9h___calls

*5th Street* - (4.95 BB)

somebody: xx xx Ah Qc Kc___*bets*___calls
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s 2c 9s___raises
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d 9h 7s___calls

*6th Street* - (10.95 BB)

somebody: xx xx Ah Qc Kc Ac___*bets*
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s 2c 9s 8c___calls
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d 9h 7s 2h___calls

*River* - (13.95 BB)

somebody: xx xx Ah Qc Kc Ac xx___*bets*
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s 2c 9s 8c 6h___folds
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d 9h 7s 2h xx___folds

*Total pot:* (13.95 BB)

Results:

Total pot $279 Rake $3

In Stud/8, one of your best opportunities for deception comes in situations like this, where you can play a well-concealed high hand like a low hand. Ideally, you can knock out other players who might have won the half of the pot that it looks like you are trying to win and get it heads up with a player who has every reason to think his hand is best for the half that you actually are winning.

I 2-bet third street here in the hopes of knocking out the limping low hand and getting the pot heads up with a likely pair of Aces. I still make money if the limper comes along, but not as much as if he folds. The same is true when he bricks on fourth (though based on the hand played out, it seems he may have had a small pair in the hole, which clearly should have folded third, rather than a razz hand).

So far, my play is consistent with that of a strong low draw. It's not until fifth street that I start to tip my hand by raising when I catch a brick and both of my opponents appear to catch well. But by this point the pot is large and the bets are big.

Unfortunately, my opponent catches a disastrous card on 6th, almost certainly giving him better trips than mine. If he did start a pair of Aces, though, his third card could be anything, so I've certainly got the odds to draw at a boat even assuming the risk that I'm drawing dead.

When I miss on the river, though, I can safely fold despite getting nearly 14:1. For one thing, I'm about that sure I'm beat. But more importantly, it is very likely that my other opponent will overcall or even raise with a low, cutting my pot odds and half and maybe even creating a situation where I still end up folding. The fact that he folds with three low cards showing when the other guy can't possibly have a low suggests to me that he started a pair rather than a razz hand, since otherwise he would have either peeled fourth without a pair or a three-low, which is unlikely, or paired one of his hole cards on fifth or sixth, which is possible.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Ray Zee, the author of High-Low Split Poker for Advanced Players, posted a brief response to my review of his book on the Two Plus Two forums:

"tnx for the review.

i do believe all players would greatly benefit from the book. advanced or intermediate the most of course. but if you are a decent player of other games your skills can be transfered quickly enough to split.
so even a novice at the game can benefit from the book right away if he is experienced in poker.

a complete novice i think should get his feet wet with limit holem or seven stud first then expand his horizons.

no harm in reading any book once thru and getting a feel for it and then coming back when you can get the greatest use of it. if you havent at least skimmed thru it you wont know when you are reeady to digest its value."

I don't really disagree with this. Beginning players could surely find value in the book, and it couldn't hurt for them to know what's out there when they're ready for it. But I do think there are better resources for players new to split-pot games that cover important basics like O/8 starting hands in greater detail.

Labels: book review, O8, poker, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Ray Zee’s book is rightly called, “For Advanced Players.” Players new to Stud/8 or O/8 will need to find another resource, as Zee largely glosses over basic material in favor of advanced thinking and plays. Though occasionally scattershot and disorganized, his book contains a wealth of information for those who play in tough split-pot games.


Stud/8

Though it would be helpful if he came out and said this, Zee’s guiding principle in Stud/8 is that you need to know where you stand. Tough players are aggressive, and pots will often be capped on big bet streets. He advises to play hands that can give action like this and to get out of the way early if you won’t know what to do if your opponents start raising. Thus, rather than pushing small edges on early streets, “It is sometimes good not to play so fast so you can determine where the strength lies.”

In terms of showdown equity, Stud/8 hands often run close in value, particularly on early streets. Thus, how well a hand will play on future streets becomes the true test of its worth. Good players find their edge by recognizing the many conditions that affect whether and how a hand should be played. Will the pot be heads up or multiway? Which cards are live? Is there an opportunity to misrepresent your hand?

Much of Zee’s Stud/8 material is devoted to a street-by-street analysis of how to play. For third street, he offers a comprehensive analysis of the possible starting hands, when to play them, and how they ought to be played. This is one of the highlights of the book. Players make third street decisions on every hand they play, so it’s important to be airtight on the fundamentals, and this text can advance exactly that goal.

The discussions of future streets are good but much less thorough. They read more like a laundry list of possible plays than a full consideration of the situations in which a player may find himself. To be fair, this is not entirely Zee’s fault. Stud/8 is a complex game with a lot of variables, and it would be difficult to write a comprehensive guide to play on later streets. For advanced players who already know how to handle common situations, Zee’s thoughts on tricky spots and expert plays are a treasure trove.

Unsurprisingly, the text becomes even more disorganized in its second-half, where a hodge-podge of ideas is collected as “Miscellaneous Topics”. These include thoughts on slow-playing, bluffing, and random plays that didn’t fit elsewhere in the text. Again, it’s valuable information, but the presentation is a little lacking.

Zee’s sections on types of Stud/8 games (ie tight, loose, short-handed), psychology, and hand-reading fall short of the standard set by the earlier material. They are valuable enough, but rather generic (the Psychology and Hand-Reading sections of both the Stud/8 and O/8 manuals are literally identical, borrowed from Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, save for a few details). Much the same can be said for the Questions and Answers: I suppose there’s no harm in including them, but they introduce no new material and offer little advantage over re-reading the text.


O/8

Although the first section of the O/8 text is devoted to “Basic Play”, it is still not ideal for beginners. Zee does articulate the basic goal of O/8, particularly in weak low-limit games: “your primary edge comes from the fact that you won’t be drawing to less than the nuts.” Unlike the very helpful review of third-street hands in Stud/8, however, this section does not categorize the various types playable O/8 holdings or discuss when and how to play them. Instead, Zee presumes this knowledge on the part of the reader and dives straight into special cases of what not to play and which weak-looking hands could actually be played for a profit.

After this brief discussion of starting hands, the “Basic Play” section consists of a list of disjointed “Concepts” numbered and strung together. They are valuable tidbits, but the lack of any organizing structure prevents the reader from getting a holistic sense of the game and its flow.

Zee devotes the bulk of the O/8 manual to “Advanced Strategy” for higher-limit games. Here, just playing tight and drawing to the nuts will not suffice. Instead, “this is a game of trying to get in cheaply before the flop…. The big decision is to analyze the flop and understand how it relates to your hand and whether you should play on.”

Profitable players in these games make good decisions about how well flops connect with their holdings and how to play for maximum profit against opponent’s likely holdings. The key is “to have the nuts with draws to better hands.” In other words, in a game where most players are tight and only putting in money with the nut low, having counterfeit protection to the second nut low is essential. Outside shots to a gutshot straight or a backdoor flush also contribute important equity. Holding the nuts without any of these is rarely sufficient to withstand heavy action.

Of course, these ideal situations do not arise all that often. In the meantime, Zee explains how to steal pots, how to exercise restraint even with strong hands when there are a lot of draws out, and how to handle tough spots with marginal holdings.

Despite its catch-all name, the “Additional Advanced Concepts” section is actually organized more logically than most of the book. It consists primarily of advice on how to adapt your play to game conditions (i.e. tight, loose, or short-handed). As with the Stud/8 material, the Psychology, Hand Reading, and Questions & Answers sections are largely repetitive and generic.


Ray Zee’s High-Low Split Poker is not, nor does it purport to be, a comprehensive guide to playing Stud/8 and O/8. It reads more like an off-the-cuff brainstorming of all the little things that separate the players in these games from the merely good. But Zee is one such great player, and his musings, however disjointed, are worth many times their cover price.

Labels: book review, O8, poker, poker strategy, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Stud/8 is one of my favorite poker games, and Ted Forrest's Stud Eight-or-Better chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition highlights many of the game's most interesting, and potentially profitable, facets. Stud/8 is a complex game, with a huge variety of situations that can arise, which makes it difficult to write a comprehensive strategy guide. Forrest does an admirable job of explaining hand selection, hand reading, tournament adaptation, and other key concepts in a relatively organized way.

Forrest starts by laying out an overall framework for approaching tournament Stud/8 play, which I appreciate. He advocates fundamentally tight play, as you are likely to be against skilled competition, split a lot of pots, and feel less pressure from the antes than you would in a cash game. It would be helpful to get a stronger sense of where a winning player finds his edges and what kinds of situations he seeks to create. Still, keeping this framework in mind helps readers to orient themselves towards the rest of his advice and understand its context and motivation.

The reader actually gets a more detailed and helpful framework after Forrest begins his discussion of third street starting hands. We learn that the goal in a split pot game will be to 'scoop', or win both the high and the low. When play is loose, this often translates into the occasional scoop with half the pot serving as a consolation prize more frequently. However, in late-game tournament situations, he argues that you are somewhat more likely to scoop a pot through sheer aggression or with a high-only hand when no one makes a low.

This leads into another central Stud/8 concept that Forrest cleverly terms the "push" and "pull" factor. Even moreso than in many other poker games, you cannot play your hand in a vaccuum. From the moment you enter the pot, you must consider others' possible holdings and decide whether you will be better served by trying to pull them into a multi-way pot where even half could mean a juicy score or push them out and increase the likelihood that you will scoop a smaller pot.

This is such a fundamental decision, in fact, that more time ought to have been devoted to it. Some explication is forthcoming when Forrest examines how to play each type of starting hand, but I would have appreciated even more, particularly with regard to how the actions of others might influence whether you enter the pot with a raise or a call. Still, he summarizes this important difference from NLHE when he says, "aggression plays a different role than in... hold 'em tournaments. I am not looking to be aggressive for the same of aggression. I will be aggressive in two main situations: when I can push out opponents when my hand plays best heads-up, or when I have a hand for which I want to create a big pot and several other playrs have already put in a bet."

The third street section also hints at the importance of reverse implied odds, which play a far larger role in Stud/8 than in any other fixed limit game. Forrest has much more to say about this later, but he makes clear that big mistakes begin on third street. "For opponents to outplay you, you have to become an accomplice by taking hands into situations where that can happen."

This segues well into the first point about playing later streets, which is to get away cheaply when you brick. It's rare to see a pot get capped on a late street in seven card stud or fixed limit hold 'em. Because of Stud/8's split pots, however, a player who isn't careful can find himself caught in what Forrest terms 'the gas pipe', where the reigning high and low hands trap an unfortunate third player into calling multiple bets to try to hit his draw on the next card.

He goes on to outline the kind of hand you need to take the gas pipe yourself (a strong two-way draw) or to give it to a third player (often trips or better or a made low with at least some gut shot outs to a high). Especially in a tournament, getting the gas pipe can be "excruciatingly expensive" and avoiding it may require some tight folds simply because of the risk that there will be one or more raises behind you.

One of my favorite things about Stud/8 is that it all but requires third-level thinking: what does my opponent think I have? Depending on what your opponent is showing and what you have represented, you may find yourself betting a small pair for value or checking and folding a pair of Aces on the end. Forrest explores how to save and make these extra bets on the river based on your opponent's possible holdings and his likely perception of your hand. He even brushes on some advanced bluffs and 'semi-bluffs' where you attempt to 'promote' your weak hand into a winner for half the pot by knocking out a better one with a well-timed raise on the river.

Tournament strategy is clearly in the background of the entire chapter, but it comes to the fore at the conclusion with a dedicated section. Late in a tournament, there will be fewer multi-way pots and more opportunities to steal. Conversely, when a player, especially one on a short stack, does get involved in a pot, you need to back off of your steals quickly. These players are looking to double up or bust.

Forrest provides some helpful guidelines for recognizing when you are short or in danger of becoming short. With 7 BB's, you can afford to see fourth and maybe fifth streets without tying yourself to the pot, provided you can get there cheaply. He offers a series of questions to help you handle these difficult decisions. With 3-5 BB's, you'll almost always be going to showdown and can start valuing medium pairs, ordinarily tricky hands to play, over even some strong low hands.

Playing to scoop and the dangers of the 'gas pipe' are such important concepts that they influence almost every decision a Stud/8 player makes and for this reason probably should have been introduced sooner and perhaps even given more explanation. Aside from these largely organizational quibbles, however, I must admit that Ted Forrest's Stud Eight-or-Better chapter provides a clear and helpful summary of an extraordinarily complicated game. It should help NLHE players to succeed at Stud/8 in its own right and also to access quickly the Stud/8 skills that could end up improving their NLHE games in the long run.

Labels: book review, poker, poker strategy, Stud/8

Stumble It!

This kind of thing happens in Stud/8 sometimes: the pot goes multiway, and the players leading for each half of the pot keep jamming small edges but everyone else is priced in to keep calling along. The guy showing the Q is nuts to 3-bet 3rd with a K calling behind him, but I didn't give him credit for AA or better and figured that pairing my Ace would be good for the high hand, which dramatically increases my equity.

Hand #12887077726
7 Card Stud *High-Low* ($5/$10), Ante $0.50

*3rd Street* - (0.70 SB)

Jshorts7: xx xx Ah___folds
foucault82: Ac 6c 3c___raises___raises
midinf: xx xx 2c___calls___calls
KoolAidKills: xx xx 3s___folds
jcards911: xx xx Qd___calls___raises___calls
Bad Beat Oz: xx xx Kd___calls___raises___calls
risti7: xx xx 7c___folds

*4th Street* - (16.70 SB)

foucault82: Ac 6c 3c 9s___calls___calls___calls
midinf: xx xx 2c 4d___raises___raises
jcards911: xx xx Qd 3h___calls___calls
Bad Beat Oz: xx xx Kd 5s___*bets*___raises___calls

*5th Street* - (16.35 BB)

foucault82: Ac 6c 3c 9s 4s___calls___raises
midinf: xx xx 2c 4d Jh___raises___calls $6.50 and is all-in
jcards911: xx xx Qd 3h 5d___calls $5.50 and is all-in
Bad Beat Oz: xx xx Kd 5s 7d___*bets*___raises___calls

*6th Street* - (27.55 BB)

foucault82: Ac 6c 3c 9s 4s 2s___raises
midinf: xx xx 2c 4d Jh Js___all-in
jcards911: xx xx Qd 3h 5d 2d___all-in
Bad Beat Oz: xx xx Kd 5s 7d 7s___*bets*___calls

*River* - (31.55 BB)

foucault82: Ac 6c 3c 9s 4s 2s Ks___bets
midinf: xx xx 2c 4d Jh Js xx___all-in
jcards911: xx xx Qd 3h 5d 2d xx___all-in
Bad Beat Oz: xx xx Kd 5s 7d 7s xx___*checks*___calls

*Total pot:* (33.55 BB)

Results:

Total pot $335.50 Main pot $182.50. Side pot-1 $63. Side pot-2 $87. | Rake $3

foucault82: [Ac 6c 3c 9s 4s 2s Ks] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 6,4,3,2,A)

midinf: [Ad 5h 2c 4d Jh Js 6s]

jcards911: [6d Qs Qd 3h 5d 2d As]

Bad Beat Oz: [Kc 9h Kd 5s 7d 7s 8h] (HI: two pair, Kings and Sevens)

The only thing that's a little questionable here is my 4th street play, but I still had three to a flush and probably an overcard to the best pair plus a fair shot at low in a large pot. How sweet would a river 5 have been?

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review, Stud/8

Stumble It!

Hand #12886186626
7 Card Stud *High-Low* ($5/$10), Ante $0.50

*3rd Street* - (0.80 SB)

JRod34: xx xx 5d___folds
foucault82: Jc Jd 3c
360CF: xx xx 8d___calls
KoolAidKills: xx xx 6h___folds
jcards911: xx xx 6s___calls
panther44: xx xx 4d___calls
MR WHOOOPS: xx xx Qd___folds
lajollan: xx xx Jh___folds

*4th Street* - (2.40 SB)

foucault82: Jc Jd 3c 7h___bets
360CF: xx xx 8d Qh___folds
jcards911: xx xx 6s Tc___calls
panther44: xx xx 4d As___*checks*___calls

*5th Street* - (2.70 BB)

foucault82: Jc Jd 3c 7h 4h___bets
jcards911: xx xx 6s Tc 3d___calls
panther44: xx xx 4d As 3h___*checks*___calls

*6th Street* - (5.70 BB)

foucault82: Jc Jd 3c 7h 4h Qc___calls
jcards911: xx xx 6s Tc 3d 8h___folds
panther44: xx xx 4d As 3h 2s___*bets*

*River* - (7.70 BB)

foucault82: Jc Jd 3c 7h 4h Qc 7s___checks
panther44: xx xx 4d As 3h 2s xx___*checks*

*Total pot:* (7.70 BB)

Results:

Total pot $77 | Rake $3
foucault82: [Jc Jd 3c 7h 4h Qc 7s] (HI: two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
panther44: [2d 9d 4d As 3h 2s Ts]

Ordinarily, 6th street would be a fold, and in fact I was ready to give up on 4th street. It's a small pot, and with two opponents showing low boards and one showing an Ace, there's just no value in my going to showdown with a pair of Jacks and no shot at low. But the guy showing the Ace didn't bet it, which he would definitely want to do with a pair (and which any good player would do even without the pair as a semi-bluff).

By 6th street, he was showing A234, which was very scary for me. The pot was still relatively small, and I really couldn't hope for more than half with four babies showing. If my opponent had an A or a 5 in the hole, I was screwed. But I had already determined the A was unlikely, and I feel like even with a 5 in the hole he would have had such a strong draw earlier than in the hand that he wouldn't have played it so passively.

Labels: poker, Stud/8

Stumble It!