There was a key Stud/8 hand I wanted to talk about, but somehow the HH file seems to have disappeared from my computer. Basically, I was the bring-in with 5(48) a player in middle position open raised with a K in the door, a loose player called with a Q, and I 2-bet. In a cash game this would be a very standard raise since I appear to have the only low hand in a 3-way pot. Arguably in a tournament one ought to be more conservative about pushing small edges early in a hand when stacks are shallow, but I was looking to go balls to the wall. They both called.

On fourth, they both caught non-threatening cards, and I caught a 7. Now I really had a monster, with a gutshot and four to a low against two players going high. The K bet, the Q called, I raised, and they both called.

On fifth, I paired my 4, the K blanked again, and the Q caught a 3. They checked around to me, I bet, the K folded, and the Q called.

Sixth brought a blank for me and an open pair of 3’s for my opponent. He checked, and I bet, which I think is probably a mistake. He almost certainly has Q’s and 3’s, meaning that he isn’t folding while I have only 6 outs for the high and am still drawing at the low as well.

What’s really bad though is that I made two pair on seventh and bet again, without even thinking, into what was clearly two pair. Pretty shitty play on my part that cost me 2 BBs.

There was a key Stud/8 hand I wanted to talk about, but somehow the HH file seems to have disappeared from my computer. Basically, I was the bring-in with 5(48) a player in middle position open raised with a K in the door, a loose player called with a Q, and I 2-bet. In a cash game this would be a very standard raise since I appear to have the only low hand in a 3-way pot. Arguably in a tournament one ought to be more conservative about pushing small edges early in a hand when stacks are shallow, but I was looking to go balls to the wall. They both called.

On fourth, they both caught non-threatening cards, and I caught a 7. Now I really had a monster, with a gutshot and four to a low against two players going high. The K bet, the Q called, I raised, and they both called.

On fifth, I paired my 4, the K blanked again, and the Q caught a 3. They checked around to me, I bet, the K folded, and the Q called.

Sixth brought a blank for me and an open pair of 3’s for my opponent. He checked, and I bet, which I think is probably a mistake. He almost certainly has Q’s and 3’s, meaning that he isn’t folding while I have only 6 outs for the high and am still drawing at the low as well.

What’s really bad though is that I made two pair on seventh and bet again, without even thinking, into what was clearly two pair. Pretty shitty play on my part that cost me 2 BBs.

I’m not sure how I last that long, because I was catching absolute shit and playing about the same. I wasn’t getting much in the way of starting hands, and there were always a few monkeys at the table such that stealing wasn’t really an option. By the same token, the few times that I did get hands, I was generally winning the pot. Still, for the first few hours I barely got above my starting stack, and the only time I passed the average was on this hand:

PokerStars Game #20386595428: Tournament #200800018, $200+$15 HORSE (7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit) – Level XX (160/320) – 2008/09/13 20:52:57 ET
Table ‘200800018 52’ 8-max
Seat 1: atactor (3172 in chips)
Seat 2: Joeyhaha (3536 in chips)
Seat 3: eriholer (2275 in chips)
Seat 4: foucault82 (3386 in chips)
Seat 5: noize-boy (5099 in chips)
Seat 6: doudouc (8954 in chips)
Seat 7: GSUSLIVS (8204 in chips)
Seat 8: goldhawk (5072 in chips)
noize-boy: posts the ante 32
doudouc: posts the ante 32
GSUSLIVS: posts the ante 32
goldhawk: posts the ante 32
atactor: posts the ante 32
Joeyhaha: posts the ante 32
eriholer: posts the ante 32
foucault82: posts the ante 32
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to atactor [5s]
Dealt to Joeyhaha [Ts]
Dealt to eriholer [Jc]
Dealt to foucault82 [4s 6h 3c]
Dealt to noize-boy [As]
Dealt to doudouc [9d]
Dealt to GSUSLIVS [5d]
Dealt to goldhawk [5c]

foucault82: brings in for 48
noize-boy: folds
doudouc: folds
GSUSLIVS: calls 48
goldhawk: calls 48
atactor: folds
Joeyhaha: folds
eriholer: raises 112 to 160
foucault82: calls 112
GSUSLIVS: calls 112
goldhawk: calls 112

*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to eriholer [Jc] [8s]
Dealt to foucault82 [4s 6h 3c] [2d]
Dealt to GSUSLIVS [5d] [3s]
Dealt to goldhawk [5c] [Js]
eriholer: bets 160
foucault82: raises 160 to 320
GSUSLIVS: calls 320
goldhawk: folds
eriholer: raises 160 to 480
foucault82: calls 160
GSUSLIVS: calls 160
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to eriholer [Jc 8s] [2h]
Dealt to foucault82 [4s 6h 3c 2d] [4h]
Dealt to GSUSLIVS [5d 3s] [3d]
GSUSLIVS: checks
eriholer: bets 320
foucault82: raises 320 to 640
GSUSLIVS: folds
eriholer: calls 320
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to eriholer [Jc 8s 2h] [Ah]
Dealt to foucault82 [4s 6h 3c 2d 4h] [8d]
eriholer: checks
foucault82: bets 320
eriholer: calls 320
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to foucault82 [4s 6h 3c 2d 4h 8d] [4c]
eriholer: checks
foucault82: bets 320
eriholer: calls 320
*** SHOW DOWN ***
foucault82: shows [4s 6h 3c 2d 4h 8d 4c] (HI: three of a kind, Fours; LO: 8,6,4,3,2)
eriholer: mucks hand
foucault82 collected 2448 from pot
foucault82 collected 2448 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4896 | Rake 0
Seat 1: atactor folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Joeyhaha folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: eriholer mucked [Jh 8c Jc 8s 2h Ah 3h]
Seat 4: foucault82 showed [4s 6h 3c 2d 4h 8d 4c] and won (4896) with HI: three of a kind, Fours; LO: 8,6,4,3,2
Seat 5: noize-boy folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: doudouc folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: GSUSLIVS folded on the 5th Street
Seat 8: goldhawk folded on the 4th Street

I had a monster hand on 3rd street. The only problem was that three of my fives were dead, which drastically reduced the high potential of my hand and hurt my ability to make a low as well. I’m still playing it, but I’m not going to raise it just yet. Once I catch good on 4th, though, I’m raising hoping to drive out the low hand behind me. Even though I surely have the better draw, I want to insure that catching an 8 will be enough to lock up half the pot. As I said, my high potential isn’t much, but the fraction of a bet that I lose to the J-8 is compensated if I can get the guy out behind me or at least make him call two bets with a worse low draw.

I couldn’t get him out on 4th, but I caught another scary card on 5th. Now my board is scarier, the bets are bigger, and with my pair my equity against the high hand is better, so I am losing less by raising him.

On 6th, I’m freerolling, and that miracle card on 7th was almost too good to be true.

But I also made a pretty big error in a Stud/8 game, so I guess I’ll be talking about how I suck at Stud/8 (though this is really just a Stud high error). On the river, my opponent was showing 6655, and I had Aces up with both Aces and two high cards showing. My opponent bet, and I raised for value. Like I was saying, no matter how clear I make it that I have Aces up, people will call down with any two pair.

I forgot, however, to think about what my opponent would be value betting. Since his two pair was open, there was no way he could be betting on the strength of that alone. He had to have either a boat or a low, and in either case there was no value in a raise. Sure enough, he had 6’s full.

Despite playing for four and a half hours, I only made it to the top 25% of the field. The hand that really hurt me came in LHE. A guy in MP raised, and I 3-bet with AKo. He called. The flop came Ad 5c 3c. He checked, I bet, he check-raised, and I called. the turn was an off-suit 8, he bet, and I raised. The river was a T, and he check-called with Ac Tc. Unlucky river for me, but there were quite a few of those that could have come.

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.