Posts Tagged ‘Razz’

I’m not a great Razz player, but you really don’t need to be to do well in a large-field Razz tournament. I like to break the players down into two categories: those who understand the basic strategy of the game (how to evaluate starting hands, when to continue past 4th, obvious bluffing and bluff-catching spots) and those who do not. There are things that truly great Razz players can do to get an edge on those of us who are merely competent, but it’s a simple enough game that I don’t believe that the ability to save an extra bet here or there gives them a big edge. There is, however, a huge gap between those who do and don’t understand the basics. To wit, here’s a guy capping 6th and 7th streets with the 7th nuts when I’m showing three wheel cards:  Read the complete post...

Edit: Oh snap! I just saw that Villain in this hand went on to win the tournament! And it was his second WCOOP bracelet. Congratulations 2FLY2TILT!

I skipped the PL Draw event because I don’t know how to play that game, and I registered three hours into the Triple Stud because I wanted to be fresh for the $1000 NLHE rather than frustrated from three hours of Stud. I won a nice pot almost immediately in Razz, but it was all downhill from there. I think this is pretty standard for people who know something about Razz, but it illustrated the problem with trying to bluff in this game:
PokerStars Game #67119394260: Tournament #2011090008, $200+$15 USD Triple Stud (Razz Limit) – Level VIII (200/400) – 2011/09/06 14:48:20 MT [2011/09/06 16:48:20 ET]
Table ’2011090008 11′ 8-max
Seat 1: capoch (2998 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: 2FLY2TILT (5744 in chips)
Seat 3: kasparov007 (7808 in chips)
Seat 4: kimsen (5902 in chips)
Seat 5: johnny5rings (3754 in chips)
Seat 6: Ghoyteep (8772 in chips)
Seat 7: Terry_Toria (3799 in chips)
Seat 8: foucault82 (4960 in chips)
capoch: posts the ante 40
2FLY2TILT: posts the ante 40
kasparov007: posts the ante 40
kimsen: posts the ante 40
johnny5rings: posts the ante 40
Ghoyteep: posts the ante 40
Terry_Toria: posts the ante 40
foucault82: posts the ante 40
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to capoch [3s]
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd]
Dealt to kasparov007 [7s]
Dealt to kimsen [8s]
Dealt to johnny5rings [Tc]
Dealt to Ghoyteep [4d]
Dealt to Terry_Toria [Th]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s]
2FLY2TILT: brings in for 60
kasparov007: folds
kimsen: folds
johnny5rings: folds
Ghoyteep: folds
Terry_Toria: folds
foucault82: raises 140 to 200
capoch: folds
2FLY2TILT: calls 140
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd] [5h]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s] [Qd]
2FLY2TILT: bets 200
foucault82: calls 200
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h] [Jh]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd] [Qc]
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h Jh] [5s]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc] [8h]
foucault82: bets 400
2FLY2TILT: calls 400
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h] [Ks]
foucault82: checks
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
2FLY2TILT: shows [3d Ac Jd 5h Jh 5s Ad] (Lo: A,A,J,5,3)
foucault82: shows [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h Ks] (Lo: Q,8,7,4,3)
foucault82 collected 3520 from pot  Read the complete post...

Been playing some 8-game mix lately. I’m pretty sure the games are good but I am not so it all evens out! Here are two of the best hands I played yesterday (sorry for the lack of conversion):

PokerStars Game #66507871933: 8-Game (Hold’em Limit, $10/$20 USD) – 2011/08/24 22:27:27 MT [2011/08/25 0:27:27 ET]
Table ‘Campanula VII’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: foucault82 ($500 in chips)
Seat 2: loooseslots ($657.90 in chips)
Seat 3: NCSU2012 ($924.45 in chips)
Seat 4: hav0cLOL ($1523 in chips)
Seat 5: boardrat ($501.70 in chips)
Seat 6: xx23xx ($522 in chips)
boardrat: posts small blind $5
xx23xx: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to foucault82 [Jd Ah]
foucault82: raises $10 to $20
loooseslots: folds
NCSU2012: folds
hav0cLOL: folds
boardrat: folds
xx23xx: calls $10
*** FLOP *** [Tc 2h 7d]
xx23xx: checks
foucault82: bets $10
xx23xx: calls $10
*** TURN *** [Tc 2h 7d] [6d]
xx23xx: checks
foucault82: checks
*** RIVER *** [Tc 2h 7d 6d] [2d]
xx23xx: checks
foucault82: bets $20
xx23xx: calls $20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
foucault82: shows [Jd Ah] (a pair of Deuces)
xx23xx: shows [Ad Qc] (a pair of Deuces – Ace+Queen kicker)
xx23xx collected $102 from pot  Read the complete post...

Edit: Support tells me that they are “experiencing some delays” but that points should be awarded appropriately within 24 hours.

My thanks and apologies to everyone who played in last night’s Triple Stud event. I’ll start on a positive note: I had a great time, and it seemed like many of you did as well. Thanks for playing and for being good sports throughout.

Technical Difficulties

1. Structure. It took over 9 hours for us to play from 30 runners down to the 3 who got paid, and several people understandably chose to abandon their stacks rather than continue to play a $1 tournament for so long. All I can say in my own defense is that I don’t get a lot of information about what various options mean when creating a tournament and am still getting the hang of setting the structure. Obviously this was a huge fail, and I appreciate everyone being so understanding about it.  Read the complete post...

Edit: Meant to add that there’s still room for a few more people in the league. You can join by searching Club ID # 312467 in the PokerStars Home Games lobby and entering “foucault” when prompted for an Invitation Code.

Thanks to everyone who played in yesterday’s inaugural Thinking Poker Home Game tournament. I had a lot of fun and it seems like everyone else did as well.

Spidurman was our champion, outlasting 15 other competitors, including yours truly, to win first place in the $5+.50 “6-Max and Deep Stacks” event. Bond2King was the runner-up, and Piefarmer bubbled in 3rd place. Also scoring points in the nebulous League Standings were LiPhanOK and QandA201 in 4th and 5th place, respectively. Thus, after one tournament, the current standings look like this:

Don’t ask me how those points are calculated, because I have no idea. As you can see, though, there’s not a huge difference in points between 1st and 5th place, so even if you missed or didn’t do well in yesterday’s tournament, there’s no reason you couldn’t go on to win the season and the grand prize of a Leakfinder review with yours truly.  Read the complete post...

Unlike most players, I enjoy Razz. Yeah, it can be infuriating, but it’s also kind of elegant in its simplicity. I spend most of this tournament catching well, so even though I didn’t cash, it was fun. The only really interesting hand to come up was this one, where I slow-played my hand (rare to do in Razz, because it’s usually very obvious when you’ve improved) and check-raised the river:

PokerStars Game #26871293549: Tournament #200904132, $200+$15 Razz Limit – Level V (100/200) – 2009/04/08 16:05:02 ET
Table ’200904132 6′ 8-max
Seat 1: dengladelaks (6761 in chips)
Seat 2: mattutaylor (3642 in chips)
Seat 4: foucault82 (6245 in chips)
Seat 5: raconteur (4232 in chips)
Seat 6: Mitchdubai (10797 in chips)
Seat 7: skootamatta (4353 in chips)
Seat 8: ImaLucSac (3970 in chips)

*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to dengladelaks [7h]
Dealt to mattutaylor [Jh]
Dealt to foucault82 [4h 3h 7s]
Dealt to raconteur [Qc]
Dealt to Mitchdubai [Ts]
Dealt to skootamatta [Ah]
Dealt to ImaLucSac [2c]

raconteur: brings in for 30
Mitchdubai: folds
skootamatta: raises 70 to 100
ImaLucSac: folds
dengladelaks: folds
mattutaylor: folds
foucault82: calls 100
raconteur: calls 70

*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to foucault82 [4h 3h 7s] [Td]
Dealt to raconteur [Qc] [8d]
Dealt to skootamatta [Ah] [Ks]
foucault82: bets 100
raconteur: raises 100 to 200
skootamatta: calls 200
foucault82: calls 100

*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to foucault82 [4h 3h 7s Td] [6h]
Dealt to raconteur [Qc 8d] [Qd]
Dealt to skootamatta [Ah Ks] [Kc]
foucault82: bets 200
raconteur: calls 200
skootamatta: calls 200  Read the complete post...

I think this has been out for a few days, but I just noticed that Poker Stars has posted a tentative schedule for a yet-to-be-named tournament series in April. I love the format of offering a low-, medium-, and high-stakes option for every tournament and am frankly staggered that they think they will get sufficient interest in some of these events, especially the $2000 Triple Draw.

The 2+2 MTT community is mostly salivating over this, though some are a little concerned that the smaller events will actually discourage people from trying satellite into the bigger events. I don’t think they’re wrong, but I still expect the big events to be plenty soft thanks to tourney donks playing with relatively deep stacks for fairly big money.

The only issue for me is how to get enough money on Stars by April to enable me to play the ones I want without busting the bankroll. I may suck it up and make a wire transfer, which I’ve so far refused to do on principle since Stars makes the depositor pay the wire fees. It’s really preposterous- I pay enough rake in 10 minutes to cover the fees, and it’s clearly in their interest for me to have money on their site.

Anyway, the schedule:  Read the complete post...

As I’ve said many times before, my preference in Stud tournaments is not to build big pots on 3rd street. That’s generally a high-variance, low-edge strategy, and it makes otherwise large mistakes on future streets much less severe. Unfortunately, people were being stupidly aggressive on 3rd, seemingly raising at every opportunity with any three low cards, so there wasn’t much that could be done to avoid it. As usually happens in Razz, I wasn’t catching well on later streets but was generally priced in for slim call downs because of how many bets had already gone into the pot:

Tournament – Razz (40/80), Ante 7, Bring-In 10

Foucault (Seat 1): 3,903
cardsharkk (Seat 2): 3,588
dinho_style (Seat 3): 3,912
AK_47_JAZZ (Seat 4): 4,005
Kristy Gazes (Seat 5): 4,479
OnlyPlayRagz (Seat 6): 5,628
Jawarhalo (Seat 7): 3,613
NastyBeet (Seat 8): 2,872

3rd Street – (1.40 SB)

Foucault: 3 4 A___completes___raises

cardsharkk: xx xx T___folds

dinho_style: xx xx J___folds

AK_47_JAZZ: xx xx A___raises___calls

Kristy Gazes: xx xx 9___folds

OnlyPlayRagz: xx xx 4___calls___calls

Jawarhalo: xx xx 3___folds

NastyBeet: xx xx J___brings-in___folds

4th Street – (10.65 SB)

Foucault: 3 4 A J___calls___calls___calls

AK_47_JAZZ: xx xx A 8___raises___raises

OnlyPlayRagz: xx xx 4 2___bets___raises___calls

5th Street – (11.33 BB)

Foucault: 3 4 A J T___calls  Read the complete post...