Posts Tagged ‘Stud/8’

Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Just before takeoff, the pilot announces that we are scheduled to arrive at about 11PM local, at which time the temperature will be 104 degrees. For the fourth year in a row, I’m spending the middle of the summer in the middle of the desert, braving the blistering hot sun to compete in the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

It’s surreal to think that three years ago, I was a young kid, barely out of college, who took a flyer on a qualifying tournament on the internet. Though even then I was earning a modest living at poker, I rarely wagered more than $200 at a time. I was more than thrilled when, with an investment of just a few hundred dollars, I won a seat in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Though more than a little intimidated by the stakes and the competition, I was lucky enough to finish 279th place, winning almost $40,000 for my trouble. I’ve been back every year since, and remarkably, I’ve managed to win something every year, most recently finishing 35th in the 2008 tournament and winning nearly $200,000.  Read the complete post...

Edit: As I was drifting off to sleep last night, it occurred to me that I should have titled this post “Loosey Luske”. In my defense, it was 3AM and I’d been playing Stud/8 for 8 hours, so my creative juices were a bit stymied.

Early in level 7, the Flying Dutchman joins our table, upside-down sunglasses and all. Almost immediately, he takes half my stack.

Action folds to me in middle position. I’ve got 8(72), hardly a premium hand, but there’s nothing but junk behind me: two Queens, Marcel with a Jack, and an 8 on the bring-in. I raise, Marcel calls with the J, everyone else folds.

On 4th, I catch an A, Marcel catches a 4. I bet, he calls. Odds are good he’s got a pair of Jacks (though maybe I should expect him to 3-bet that more often than call?), but I’ve got outs to both halves of the pot plus the A is a scare card.

On 5th, I brick, and Marcel catches a 3. I bet, he calls.

On 6th, I pair my 8, he catches 2. I bet, he raises. That was unexpected. I think for a while and can’t figure what he has. A5 suited with the Jack seems most likely, or maybe rolled-up Jacks that he’s been slowplaying. Somewhat less likely are 65 suited with the J or a smaller pair in the hole that’s since made trips. I seriously consider folding but decide to call.  Read the complete post...

Sorry for the recent lack of updates, but I haven’t been playing all that much. Since I’ll be in Vegas soon and devoting myself to poker nearly 24/7, I’m trying to get some other stuff done right now.

Speaking of Vegas, thanks to everyone who’s asked what my plans are. I’m heading out there on the 27th and plan to play the $1500 Stud/8 tournament on the 28th. Should I somehow manage not to final table that, I’ll play the $5000 6-max NLHE event on the 30th, then Day of the Main Event on July 3. That’s likely to be it for major tournaments, as I do want to play some cash games and maybe a few of those juicy juicy satellites. I also want to meet/hang out with some people, so if you’re going to be in Vegas during that time, by all means let me know (foucault82 (at) yahoo (dot) com) so we can grab a drink or something.

Also, while I’ll continue to post daily updates here, I’m also going to try Tweating my chip counts and such during the tournaments. I know, I know, Twitter is largely a toolish thing to do, but it seems pretty ideal for poker tournament updates. You can follow me on @thinkingpoker.

Wish me luck!

Once upon a time I considered myself a pretty decent Stud/8 player, but I’ve probably played fewer than 1000 hands in the last 6 months. Consequently, $1500 was a little more than I wanted to put behind my skillz. I did play the $150, though, and had a good time doing it. I can’t say I recall a lot of interesting hands, but here’s one where I play second-man-low:

PokerStars Game #26838991298: Tournament #200904122, $200+$15 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit – Level IV (80/160) – 2009/04/07 17:54:53 ET
Table ’200904122 30′ 8-max
Seat 1: xmrstyle (5557 in chips)
Seat 2: GoodOleBoy (5051 in chips)
Seat 3: foucault82 (3681 in chips)
Seat 4: mrpokejoke (5594 in chips)
Seat 5: JohnnyBax (6949 in chips)
Seat 6: Corrino (3464 in chips)
Seat 7: FODMAND (4741 in chips)
Seat 8: badbeat987 (4963 in chips)

*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to xmrstyle [7s]
Dealt to GoodOleBoy [2s]
Dealt to foucault82 [Ks Jd Kh]
Dealt to mrpokejoke [Jc]
Dealt to JohnnyBax [6d]
Dealt to Corrino [6c]
Dealt to FODMAND [7h]
Dealt to badbeat987 [Kc]

GoodOleBoy: bets 80
foucault82: raises 80 to 160
mrpokejoke: folds
JohnnyBax: folds
Corrino: folds
FODMAND: raises 80 to 240
badbeat987: folds
xmrstyle: folds
GoodOleBoy: calls 160
foucault82: calls 80

*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to GoodOleBoy [2s] [Ac]
Dealt to foucault82 [Ks Jd Kh] [Td]
Dealt to FODMAND [7h] [4c]
GoodOleBoy: bets 80
foucault82: calls 80
FODMAND: calls 80  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...

I almost didn’t play this because my experience with limit tournaments has always been that even if I am not doing well they take forever. At least in NLHE if it isn’t going well you don’t waste a lot of time on it. Well, I managed to eliminate myself in less than three hours, so I guess that’s something.

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.  Read the complete post...

I almost didn’t play this because my experience with limit tournaments has always been that even if I am not doing well they take forever. At least in NLHE if it isn’t going well you don’t waste a lot of time on it. Well, I managed to eliminate myself in less than three hours, so I guess that’s something.

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.  Read the complete post...

At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. Yesterday, I posted about my resolution to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold ‘Em Cash Games.

Resolution 2: Keep Getting Better at Other Games

I played a fair bit of PLO and watched some instructional videos, but I don’t feel I’m much better at it than I was this time last year. Actually, I’m sure I am better, but the opposition has improved more than I have. It’s quickly becoming a much more well-understood game, and I’m getting left behind. I’d like to get better at it, but I have only so much time to play, and the opportunity cost of playing break-even PLO at 2/4 rather than winning at 5/10 and 10/20 NLHE is pretty high.

As for other games, I played some HORSE occasionally and probably got a bit better at Stud/8, I final tabled a PLO8 tournament, but mostly I didn’t do anything of significance.

Goal 4: Play some WSOP preliminary events in other games (PLHE doesn’t count).
(Failed)  Read the complete post...