Posts Tagged ‘Stud/8’

Whining about every WCOOP I play is getting old, so I’ll just say that this was a pretty standard limit tournament in that I played for hours and didn’t come close to winning anything. At least it was fun and interesting though because it was Stud/8, which is one of my favorite games. Here’s a cool hand I played against party animal and Mathematics of Poker author Bill Chen:

PokerStars Game #20434591501: Tournament #200800021, $500+$30 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit – Level VI (200/400) – 2008/09/15 17:29:56 ET
Table ’200800021 20′ 8-max
Seat 1: Tulkaz (6061 in chips)
Seat 2: suspender (2222 in chips)
Seat 3: Bill Chen (8508 in chips)
Seat 4: **SHARX** (5134 in chips)
Seat 5: foucault82 (6384 in chips)
Seat 6: Quackers (6171 in chips)
Seat 7: Ulett_23 (13192 in chips)
Seat 8: traction1 (2721 in chips)
Tulkaz: posts the ante 20
suspender: posts the ante 20
Bill Chen: posts the ante 20
**SHARX**: posts the ante 20
foucault82: posts the ante 20
Quackers: posts the ante 20
Ulett_23: posts the ante 20
traction1: posts the ante 20

*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to Tulkaz [8h]
Dealt to suspender [2h]
Dealt to Bill Chen [Kh]
Dealt to **SHARX** [9d]
Dealt to foucault82 [Ah Td 2d]
Dealt to Quackers [5h]
Dealt to Ulett_23 [8s]
Dealt to traction1 [Qh]
foucault82: brings in for 60
Quackers: folds
Ulett_23: folds
traction1: folds
Tulkaz: folds
suspender: folds
Bill Chen: raises 140 to 200
**SHARX**: folds
foucault82: calls 140  Read the complete post...

God what a grind this thing was. There were a little over 2000 runners, and after five and a half hours of playing, I was eliminated in 665th. It took five hours to get through two-thirds of the field. That’s what happens when you play a very well-structure limit tournament with split pot games.

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]  Read the complete post...

I wanted to make this post about how bad people are at Stud/8, because they are. Split pot games will rip clueless players to shreds. O/8 is a pretty easy game to get, so you don’t see quite as many huge mistakes. Plus there are fewer betting streets and it’s easier to make the nuts. But in Stud/8, people chase absurd lows and call down with any pair even when they are clearly crushed or getting freerolled.

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.  Read the complete post...

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)  Read the complete post...

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

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!

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.  Read the complete post...

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.  Read the complete post...