Back on the HORSE

Played another HORSE tournament, this time at the Golden Nugget. Had a table that was good in some ways & bad in others. Good because many players were horrible; bad because of the attitude, things done at the table & time taken to play out hands.
Personally, I didn't get much going & busted just before the dinner break, largely due to a big Stud8 hand where one of my opponents couldn't fold & caught up on 6th or 7th street. There is a short stack (showing a 7) at the table who completes after a limper (showing an A). There is a caller (showing an 8) & I raise (showing a J, with AA in the hole). The limper called, the short stack moves all in for half a bet more (1500 total playing 600/1200), the caller asks if I have the option to raise & folds when he is told that I can, so I re-raise & the limp/caller calls again. To make a long story short, my board ends up (AA)JK9T(5), with the short stack eventually making a 7-high straight (which scooped the main pot) & the other player in the hand (who called bets on every street except 7th) finished with a board of A29Q & showed AKT in the hole, to win the side with aces with KQ kickers! Yes, he called me down & caught his magic card on 6th or 7th ... which of course left me crippled.
To make matters worse, he'd taken quite a bit of time to call on each street (yes, even calling the re-raise on 3rd!) ... and then proceeded to call the clock on another player in the very next hand when he took more than 5 seconds to think about a decision on 5th street! And people thought Tiffany Michelle was bad for calling the clock in the Main Event a few years back ...
Of course to complete the day, I managed to get all-in pre-flop in holdem with Q9o & saw a final board of 4QQ9T, with one player betting all the way & being called down to the river ... only to see him turn over Q9 as well (so I only got half of the main pot!) & then finally went out with 56 suited, which flopped a straight & flush draw, but missed everything & I was playing the board by the river!

After that wonderful performance I headed to the Rio to see if they had any mixed games going. I put my name on a few lists, then went to have a look at the tournaments that were running. When I returned to the cash game area it was only a short wait before I got a seat in a $10/20 Omaha8 game & proceeded to run horribly before being called for $10/20 HORSE. I topped up my stack at the HORSE table & when it finally got going (lots of people walked past while there were three of us at the table waiting for players to start ... they checked the mix, looked at the table & walked off, often never to return) I managed to make up for both the earlier Omaha8 session, as well as re-couping my buy-in from the afternoon's tournament at the Golden Nugget. All-in-all, not a bad day.
Next on the agenda: Catching up with Theos Rippis, a mate of mine from my chess days in Sydney who I have not seen for years, who arrived yesterday ... and more poker!

USA - Golden Nugget Stud8

Another Tournament, another non-cash.
Played the Stud hi-lo at the Golden nugget today. A much better structure than Binions, so I'll probably return for some events later in 'The Grand' series there. Managed to finish in around 60th place out of the 119 starters, though did run rather badly late in the tourney, which didn't help my cause. Did the usual stud8 trick of having huge draws on 4th-6th streets that all missed by 7th street (or even worse, a draw completed & it was second best!), so it wasn't my day.
I'll be back to the Nugget tomorrow for the Omaha hi-lo. Think I'll go for the aggro maniac approach, if only because my usual tight aggressive approach seems to be rather ineffective when I simply don't run well! Will see how it goes, though I suspect I'll either have a huge stack or be playing cash games at the Rio by the time the dinner break rolls around. Hopefully the former, but I'll let you know.
Also trying to get another episode of the Donkcast up in the next few days. As mentioned previously, I'm hoping to have Danzasmack from Deuces Cracked on the Donkcast in an upcoming episode.
Next on the agenda: Omaha hi-lo at the Golden Nugget & cash games at the Rio

USA - Binions

Another tourney, another bustout!
Today I went to Binions, 'the home of poker', to play the HORSE event in the Binions Poker Classic. The tournament had 120 starters & I finished in 72nd place, but that's simply the facts.
The structure of the event was appalling. Although the starting stack was 20,000, starting with levels of 100/200 & increasing every 30 minutes meant that you really needed to build quickly or face elimination. This was compounded in a way by the format of playing one game per level, with the holdem getting many more hands than any of the other games. The brink of elimination started for me in level 6 (just 3 hours into the event) when I was all-in on the turn in holdem against one opponent. Of course by this time we were already playing 800/1600 & my top pair held to double up. I picked up some hands & ran well & amazingly by the end of the level I was back to my original 20,000 starting stack! Talk about a wild ride! Anyway I managed to slowly dwindle down to be 14000 at the dinner break (after 9 levels) & returned to be playing Stud8 at the 3000/6000 level! Of course I was the bring-in & rather than completing the bet, I simply brought it in for the minimum, meaning that my (45)3 was facing 4 opponents for 4th street. After 4th it was heads-up & I was all-in on 5th, with my 34549 being up against my opponents T7656. I picked up a 9 on 6th to take the lead, but his river T killed my hand & send me out of the tournament.
I have since made sure to check the structures before playing in events. I *may* be back for the $500 HORSE Championship later in the month (which has a similar structure but 40 minute levels, with games changing every 20 minutes), but doubt I will play any other events at Binions.
I'm still going to be downtown in the coming days, but across the street, playing at the Golden Nugget, which seems to have a similar structure, but with 40 minute levels I hope it won't be quite as brutal.
In other news, it looks like I have at least one guest lined up for the Donkcast ... Chuck 'Danzasmack' Danielsson who is an instructor at Deuces Cracked will be on sometime in the not-too-distant future. Caught up with him at the Rio the other night & mentioned the podcast & he's keen to be on, so I'll test my abilities an an interviewer!
Next on the agenda: Stud hi-lo at the Golden Nugget

USA Day 12

Run bad has hit!

After an afternoon shopping (where I picked up some CDs & DVDs) I returned once again to the Hollywood Park $20/40 Omaha/stud hi-lo mixed game. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Not only did I find myself in what turned out to be the worst seat at the table (directly in front of the two crazy aggressive Asians), but it seemed like almost every worst river card hit ... repeatedly. Highlights included running into a low straight flush (and of course making two pair myself, so I paid off on the end); having people raise & re-raise with the bare nut low (A2 with no redraw) in multiway pots, so that they simply end up losing more money when I join the calling party with another nut low; getting counterfeited a number of times on the river - its generally never good to see an A or 2 on the river in )8 when you have the nut low without a redraw; opponents catching miracle (often running) cards to scoop pots;

Of course what made it even more frustrating was so often these pots went to players who were horrible. Cold call 2 bets with 369J ... of course! 3 bets with 459T single suited ... a surefire winner! I had intended the evening to be something of a practice session for the 8 game at Commerce tomorrow, but I'm now reconsidering whether I should play or not. I suspect I will, but I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Next on the agenda: Possibly the 8-game & some tourist time

USA Day 10

Back on the HORSE ... or at least the OE

Spent some time this afternoon at Commerce. Played some Omaha hi-lo (and didn't win a hand or see a river in the hour + I was there) before playing a satellite for the California State Champs main event. They got just over 20 runner, so 2 seats up for grabs. I was sitting just below average when a move I made didn't work. I had opened from the button & was called by both blinds. I bet the JT4 rainbow flop (called by the BB) & shoved the offsuit K turn. Thought it seemed like a very good board & spot to bluff - the J & T hit a large part of my range & even if I missed the flop, the K turn is also a scare card which could very well be in my range of hands. My opponent agonised for over a minute before calling with AT & my A9o had 4 outs to chop, but without the required Q on the river, I left the tournament & Commerce for the evening.

After leaving Commerce I headed over to Hollywood Park, hoping to play some more of the hi-lo mixed game that I played the other night. Of course with there being horse racing on at Hollywood Park Racetrack (right next to the casino) the carpark was packed. Once inside the casino itself, there was actually two OE games running & a list, so I put my name on the list. Of course rather than doing the simple thing & just waiting for my seat, I heard the call of 15 Holdem, seats available. I decided to sit in at the $15/30 game while waiting for a seat in the OE game. Of course this game soon became shorthanded & its been a while since I've played much middle-limit holdem, and longer still since I've played shorthanded, so I went to my default tight-passive approach, which works well in low-limit no-foldem-holdem games, but not so much in this game. As a result I finished down more than I was hoping to be before my OE seat was available.

After getting some more chips, I took my seat at the $20/40 must-move OE table & tried to avoid making some of the mistakes I had made previously with 'evil brain' taking over periodically. Unfortunately for me, I still made some mistakes, however I still managed to make a tidy profit, more than covering the earlier holdem losses & making it a decent night out.

I think there will be more visits to Hollywood Park in the future ...

Next on the agenda: More cash games