HORSE Riding

I haven't played any live poker since I returned from Las Vegas. In general, my plan is to play a bit less of random sessions of poker but to plan ahead for some of the larger live events for the rest of the year and make a concerted effort to play in those (and in some cases, satellite in due to the high buy-ins of - for example - EPT London).

Online, I have dabbled a bit. Again my plan is probably to play less, but with more focus (eg on qualifying to high value events, or to making a good run in the Sunday majors).

I decided not to play the big-ticket Sunday tournaments but I did register for a clutch of the large-field low-entry events on pokerstars - getting nowhere, basically.

At the same time (I always like to have at least 3 or 4 events going) I fired up the $3,000 Guarantee $33 HORSE tournament on pokerstars.

I have a bit of a soft spot for HORSE ever since playing in one of the first ever such events to be held at The International. I hope to be able to play another live event. In the meantime, there are a few such events online (obviously far fewer than NLH events, but still enough).

I first played such tournaments when I was practising for the event at the International - I managed to bust after only a few minutes (an achievement at limit poker) and to come dead last the first two times I played.

I have since realised that you really cannot splash around in this format in the early stages.

In last night's comp, I registered late (pokerstars are now allowing registration up to 1hr late - I approve of that very much. In fact Cake/Gutshot used to have that feature until recently they curtailed the late signups periods somewhat).

This late entry really does not matter one jot as in the first few levels of a limit tournament, no one goes out. I think the average chips had advanced from 3,000 to 3,029 - meaning just 3 out of the 300ish field had gone bust.

Recently, I actually have a decent record in these HORSE games.

I advanced pretty steadily - to 5,000 chips in Level 8 then 11,000 in Level 10. I remained solidly above average all this time.

Then, I took some big hits. Ironically, in limit, the pots can easily get big relative to the stacks - especially in the stud rounds. You can also find yourself having to give up a hand having invested a lot whereas in NLH you would have been all in at an earlier stage and either gone bust, or doubled up. In Limit (especially stud games), you can often end up in a situation where you know they're not bluffing, and you simply MUST fold.

After some hands that did not work out (especially in Razz - it's always Razz !) I found my stack dwindling to 4,000 (now well behind average) and then finally after losing pot to a short stack I had just 406 chips left playing Limit Hold'em with blinds of 250 and 500 !

From there, however, things looked up. I folded a couple of hands before picking up pocket Aces and earning a triple-up. Soon after I tripled up again with QJ facing AK and A9. I then went on a absolute heater during the next Omaha Hi-Lo round, picking up superb starting hands and scooping multiple large pots.

20 hands after being down to 400 chips, I had 40,000 !

I continued to play the fairly straightforward style that I play in HORSE: tight pre-flop hand selection, followed by just betting my made hands hard for value.

Eventually, with about 15 left, I hit the chip lead and it looked like I would make my first ever pokerstars final table. Despite falling away a bit, I duly made the final in 6th/8 position.

Blinds and antes were very big now so it was a lot about picking up hands, although pre-flop aggression was also worthwhile - picking up the dead money (especially in ante games) was very valuable indeed.

It all had a happy ending. I had a good Omaha-8 round again, then finally Razz was NOT my un-doing, as I made a 7-low to take out both the other players for my first pokerstars MTT win.

Very happy with the win. Like my last MTT win (live at the Rio) it came from a position of an extreme short stack at one stage (in this case, about as short as you can be). I will have little trouble believing in "chip and a chair" in the future.

I hope I can follow it up with a first MTT win at The International tonight !