HORSE Madness

Last night we played in the Full Tilt HORSE tourney. I was crippled early, in the first HE round, when I flopped two pair with A4s on the button, but my opponent flopped a set of nines. He did not raise before the flop, nor on the flop, so when a queen appeared on the turn, I felt my hand was still good. That is when he sprung (good play). We made it four bets, I believe, and I simply called the river bet.

After that, I was always fighting an uphill battle.

Some of the players played very well. I was duly impressed, having seen how poorly the RGP and WPT Fan site players played. Kudos to you guys! For a $5 tourney, many of you played very seriously.

There were a couple of blog readers who weren't so polite. I know, I am the queen of no tact, and would be the last person to insist on manners, but some of the things said were well over the top.

One reader at my first table wanted to start something after I sucked out on him. This was the scenario:

It was our second rotation of O8. I was in the BB with TTJQ double suited. The BB was taking maybe 1/4 or 1/5 of my stack, I don't remember exactly, and FTP has no hand histories, but it was something like that.

Many people do not realize that hand values are very close in LO8. One hand is almost never more than a 2:1 favorite over any other hand, no matter how good the starting hands.

Anyway, some players had realized that there is an advantage to raising pre-flop in O8, at times, when it is shorthanded, and many players do not have more than 5 big bets left in a tournament. This was the case at our table on our second rotation. I am happy that so many players realized this, on their own, without having to be told.

So a player in MP raised my BB. In many cases, he would be correct to do so, and I would sometimes be correct to fold. In my particular situation, with my particular hand, I was correct to call.

I do not remember what his sidecards were, but I do believe he had a low draw, so I gave him two decent low cards:

Result
1086008 samples required, using 500,000 sample simulation.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=826061
pokenum -mc 500000 -o8 td th jd qh - 2c 3s qc kc
Omaha Hi/Low 8-or-better: 500000 sampled boards
cards scoop HIwin HIlos HItie LOwin LOlos LOtie EV
Jd Td Qh Th 180313 319147 179080 1773 0 0 0 0.501
3s Kc Qc 2c 179080 179080 319147 1773 220125 0 0 0.499

As you can see, calling in the BB, head's up, for one more bet was the correct play.

The flop was very good for me, something sort of like this:

xd Kd Qs

(x was a random, suited low card).

My opponent flopped top two pair, but I was open ended, had middle pair and a four flush.

Result
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=826075
pokenum -o8 td th jd qh - 2c 3s qc kc -- 4d kd qs
Omaha Hi/Low 8-or-better: 820 enumerated boards containing Qs Kd 4d
cards scoop HIwin HIlos HItie LOwin LOlos LOtie EV
Jd Td Qh Th 370 476 344 0 0 0 0 0.516
3s Kc Qc 2c 344 344 476 0 160 0 0 0.484

As you can see, there is no way I can get out of this hand. The turn was a blank. It didn't help my hand, but I don't believe it helped his, either. I am almost certain it did not give him a low draw.

On the river, an offsuit ten hit. This was not so great for me, if he had AJ, he had made his straight. I had too much money invested in the pot, however, and had left myself too short stacked to fold. So I did the crying call, as he had been betting all along.

After the pot was pushed to me, he wanted to start some ridiculing about the way I played the hand. I do not engage in this sort of talk. I will not even defend myself in these situations. I did ask him not to begin name calling, regardless, and he stopped, so that was good.
-------------------------
Another player engaged in inappropriate chat during almost the entire tournament. He isn't a blogger, from what I am aware. I felt it was out of place, and this is coming from someone who has absolutely no tact, lol :)

All in all, it was a terrific time, and I think everyone was pleasantly surprised at how great mixed games can be.

I have written Perry a few times about improvements that can be made in the HORSE tourney, but nothing has been done thus far. If he were to receive more e-mails asking for a better structure, more chips, more notice between games (flashing banners on the table surface or a pop-up box notifying players that the game has changed and requiring a mouse click to close), perhaps Full Tilt would strive to make things better for players.

Perry has posted his e-mail address on a public website, asking for feedback, so I don't feel like I'm breaking any privacy for re-posting it here:

friedman@xenon.stanford.edu
-------------------------
In Live news, Dan is finally turning the cardroom around to a successful enterprise. He is still adding $500 to the NLHE tourneys on Sunday and Wednesday. The Wednesday night tourney is only $10 to enter, and typically first place has paid out over $1000!!! What a great overlay.

On Friday nights, he is holding a $100 15 NLHE freezeout. He does not add money to this tournament, but gives a ton of chips, with slowly increasing levels, and is offering value for the buy-in.

This is the opposite of everything that has been tried in the Laughlin cardrooms since we have moved here. It is catching on rapidly, as everyone in Laughlin is turning out for these tournaments on those three evenings!
-------------------------
I hope everyone is having a wonderful, successful day!

Felicia :)