30/60 Razz Hand

So I just got back from playing rotating choice mixed games. I think I found a gold mine. These were easily the most passive, amiable, "disposable income" players I've ever seen. They totally blew Foxwoods and Commerce out of the water. Not only were they losing, but losing with grace and laughing along with the winners. I think I've found a new home!

Right after I sat down, it was my "down" to choose the game (we rotated games in conjunction with dealer downs). I chose Razz, wanting to feel out the quality of the table. We were six handed at this time.

I quickly saw that the table was very passive, and would call with any decent low, regardless of whether or not they could beat the bettors best possible according to his board. Bonus!

I decided to throw a little monkey wrench Ted Forrest play.

I was the bring-in with a queen. I threw in my $10 and the bet was completed by someone who never limped with any low card showing if he was the first in (not a bad strategy, theoretically, but his later play was so atrocious that he lost several buy-in's throughout the night).

A woman directly to my right smooth called the completion with a seven, I believe. That was another thing I loved about the game, I rarely had to call more than one small bet to see fourth.

Usually I would chuck a queen. These two players, however, were different from most of my competition. They both insisted on calling down any low hand, they were calling stations who had very little knowledge of Razz strategy, and felt that any decent low was good enough to call as many bets as necessary. I knew if I made a hand, I would get a huge pot.

Some other reasons I decided to call were as follows:

~I had two babies in the hole, I believe A2 or A3
~The cards I needed were partly live
~The cards that paired me were partly dead
~There were a lot of live low cards
~If the boards stayed the same, I would be in last position on every betting round
~The bring-in was 33% of a full bet

When I called, the whole table did collective "oooh's" with their mouths, not expecting that call, nor willing to call themselves in such a situation.

On fourth I caught perfect, but both of my opponents also caught well. This assured there would be betting, and the initial completer bet out. The woman and I both called. I was drawing lower than the woman with my: A2/Q6 and equal or better than the man with his: xx/68.

On fifth I caught perfect again with a four. I can't remember what the completer caught, but the man again bet out, and we both called. At any rate, I didn't raise because his possible low was better than mine, and I didn't want to lose the woman.

On sixth I believe I blanked out and caught another queen. I think we all caught bad and checked (the woman probably would have checked even if she caught good).

On seventh the man was no longer low, I believe. The woman to my right bet, with a possible seven, I think. I watched them both check their hole cards before looking myself. I looked down to see the perfect little trey. I pondered my decision and decided that my best move was a smooth call. I figured that I would get his overcall no matter what, and might even get raised, trapping the woman in between.

The man was showing a 64 as his best possible low. Since he could not beat me, only tie me, I had no qualms about raising until the cows came home if we could jam the woman in between us.

Sure enough, the man immediately raised, and seemed excited about his hand suddenly, giving himself away.

The woman called another bet. I re-raised. The man pondered for a short time, but had no plans to lay down his hand, IMO, and finally just called. The woman pondered even longer, but absolutely couldn't lay down a good low in Razz.

The woman had a 75 low. The man had a 654xx, and I had the 6432A.

I scooped in a $930 pot and had already doubled up within the first half hour of the game.

I have found nirvana.

Felicia :)