The Chainsaw Report, Vol. 3

There was quite a line at the registration area for the $3K HORSE event. I had been anticipating this event, since I know all the games well, and because it has a mid-range buy-in, it attracts people not skilled in all the games.

I had been sending Twitter messages back and forth to Shannon Elizabeth to be sure not to miss this event, and was happy to see her in line. We had met briefly last year during some of the mixed-game events and also at the WPT Celebrity Invitational and her play really impressed me for someone who had so little experience in playing tournament poker.

I got to my seat and recognized only a few faces. “SamEnole”, an internet limit-games specialist, Bob Gollick, a stud specialist from the Commerce, Tad Jurgens, a great cash-game and tournament mixed-game player, and Tommy Hang, high-stakes cash-game player.

There was an older gentleman next to me who played very tight solid, and some wildcards.

During the first round of limit hold’em, I lost with two premium starting hands, but I managed to scoop two Omaha 8-or-better hands and held my own during the stud games to finish the first break at a respectable 11,000 chips.

After we came back from break, I lost every hand I played in stud 8-or-better, one of my better games; where I would have premium starting hands like A-A-3-5-5-6 and lose on the river to someone who made a set of twos on a pair of twos with a low draw hand.

I got back on track when I defended a queen in razz and wound up with a seven low. I was winning lots of razz hands and got back to over 12,000, but lost all my profit on a 2-3-4-6 Stud-8 starting hand which didn't pan out.

By the second break, I was at 9,800 chips.

I lost the first two hands back from the break. The stakes were now 300/600, and with 9,000 starting chips and very few players eliminated, every hand played to the river could cripple you. In an Omaha 8-or-better hand I flopped the low draw and turned kings and treys. The river made a K-high straight draw possible, which is what my opponent had. After losing two pots, I was down to 6,675. Tad then scooped me when he raised 2-3-5-J in early position against my A-3-3-6 in one of the blinds. He had a 3-5 low to my 3-6 low and two pair to my unimproved aces. I was notched slightly on both the high and low and down to 2,400 after playing only a few hands!

We got back to my cash cow, the razz round, and I made a wheel in five cards and won the next razz hand again to skyrocket back to 7,000 chips.

Then disaster struck in the Omaha round again. I raised A-A-4-6 under the gun and only Keith Sexton called. The flop came down 5-5-K with no suits, and I bet out. He called fairly quickly. There was a decent chance he held a five, or even a pair of kings, so I check-called the queen on the turn. This play also lets Keith bluff a bad queen or king in this spot. A jack fell on the river, and I knew Keith would bet again even if he had one of those hands so I checked. He bet as expected and I called. He said you have to win and turned up his cards. He had an ace, some low cards and... a 10. He had misread his hand and was bluffing with the nut straight! I was back to 3,300 by the next break.

We got to my favorite game, razz, and I found a nice A-6-7 to play. I was heads-up with one opponent. We caught similar cards to fifth street and by sixth he had me notched by a jack versus a queen. The river would decide it. I had only 200 chips left when he bet the river. I knew he had at least a J-low, so I needed to improve. I paired my queen and folded for the 200! He had improved to a 9-low, but I was drawing live if I hadn’t paired the queen on the river.

My strategy to save that last 200 worked well, as I parlayed that into about 1400 in another razz hand, but eventually lost those chips in a stud hand.

Tomorrow is the $1,500 Shootout. Check my next Chainsaw report for my thoughts on that....