Why Would I Think About Stopping My Play in Razz?

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The 2k Try

Last night, I used a token for my first try at the 2k on Full Tilt. It was a rather large field at 93 entrants. Things went well for the first hour. There was a new player to my left at my first table(they had to be new to Razz) who was completeing with his Q bringins, etc. Staying in hands with 10 lows to obvious made 6s. You can't complain about players like that. He would spew his chips around the table and then chip up again, rinse repeat. Maybe he was just blowing off steam or something, who knows. It was so bad that during one hand I was involved in, a chatty conspiracy theorist at the table not-so-vaguely accused us of collusion. Idiot! If I get an email from FT, I will be so angry....

Anyway, close to the end of the 2nd hour, I was sitting in the top 5 with 35-ish players left when I got moved to a new table. I was moved a lot during this trny and I always hate that, because I don't have any reads on the players. I mis-read, mis-played one hand and slid to 9th and it was downhill from there. Eventually going out in 25th and no cash.

It was really disappointing. For one thing, the players in this are not that much better than the $5 ones. The main thing I noticed is that there is a lot more bluffing with low up cards in this one. I saw one guy go to war with 94(4) and took it showdown! He lost, btw.

So, had I not misplayed that one hand, I'm pretty sure I could've made a nice finish and that's what was so disappointing. Heartbreaking, actually! But it's the same as in a NL trny, you play great for hours and then one dumb mistake sends you out empty handed. Ugh.

I will try this one again, though. I don't think the players are all that spectacular or intimidating, like I thought they would be. Heck, I've seen more skill in PE's KORD tournament! :)

Playing a Little Razz

Well I did jump into the $5 razz tourney the other night and got 3 playable hands. Each of them bricked and I went out without much of a fight. I did win one hand when I was the bring in while having a king up and a guy only calls. I had 34 behind and hit a 7 on 4th street while he hits a queen. I called his bet and hit an ace on 5th to his 8 and we both checked. I hit and 8 and bet out and he folded. That’s all I had for the whole tourney. If bets pre-flop I would have folded.

I did play a little razz cash at the 1/2 level last night and had some fun. I was card dead early and was down about $20 before the cards started to turn. I tagged a few players after watching them play and started to come back. One player limped with a big card back and a low card up every time so I started to play at him a little. The I caught the mother load after getting back to a little more than my starting stack.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5706525337: Table Walnut - $1/$2 Ante $0.20 - Limit Razz - 1:01:00 ET - 2008/03/20
Seat 1: JoeWinsor ($7.50)
Seat 2: surflexus ($105.80)
Seat 3: Royal_Clown ($28.65), is sitting out
Seat 4: elainelowman ($17.40)
Seat 7: Talawah ($10.65)
Seat 8: pokerenthusiast ($42.10)
Talawah antes $0.20
surflexus antes $0.20
JoeWinsor antes $0.20
pokerenthusiast antes $0.20
elainelowman antes $0.20
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to JoeWinsor [Qh]
Dealt to surflexus [Ad]
Dealt to elainelowman [2c]
Dealt to Talawah [9c]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [5c 7h] [3h] – I will always play this type of hand.
JoeWinsor is high with [Qh]
JoeWinsor brings in for $0.25
surflexus calls $0.25 – calls to keep the price low with a bunch of low cards behind. May be hiding strength.
elainelowman completes it to $1
Talawah folds
pokerenthusiast calls $1 – I only want to call here with three people probably being in the hand.
JoeWinsor raises to $2 – Guy with a queen raises. Wheeeeeeeeeeee.
surflexus raises to $3 – I like his re-raise to get some dead money into the pot.
elainelowman calls $2
pokerenthusiast: is this stud?
pokerenthusiast calls $2
JoeWinsor raises to $4
surflexus calls $1
elainelowman calls $1
pokerenthusiast calls $1

$16 plus in the pot…lets hope I catch. I should have gone ahead and re-raised to cap but figured some else would so why commit a read on my hand.

*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to JoeWinsor [Qh] [Tc]
Dealt to surflexus [Ad] [Qs]
Dealt to elainelowman [2c] [Ks]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [5c 7h 3h] [Ah]
pokerenthusiast bets $1
JoeWinsor calls $1
surflexus calls $1
elainelowman calls $1

I’m loving it now. Dude has QT and calls. He is only behind every other player.

*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to JoeWinsor [Qh Tc] [Qc]
Dealt to surflexus [Ad Qs] [7d]
Dealt to elainelowman [2c Ks] [Ac]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [5c 7h 3h Ah] [Kh]
surflexus checks
elainelowman checks
pokerenthusiast bets $2
JoeWinsor folds
JoeWinsor stands up
surflexus calls $2
elainelowman calls $2

I think Surf has bricked but maybe not. I want to keep the pressure on. Moron folds and leaves the table.

*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to surflexus [Ad Qs 7d] [Jh]
Dealt to elainelowman [2c Ks Ac] [Kd]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [5c 7h 3h Ah Kh] [4d]
surflexus checks
elainelowman checks
pokerenthusiast bets $2
surflexus calls $2
elainelowman calls $2

I am ahead and ready to go. They may think I have bricked or they may have good draws.

*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [5c 7h 3h Ah Kh 4d] [6d] - Yessssss
surflexus checks
elainelowman checks
pokerenthusiast bets $2
surflexus folds
elainelowman folds
Uncalled bet of $2 returned to pokerenthusiast
pokerenthusiast mucks
pokerenthusiast wins the pot ($32)

They were drawing and bricked. I would have like to see one of them hit a good 7 there and try to re-pop me.

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $33 | Rake $1
Seat 1: JoeWinsor folded on 5th St.
Seat 2: surflexus folded on 7th St.
Seat 3: Royal_Clown is sitting out
Seat 4: elainelowman folded on 7th St.
Seat 7: Talawah folded on 3rd St.
Seat 8: pokerenthusiast collected ($32), mucked

Funny thing about playing that game is that I wanted to play a SNG but Surf was already playing razz so I jumped on. I played my PLO sng anyway and bubbled for the 547th straight time.

What Can I Do.

I went through my stats so far this year and I'm about even for everything. The FTOP stuff was a net loss because of trying to get in cheap so if I stay away from that then I am up a few hundred. Razz cash is all but even. I'm up $35 for the year with 3/6 just killing me. If I had stayed away from 3/6 I would be up a bit more but I have to take some shots from time to time.

I think I'm gonna stay away from the 2K for a while. Instead I'm gonna stick with the nightly $5 tourney and play some other random tourneys. The cash games will be far and few for the most part.

I'm Back

I want to thank everyone who came over to my other blog with condolences for the death of my dad. He was a good man and taught me how to play cards when I was young.

Now to the non-morbid stuff.

After a month of grinding a lot of Razz cash for Iron Man points and chasing down bonus money, I can say that my Razz game still needs some work. I’ve watched a few different styles of play in both tournaments and cash from loose/passive to tight/aggressive and think there is a place for all of it depending on the situation.

Now my typical style is tight/aggressive, plane and simple. I mostly play any three cards 7 and below and bet hard when I think I’m ahead. I will also re-raise you when I think you have bricked or I have a much better draw then you have for a made hand. But, during the last month I spent some time playing many hands that didn’t fit my normal style of play. I played a lot of hands with bigger cards behind and played against my opponent and not necessarily my hand. With this style I played more hands and had to get away from bricks much quicker. It allowed to confuse my opponents more because they had trouble putting me on a hand. It also has higher variability and I saw some bigger swings. What I’ve come up with is to move back to my normal play but to identify that players who like to play with big cards behind and watch there betting patterns to determine where they stand in a hand. I can open up my hands against them in heads-up situations and take advantage of there loose play. Well see how that works.

So, I hadn’t really played much since Jude so kindly posted the donk hand I played against her. Funny thing about that hand is that I knew she had bricked and since I had so many chips in by the end I was hoping for the final one to brick again. Bad strategy but it was how I played it. We all play like donks sometimes.

After a week away from the game of Razz I played the 2K on Full Tilt the other night. They have given us more chips to start with (2000) which is an improvement and may have helped me go deep that night. I haven’t looked at the hand history but I remember never getting a lot going until we were kind of deep. To start with, the first hand I played was 30 minutes in and I won a small pot to put me back over starting stack. In the end I play 6 hands the first hour and was down to 1375 chips.

The 2nd hour was a little better over all. Early on I hit a big hand to double up an agro player who I have tagged as semi-loose. We had the same board showing so I felt I was in the lead and I was. This put me at almost 2700 and gave me some working room. I dropped back down when I isolated with a re-raise and bricked. I wasn’t going to chase when I knew theses guy would pay me off when I hit a hand. I maintained my stack for much of the hour until I got that hand that put me into position against another shorter stack. But card deadness returned and I ended the hour at 2248.

By this time I had a player identified who was going to double me up. He played just about any low card up and had been betting people off hands like crazy. He gave me a few small pots when I hit well and he missed. I eventually get him heads up and we get it all in the middle. I had 5s 2c As Ah 3c vs. his 4c 9d 3d 8h 8c and I connected with the winner as he began to melt down his chip stack. Now, with the bets so big, every steal or win is huge. I slowly chipped up with a pot here and there and ended the 3rd hour with over 20K.

The bubble in Razz is long and boring sometimes and the final table bubble is worse. Nobody wants to commit to a hand as people wait for the big hand to get them over the top. This is the point where a big stack can take advantage with a few good cards by putting pressure on the medium stacks and isolating the small ones who are just trying to survive. I did chip up during that time by doubling my stack but I was still way behind the chip leaders. It was at this point that I wish I had been playing stud. I got one playable hand and face cards up. I outlasted one player at the final full of some solid players and a couple of donkeys for 7th place. Not a bad run but less then I wanted.

I ended the night playing some Razz cash and doubled up when the deck hit me square in the face. I could have used that run of cards in the tourney.

Ode to...

I will return to Brickin the Nutz in a few days as I get through this time of grief.

Pokerenthusiast