Friday, May 9, 2008

5 Buck Razz Final Table Epiphany (Jude)

I'm still playing the nightly $5.50 on Full Tilt whenever I get the chance, although not many others are. The numbers have dropped by more than half for this mtt. Did everyone move up at the same time and leave me behind or what??

Since I feel that I still don't have enough experience (or the bankroll for that matter) to move up to the $26 on a regular basis, I'm still swimming with the fishies in this one. There is a $10 one twice a day at odd hours, mid afternoon and late night, that I've made a couple of attempts to play, but wasn't able to cash or get anywhere near cashing the 2 times I tried it. I'll continue to give those a try on an infrequent basis, though.

So last night, I managed a 3/41 finish, which is odd, because I was down to 32 of 34 players at one point. Bricks and bring-ins were hitting me really hard in the early levels and out of frustration, I decided to just give the small remainder of my chips up and call it a night. To my surprise, I won that hand and doubled up. Then a little later, I won a 2600 pot with a J low. A J low! I made the correct read on him and just like that, I was back in the game. Although I wasn't having the best of luck, I never fell out of the top ten after that and went to the final table 5th in chips.

Of course, I played my usual passive final table game, as only 5 of the 8 would cash. For some reason I go into Super Fold Mode before the bubble. 67(8) against a raising 3? Fold it. A2(8) against a raised 4? Fold it! (Epiphany part) I know it's a leak and I know that's the reason why I can sometimes sneak into these 3rd place finishes, but I also know it's the reason I can't seem to win one of these things. I tell myself that I'm avoiding traps and those 'set up hands', but what I'm really doing is costing myself the chips I need to take one down. So.......that's what I will be thinking the next time I am nearing a final table; up the aggression to get into a winning position. A little experiment. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

5 comments:

Avi said...

I used to play in all the nightly Razz tournaments ($5, $10 and $24) and really enjoyed them. Your post got me thinking that I need to start playing them again. I stopped after my son was born because I was unable to commit to playing tournaments in case he needed my attention. He's four months old now and I have begun to play some more tournaments at night. The tight knit group of players who show up for the Razz tourneys is nice. Hope to see you there soon. And yes, aggressive bubble play in Razz is the way to win instead of just cash. Most people are not looking to play anything was A-2-3 and will often fold on fourth when they brick. I don't mind bubbling five times for one win (especially in the $24 one where first is $640 and cashing is something like $50).
~TMS

jusdealem said...

Yes, your exactly right. Just one win will make up for those bubbled finishes. I don't know why that has taken so long to sink in with me. LOL

Congrats on your little one! Hope to see you in the trnys soon. :)

jusdealem said...

*Edit for the English teachers reading*

YOU'RE exactly right...

Not enough coffee yet. :)

Avi said...

I teach social studies and I am constantly correcting the words your, you're, their, there and they're, to, too, two, etc. It's all good.

By the way, I have been meaning to ask, whose blog is this? Is it run by several players? It looks that way to me.

~TMS

jusdealem said...

This blog was the idea of The Poker Enthusiast. Since there is so little info about Razz out there, he thought it might be useful to others trying to learn the game. When he came up with the idea, he thought it would be interesting to get several perspectives and asked other Razz players if they would like to contribute to the blog.

There are several contributing writers, the names and links are posted on the right sidebar. Although some of them don't post very much...do you, Waffles???

I'm the newbie in the bunch and my posts are written from a beginner's perspective. I'm trying to work my way up to semi-intermediate. LOL