WPBT H.O.R.S.E Tourney

Although this "blog" is woefully rusting away, I decided that since I definitely qualify as a reader, I would go ahead and play the latest WPBT event on Full Tilt. I had planned on playing all week, but my scene partner from acting class showed up at the last minute and almost ruined those plans. Luckily, the weather turned really bad, and she had a panic attack about being trapped out here at the "mansion" aka the boondocks; at 5:55, she freaks and starts to stress out about crashing into the quarry ravine that one must travel through to reach my pad. I asked her to wait one minute and ran downstairs at breakneck speed, logged on to Full Tilt and entered with one minute to spare. Then, I ran back upstairs, told her to get out and settled in for the rocky ride. Rocky, indeed. I've played all of the H.O.R.S.E games at one point and am pretty decent in O and S, but the R and E always kick my ass. I despise those games. So, my game plan was to play aggressively in Hold 'Em, relatively tight in O8B and Stud, and UBERTIGHT in the others. Things went well until about level 12, when I stupidly abandoned my successful strategy (I was in 7th place at this point) and decided to play Razz. Moron! My stack dwindled from the mid 4,000s to $1800 faster than you can say AAA23. Some of my Razz hands would have won me a lot of dough at the Stud tables. Stud went badly, as every starting hand I had turned to complete and utter shite. And then came S8B. I announced to my friends watching, "That's it, I'm not playing until Hold Em!" And I made good on my promise - until the very last hand of E. I got (TT)9 with two suited cards. This shortstack to my right bets out, so I raise...everybody folds around until the chip leader, who I had just implored to stay out of the hand, raises me. At this point, I figure I am pot committed and besides, the CL was representing a low. So, I figured , raise it up. Things looked up on 4th street, when I hit another 9 but nothing touched me after that. So, showdown, and the chip leader turns over rolled up Aces and a higher two pair. Hello 37th place. All in all, I loved this tourney and for $5, it was one hell of a time. My only complaint about the tourney was the rapid expansion in blinds. It was difficult to even get involved in the lowball games after the first 5 levels, and although I am definitely not an expert in them, I would have enjoyed a little more action before it got too expensive. I have really grown to love the Full Tilt interface, and it works really well with my 28.8 dial up connection (seriously, I live in the boondocks). The players aren't as fishy as those at Party, but the variance hasn't been as bad either; thus, less tilt for me and I still have my bankroll (compared to the void that is my Party Poker account). I am actually enjoying stealing a lot of pots in limit, because these guys are the tightest low-limit players I've ever seen. I rarely see a $1-2 table go to a flop with more than 4 players if there's a raise.

Anyway, a big thanks to Iggy for putting this tourney up, and I hope this is the first of many blogger tourneys I enter (and hopefully, the last where I only consider myself a reader).