Lessons from a HORSE

So I played the HORSE tourney last night with the bloggers on Full Tilt. Thanks a bunch to April for setting it up, it was a blast! I don't play any poker terribly well, but limit games, and limit mixed games are so far from my strong suit, that I went in looking to play for a while, have a good time, and learn a few things about my game. I finished 17th out of 60ish, a really good finish for me in a blogger tourney. Meanwhile, we won't be toooooo jealous of Ryan and his great win in event #1 of the LA Poker Classic! Go congratulate him! And Change100 is the smartest blonde in California for swapping 5% of him before she got busted out two days ago.

So, lessons. First, these really aren't my games, especially limit 08. I'm not sure I played more than 0ne hand of Omahaha the whole tourney, and I won it with the Omahammer. So that was fun, but otherwise, I hamstrung myself trying to overthink it, when I usually can go with what my gut tells me in PL or NL games. When you have a gut the size of Gary Coleman, you learn to listen to it, otherwise it gets all "Whatchoo talking 'bout, Falstaff?" on you.

Secondly, I am such a LAG at limit games. I don't play enough limit to know that defending my button with A10 o/s to 3 bets isn't a smart play. I sucked out on Biggestron's JJ with that, but my thinking is "I'm gonna call a 3-4xBB raise with that on the button in No Limit, so I'll look it up in limit." Plus I was discounting Pauly's opening raise altogether, because Pauly is a strong, aggressive player and if his cards are worth playing at all, they're worth a raise to thin the field. So acting behind Pauly and Bdidde, I assumed I was gonna play every hand for at least two bets if I was gonna play it at all. But limit typically plays much tighter than NL, and I didn't make that adjustment well.

Thirdly, luck counts for a lot. I exploited this in the hands that I won, starting off with rolled up 6s in stud v. Pauly's pair of Kings, and making a boat on 6th street to win back all the chips I had donated to his flopped full house in round 1.

Fourthly, don't count on luck. The hand I felt like I totally misplayed was the one that crippled me against Maigrey near the end of my tourney. The reason I felt like I totally misplayed it was that I did totally misplay it. She started with a pair of Qs, caught the third Q on 4th street, and my two pair on 4th was behind all the way. And I knew I was behind, but fell prey to that ridiculously fishy sentiment of "pot committed." I was never pot committed in that hand until I pushed all my chips in knowing I was drawing to a total of 4 outs for my full house. Stupid donkey.

Oh, and I learned that there are lots and lots of bricks in Razz and Stud, and I got them all last night. I'm not sure I won a single hand of Razz, and if I did, it was through no fault of my own.

But it was a great time playing with and chatting with everyone, and hopefully I can apply these lessons learned the next time I smoke crack, I mean play a limit tourney. Off to a weekend full of meetings, y'all have fun! Go check out Pauly's Borgata Open coverage, and congratulate Ryan.

Thanks April!