I will say that I was EXTREMELY fortunate to finish in 4th. During a Razz round, I improved from an 8 to a 7 on 6th street. My opponent went all in against me. I was short too, but had him covered by 100 chips. He flips over a 6 and I don’t improve. I am down to literally the ante. 100 chips and the betting levels are 300 and 600 with a 100 ante. I was dealt 4-5-6 and improved to a 7 low in 6 cards. 5 people were in the pot trying to bust me. They all caught high cards mostly and I took the ante pot, which got me to 900 chips. For those that just looked at me like the RCA dog, we were playing 9 handed. Yes, 9 handed in a H.O.R.S.E. tourney.

Anywho, a couple of hands later, I wind up nearly doubling again when I am showing a strong board on 5th and everyone folds. I am able to take another pot a little later in Razz with some strong betting on a draw that forced more people out. At this point I am sitting around 3000 in chips. A nice comeback. Soon after, I end up doubling up in a stud hand where I pushed pocket Kings and end up catching Kings up. My opponent missed about 15 outs for a straight and flush. At this point, I have about 6000 chips and am in good shape.

One thing leads to another and I am at the final table. The event only pays 5 spots, so I still have work to do to make the money. Then, with about 7 players left, what I consider a minor disaster occurs. I am being dealt a Omaha 8 hand. I get and A of hearts, 2 of hearts, a Queen of club, and then the dealer screws up the pitch of the last card and an Ace of diamonds is exposed. I pick it up and try to keep it. The floor is right there and the first thing he says is, “He put it in his hand let him keep it.” Then, someone says what the card was and the guy was like “Are you fine with me knowing you hand?” I say sure. I have AA2Q with one suit. I’m ready to go to war with this hand pre flop. When he asks this, I show the card so that everyone has the same info. The floor then reverses his ruling and tells the dealer to replace my card. I don’t like this. I got a 7 of diamonds as the replacement card. Instead of raising with this hand, I just call the blind. The flop comes Queen of spades, Jack of spades and the 2 of hearts. I end up folding the hand. At this point, I am glaring at the dealer and mumbling about how that the floor made two calls about the hand. The turn card comes the 9 of spades and the river is the 4 of hearts. One of my opponents flips over the K-10 of spades for the STRAIGHT FLUSH. Instantly, I go from “this sucks” to “maybe that wasn’t so bad”. A couple of hands later, I tell the table what I held in that hand and everyone agreed that it was a good thing that the dealer misdealt, or I might have busted out in 7th.

Anyway, the way things turned out, we ended up doing a save and gave the 6th place finisher their money back. I suggested the deal. My reasoning was two-fold. First, if the short stack is still going to get money, then chances are they may take a chance and get busted out. Then, the rest of us get to the money easier. Second, I was about 3rd short stack at the time, and with the blinds the way they were, I could have just as easily finished 6th as 4th, and I wanted something for my 4 hours of play in the event.

The two remaining women in the field busted at the same time in 5th and 6th place and the rest of us were guaranteed at least 4th place money. I was the short stack at that point and was all-in shortly after. My hand didn’t improve and I was done. The funny thing about this H.O.R.S.E. tourney was that I did not rely on Stud 8 or better to carry me through the event. Actually, I only played one Stud 8 hand past third, and I had to fold it on 4th. I just couldn’t get hands. Most of my chips actually were accumulated in Razz of all games. A combination of good hands and bad players added up to chips.

Overall, I was very happy with my play. I definately got luck in some spots, but at the same time, I managed to play a tight-agressive style that allowed me to get to the money. While I didn’t win, it was good to see that I can still do well in a live tourney. The fact that its a limit tourney and H.O.R.S.E. makes it all the sweeter.

Well, tomorrow I have a meeting for the WSOP and then either Friday or Saturday I start covering the events. You can keep an eye over on Pokernews, and also Ill post here which events I am covering. Talk to you soon.