More HORSE'ing around

Having read Wil's post on Razz yesterday, I was inspired to put my new found knowledge to work. So I sat down at a $1/$2 HORSE table at Stars last night. As I've mentioned previously, I won my first HORSE tournament at Full Tilt, and have successfully played in one or two HORSE ring games. I'm far, far from an expert, but I'm starting to feel a little bit better about my O8 and having just read a full five or six paragraphs on Razz, I was sure I'd have a huge advantage at whatever table I joined.

So, naturally, I proceeded to get my ass kicked. I played just a couple hands of Holdem before the game switched to O8. My cards were crap so I saw the flop cheap when I could and got the hell out of Dodge when I couldn't. My bad cards continued into the Razz round and nothing much happened in stud. Then we hit stud hi/lo. I'm starting to really hate that game. Twice I had what looked to be the obvious winner going high, only to have one of the low hands pull out a straight and kick the crap out of my trips. I was quickly down below the point where I should have bought in again.

Finally the hell that is stud hi/lo was over and we were back to Holdem, something I knew how to play. Rather strangely, as soon as we switched to holdem several people sat out. Either it was an odd coincidence, or they figured their advantage at Holdem was less than at the other games so they simply weren't going to play. I took a couple small pots at Holdem and reclaimed a bit of my dignity, if not much of my stack.

Then we were back to Razz. I got quite lucky with the cards this time around, but I also felt much more in control. I was paying close attention to all the other cards, taking full advantage of when it seemed I was the one well in the lead -- even if my hole cards said otherwise. I stole a couple pots, got some great cards in a couple others, and ended the Razz round with my stack completely restored and a nice profit on top. It was getting late so I took my small winnings and headed to bed.

This was just one admittedly lucky round of Razz, but from what I saw I'd have to agree with Wil. There are some very bad Razz players at the HORSE tables. Several times I'd look at an opponent's hand and wonder what kind of junk he thought I had underneath that he was willing to chase with what he was showing. But chase they did.

If I can keep from losing my ass at stud hi/lo, this HORSE may well be worth riding.