DADI, why does surf ALWAYS have better cards?

Last night I played in the D.A.D.I #9 limit HORSE tournament at Full Tilt. I did okay through much of it. Made the final table in so-so shape. One double-up and I'd have been back in it. By that time, even though this was limit, the levels were so high that a double-up was quite possible. Wwonka69 delivered the lethal, if not final, blow in O8 when his hand with about a million outs finally filled on the river. I held on for a while longer, but never really recovered from that hit. Finished in 7th.

I have to say that my general observations about HORSE appear to apply to the blogger community as well, though, perhaps, to a lesser extent. There are a lot of people who are -- dare I say it -- fish out of water when the game isn't Hold'em. I don't claim to be an expert in any of these other games, O8 still makes my head spin, but I have played most of them casually for quite a few years. Seven stud I've played since I was a kid, back before dirt was invented. So I have at least a clue or two about the back end of the HORSE.

Razz is the worst in the fish-out-of-water regard, which is odd because it's probably the simplest of all the games that make up HORSE. It's usually pretty easy to see where you stand. Sure, there's still the unknown of the down cards, but very often they don't even matter. If you can keep track of which small cards have been folded -- and online you could simply write them down -- the odds are easy to calculate. Yet, time after time, I see people chasing hands when they have no chance of winning. It reminds me of the way online Hold'em was a couple years ago -- filled with people who enjoy playing but haven't the first clue about what they're doing. Ah, the good ole days.

I find HORSE more fun than plain Hold'em if only because of this much greater variation in skill level among the players. Most of the people sitting at any online Hold'em table have some clue about what they're doing. Sure, you occasionally still run into the clueless guy who's five beers into a six-pack and thinks his bottom pair is gold, but those guys don't seem to be in the abundance they once were. It used to be you could readily find low limit ring Hold'em games with a table VP$IP in the 40-50% range. Today I'm happy to find one in the mid-twenties and am thrilled at anything over 30%. Almost everyone has bought at least a few clues and the low limit tables at many places are rock gardens. On the other hand, the fishing is still pretty good in the HORSE trough.

Kudos to Full Tilt for taking my advice and putting the name of the current game in the window title bar. This makes it so much simpler to figure out what the current game is. Just a word of advice -- always check what game you're playing before you bet.

Then there was the WWdN: Not The Darzog Invitational. Darval is working on the record for most consecutive early exits from this tournament. His play is obviously slipping since he doesn't have me to help hone his skills every Sunday. Congratulations to caspernene, Mai_K_4_Life and RoccoBoxer for making the money. Razzies to surflexus for yet again having better pocket pairs than me. I swear I'm just going to sit out the next time I'm at a table with surf. No matter what I have, he's got something better. ALWAYS. I sucked out on him in The Mookie, but no such luck last night. He delivered a crippling blow when my pocket 6's went up against his pocket 9's. Seriously short stacked, I was thrilled to see pocket 8's, and then crushed when surf called my all-in and turned over pocket rockets.

Join us next Thursday for the WWdN: Not The Mai_K_4_Life Invitational, 22:30 ET at PokerStars. Password is monkey.