Razz'berries in the WPBT

The WPBT "R is for Razz" tournament was last night at Full Tilt. I once again had a terrible connection. Not as bad as on Thursday last, but annoying nonetheless. I'd like to blame the connection for my poor performance, but since I finished second on Thursday with an even worse connection, that probably wouldn't fly.

Razz is mostly about getting cards. Before the last card falls, two-thirds of your cards are right there for all the world to see. If you've got crap, everyone knows it. You can bluff if your down cards are bad, but you need to have good up cards or you're not going anywhere.

Last night I got dealt a long series of great 7-stud starting hands. I think I had three decent starting hands the whole time. I got bricks on fourth street in two of them and on the third, as good as my cards were, somebody had better. My hand history, which for some reason doesn't include the first two levels, shows me winning one hand. By that time I was seriously short-stacked and it was a small pot that only forestalled the inevitable for a short while. And I was bluffing because I was actually paired in the first three cards. I just happened to have two great up-cards and the other player got unlucky on fourth street. I have recollection of winning another very small pot early. Not a good night for me at all.

Of course, things were not improved by the fact that this was a crowd that, while probably not expert in Razz, had more than a vague clue of what they were doing. Winning in Razz ring games is generally pretty easy due to the presence of at least one or two complete idiots at most tables. The kind of people who will call your fourth street bet when you're showing 23 and they have two face cards up. There were none of those people in this tournament.

Tonight is Mondays At The Hoy, PokerStars, 22:00 EDT. Password is hammer. Hope to see you there.