Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Going away for a few days

I'll be leaving for a few days, so there won't be any updates until the end of the weekend, most likely. However, I did want to write a little bit about a game I played yesterday. I played against Lee and Dale, and the stakes were a mere $5 each (low stakes, esp. considering that the Monday Night game is now $10+1 w/$5 rebuy rather than $5+0.25 w/ $5+0.50 rebuy, which it was the last two years). We played a freezeout, with no rebuys, and we played limit h.o.r.s.e., raising the limits/blinds/antes after the completion of each round of stud eight-or better.
For those of you unfamiliar with h.o.r.s.e., the game changes every so often, from Hold'em, to Omaha, to Razz, to Stud, to stud Eight-or-better, and then back to hold'em, etc..
Dale was fustrated by the limit betting structure, and especially so when I played AT against his QQ during a hand of hold'em, and flopped a pair of aces. Dale wanted to be able to knock me out of the pot before the flop with a large reraise, and was frustrated that his queens were so easily beaten. However, he called me down with his queens in the hand - which I don't really like.
The fact is, limit poker isn't nearly as much about bluff and shoving your opponents around as no-limit. You have to push edges, save bets, earn that extra bet, etc. He was right to reraise me with the queens, but I was right to take a flop, and right to bet afterwards.
In going from no-limit to limit, it can seem like you're being restricted, like some of the weapons in your arsenal are being taken away. This isn't the case. Actually, the whole arsenal changes. You have to adapt your play to your situation.
Dale ended up stacking off a while later, and the limits kept increasing. Finally, Lee was eliminated in a hand of 100-200 Razz (each of us began with 2040 in chips, so the limits were considerable), in which we got all the chips in on fifth street, while Lee had 3457 for a one-card draw to the seven, and I had A356 for a one-card draw to the six. I caught a deuce, making my six high, and Lee caught paint, and he was drawing dead.

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