Won a $30+3 HORSE SnG last night. Funniest part was that I didn’t play particularly well in the Stud games (R, S, E) and that’s where I usually accumulate chips. Typically, these games start losing people around the 2nd round of Razz and that’s where I start picking up chips. By then, I have an idea who knows how to play and who doesn’t and I start targeting the bad players and only get involved with the good players if I have a monster.

This time, I jumped out to a pretty hefty lead during the first set of Hold ‘Em. Ax sooted turned the nut flush against top two pair and added 500 to my stack when blinds were only 20/40. I bled down during the Omaha section, but made a few mental notes about the table. One guy would raise with A2 or A3 all the way to the river, even if he was duplicated. He didn’t seem to get that a low pair wasn’t going to win high OR low. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any playable hands. I continued to bleed down during Razz where I made an ill-fated bluff attempt with two baby pair against a calling station with 98 that probably should have folded to my board. Mental note made.

During the first “cycle”, I can get some pretty valuable information by just watching the betting patterns carefully. You’ll see who raises with any Ace in Hold’Em. If I see this, I might stick around with any connectors and bet into him with an ace-less flop, even if I miss it. I stole multiple pots from one guy by doing that. In Omaha, I knew a guy had A2/A3 and kept pushing him when I knew I had him quartered with the wheel AND the 67 for the higher straight. He obediently kept raising and took his $0.25 on the dollar.

HORSE is still a new game to most people, who were wet-nursed on NLHE. I wrote about this months ago. But it’s still true. HORSE is still an experiment for a lot of players. With money. They’re dipping their toes in the waters and they’re willing to pay for the lessons. They don’t know that connectors (especially sooted) have good implied odds in Limit. They don’t know that A2 ain’t a guarantee of anything or that top pair is worthless in Omaha. They don’t look to their left in Razz to see if anyone behind them might have worse cards. I saw guys fold with a door 2 with only face cards showing behind them. If they had completed, they would’ve taken the pot in all likelihood. Amazing.

One side note: After I won, I went to kiss my son goodnight and told him that I won the HORSE tournament. “I’m sorry, Trev, you don’t know what HORSE is, do you?”

“Of course I do. Isn’t that the one with multiple games? I want you to teach me that one, Dad.”

I was so proud.