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#1
07-15-2006, 02:40 PM
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50k H.O.R.S.E.
This was the one all professionals had been pointing toward. There had been a lot of speculation as to the number of entrants. My estimation had been 120-140. I played golf with David Grey the day before and asked him if he was playing. He said he probably wasn’t because he didn’t like the ridiculous amount of juice they were taking and the fact that it would change to no-limit hold’em at the final table. I think his sentiments mirrored those of most players who were considering playing. I also think that in spite of those things, most players who had the means to play couldn’t resist the lure of this event. The final tally was 143 players, David Grey among them.
There was a lot of excitement in the air as players waited to see who would be at their starting table. Despite the huge buy-in and the wealth of talent in the field, there were some soft spots and some easy tables. There aren’t that many players who play all the games well. Many of the talented young guns have had little, if any, exposure to razz and stud eight-or-better, not to mention straight stud. I arrived at my table to see Ted Forrest, Hasan Habib, David Singer, Mike Wattel, “Miami” John Cernuto, and young stars Tim Phan, and Joe Cassidy. This wasn’t the table I had in mind. In, fact, many said it was the toughest table in the whole event. And, unlike other events where players would be eliminated fairly quickly, in this one you figured to have the same players for most, if not all, of the first day. The big question was if anyone would be out by the dinner break. No one was. The structure for the event was as follows: The order of the games would be Hold’em, Omaha Eight-or-Better, Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight-or-Better. Each game would be played for 40 minutes. The limit would increase when it changed from the flop-type games to the stud-type games, and again when it changed back. The first level was 200-400 limit. Since there is no ante involved in limit flop games, there was the standard 100-200 blind structure. The stud game structures were a different story throughout the event. They were often different than what players were used to for the corresponding limits. For instance, the first stud game limit was 300-600, with a 100 ante. The normal ante for this limit is usually 50 or 75. An ante of 100 was a bit high. These early limits didn’t figure to be high enough to really help or hurt anyone, and I went on the first break, which came after 2 hours, with 55,300. At the table behind me there was an older guy who I’d never seen before who I heard was playing almost every pot. Players at some of the other tables were wondering how some of these people got a hold of 50k, considering how badly they played. In the meantime, my table was a real battle. No one was giving anything away. I was the chip leader at my table at the dinner break with 67,000. I’ve been playing with Ted Forrest since the ‘80s. We used to play lots of razz and eight-or-better. He’s always played a different brand of poker, and has been a thorn in lots of sides, mine included. On the Heads-up Invitational on NBC he was repeatedly called spooky. Here’s the first example of why from this event. There were 7 limpers in hold’em at the 800-1600 limit, including me with Kh8h in the cutoff. The flop came Ks-8s-6h. Ted bet, I raised and everybody else folded. The turn was the Ac. Ted checked, I bet and he raised. I thought he had a spade draw with the ace of spades, but it was also possible he had a set or bigger two pair. I just called. The river was the Qs. He bet, and I hated it, but had to call in a pot this big. He surprised me with KQ offsuit. His 3-outer cost me what was a huge pot at that point. I went to the break with 52k. A player finally got broke after dinner. The question then came up as to whether there would be a redraw for seats for the second day. In the previous, smaller events in this years’ WSOP there hadn’t been. However, in those events, players got broke rapidly and the makeup of tables was constantly changing. In this one, with the slow elimination of players, you’d figure to be with mostly the same players for well into the second day if there wasn’t a redraw. This would be unfair. TD Jack Effel saw the problem and decided there would be a redraw. Some players at good tables weren’t pleased, but I was happy to take my chances with some new faces. At the 1000-2000 limit, I got involved with Ted again. Ted’s razz play is very unorthodox. For example, in this hand he limped in with a 9 showing. I raised with 6-3-2. He called. On 4th he caught an 8 and me a 4. I bet and he called. On 5th he caught a 5 and I caught a 9. I checked, wanting him to think I paired the 4. I also didn’t want to lose him if he paired the 5, which was likely since I hadn’t seen one. He bet and I raised. He called, so I knew he hadn’t paired. On 6th, we both caught a 2. Pretty unlikely that card paired him since I had twp of them, so I knew he had a made 8 and I still had a 9. He bet and I called. I missed on the river and had to fold to a bet. He asked if I was drawing to a 6. When I said yes he told me he’d made a 6. Spooky. There was some discussion over whether to play beyond the scheduled 15 levels. It was obvious that it was going to take a lot of play the second day to get down to the final table. This really should have been a 4-day event. Many of the players with good tables lobbied to play longer. I was tired of my table and physically whipped and was glad when they decided to call it a night as scheduled. There was over 35k in the two pots with Ted. I could have easily ended the day with over 80k, but as it was I finished with 49,800, slightly below average. I got a good night’s rest and was eager to see my new table and get started. My new table was no better than the previous day’s. 1 Chad Brown 2 Miami John 3 Bechtel 4 Gavin Smith 5 Steve Z 6 Annie Duke 7 Jeff Lisandro 8 Me We were at the 1500-3000 limit, so chips were going to start moving. I won a pot against Annie with tens, then lost two pots to Bechtel, one with 77, the other with 55. I was down to about 40k when I went on a little rush in Omaha, and had 77k when my table broke. Again I got a bad draw. Todd Brunson, David Singer, Cindy Violette, Tom Franklin, Jan Sorenson, Daniel Negreanu, and Dewey Tomko. David Singer went on a huge rush, and I was one of his victims. I struggled at this table and was down to 35k when it broke. My new table had “Jesus” Ferguson, TJ Cloutier, Jennifer Harmon, Mickey Appleman, Gus Hansen, Shawn Sheikan and Gavin Smith. Gavin is really funny. He was saying that he’d never played razz, and little eight-or-better. While many were saying that this event would determine the world’s best player, he said his goal was to win it and prove that it didn’t. I needed a rush and got one. Jesus had raised my BB the first time and I’d laid it down. I couldn’t let him run over me. When he did it again, I called with Td9d. The flop came J-T-7. I check-raised on the flop and he called. The turn was a baby. I bet and he called again. The river was an 8. I was happy to see it in case he had me beat on the turn, but when I bet, he raised. I would have been sick if he’d shown me Q9, but instead he had A9. I was still a bit sick to have to chop it. However, from there I won some big hands, and was up to about 80k. In mid-rush, they moved me to another table to balance. I was only there for one hand because they then broke that table, so I’m not sure who was there other than Ram Vaswani. He raised on the button and I called from the BB with 9-7. I knew he was aggressive and didn’t have to have a big hand. The flop came 6-5-3. I’d flopped a double gut shot with two over cards and check-raised him on the flop. The turn was a 4. I bet and he called on both the turn and river and I won a nice pot. This would be my final table change. I had Chip Reese, Johnny “World” Hennigan, James Van Alstyne, Alan Cunningham, David “Chino” Rheem, and my nemesis, Ted Forrest. We were playing omaha when I sat down, and my rush continued. I scooped several pots in a row, busting Chino and Johnny World. I was close to the leaders at about 220k when this hand came up in stud: I was low with a 3, with aces in the hole. I was waiting for someone to raise so I could re-raise, but instead they all started limping, started by Ted. Four players limped, not what I wanted. On 4th st, Ted caught a Q to go with his K and bet. I raised and the others folded. Ted called. I know he likes to limp with straight cards, even with gaps. I put him on something like QT or JT in the hole. He caught a jack on 5th and bet. I called. On 6th he caught a ten. With a K-Q-J-T board, a straight was very possible. However, since I had two of the aces, and I didn’t think he’d limp with K-9-x, I felt it was more likely that he had two pair. I called and he bet blind on the river. That led me to believe more strongly that he had two pair. But, I failed to pair up on the river and laid it down. I lost about 40k in that pot and was down to 178k at the dinner break. James Van Alstyne got broke when Ted put him all in for his last 1500 on the river. Had he left him with chips, they wouldn’t have moved Tommy Hufnagle to his seat to balance the table. It turned out to be a bad thing for me. Ted’s spookiness works in a lot of ways. Tommy has been around Vegas and poker for a lot of years. He plays all the limit games great. He didn’t like the table move either, as his other table was pretty live. He was grumbling. My downfall began in a stud eight-or-better pot when we went to the river with me having the high and Tommy a better 7 low. We both caught 8’s on the river, but his made a pair so he scooped me. He then won a big pot from me in hold’em when he flopped a set of 6’s from the BB to beat my pocket jacks. He was still moaning and groaning, I had to put my headphones on to tune it out. I like Tommy and he really is a good guy. I finally asked him how much he’d have to win before he stopped moaning. He laughed and said that 70 year old guys moan a lot, even though he’s only about 60. These hands happened at the 6000-12000 limit, and I couldn’t afford to lose many more hands. In Omaha, I took a flop on the button in a 4-way raised pot from the BB with Ad-Jc-9s-2d. The flop came Kd-Jd-8c. There was a bet and two raises to me. I called. The turn was a queen, eliminating my low hopes. But, I still could catch a diamond or ten to scoop and get back over 200k. I missed and was desperate, down to 45k. I lost half of that on another missed low, and was really in trouble with 22k. However, I was still thinking positive and hadn’t given up. I scooped a pot against Chip when I had a lock low and double gutshot going to the river and made the straight. I scooped another 3-way pot and was back to 115k starting the 8000-16000 razz. On the first razz hand, I picked up A-6-4. Ted had limped with a 9, Tommy raised with an ace, and I re-raised. Ted reluctantly folded, grumbling as he always does when something like this happens and he doesn’t get to draw to his 9. 4th st. brought paints for both of us and we checked, a reasonable play. 5th gave Tommy a 2 and me an 8. He bet and I called. On 6th he caught an 8 and me a paint and I had to fold. I was down to 80k. The very next hand I picked up 7-5-4. I raised and Alan Cunningham called with a 3 up. 4th st. gave me a ten and him a 2. He bet and I called. On 5th he caught an ace and me a 2. He bet again and I called. I thought it was very possible he had a pair. We both caught paints on 6th and he bet again. I didn’t like it but I hadn’t seen any of his cards out and if he was paired I was in the lead. Or he might have an 8 in the hole and I would be drawing live. On the river I caught an ace. I really thought I had the best hand, but only had 26k left and didn’t raise, just in case. He turned over A-2-3-5-6. He told me he’d made the first five cards. Very tough hand to lose at that point. I anted off one hand, then got all in with Chip when I had the bring-in with a jack up, and 7-4 in the hole. He had three babies, but I was in the lead going to the river. I’d have had almost 30k and another shot if it held up, but he caught good and I was done. “Pretty brutal stuff,” Chip said to me as I was packing up. I agree. The limits are so high at that point of the event that no one can afford a bad run. And it doesn’t take a huge rush to amass a pile of chips. Chip went on a good one and got to the final as the chip leader. I went home and kicked the cat. Not really, but this was a really hard one to take. I’d come in to this event feeling very confident, and was just a few cards away from making a real run at it. This event set a lot of precedents. It was the biggest buy-in MTT, went the longest by far without a player being eliminated, and had the biggest bubble, over 137k. They really need to rethink this event before next year, beginning with the juice. It’s absurd to take over $2000 per player for any event. In fact, this is going to be a major TV event with the quality of the final table. It’s beyond me why there should be any juice on any TV event, much less as much as they grabbed from this one. The players put up all the money and provide all the entertainment, and have to pay dearly to do so. It also needs to be a 4-day event. It took from 2pm until 9am the next morning to get to the final table. And the payout structure needs to be re-worked. The bubble was much too high. The third table should get something like their money back. I think most players would also like to see a smaller buy-in. H.O.R.S.E event. I think $5000 or $10000 would be a great buy-in, and it should remain H.O.R.S.E. at the final table instead of changing to NLH, as it was for the sake of TV in this one. If it’s going to be no-limit at the final table, it shouldn’t be called H.O.R.S.E. Postscript: Chip Reese went on to win the H.O.R.S.E. event, with Andy Bloch finishing second. This was a flashback to poker as it was in the old days—pre-Moneymaker/internet/WPT. Razz, Stud and Stud Eight-or-Better are games that are rarely played by the new school of poker players, and the old-school guys were well-represented in the final. Chip, Doyle, Dewey, TJ and Jim Bechtel have been playing these games for years. Likewise, to a lesser degree, for David Singer and Bloch, and Phil Ivey plays them regularly in the Big Game. This was a refreshing break from the World Series of Hold’em, and I hope it starts a trend back in the direction of these other great poker games. Unfortunately, the TV influenced mandate that the final table be no-limit hold’em will probably dampen those hopes, but at least it’s a start. 
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#2
07-15-2006, 02:48 PM
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Re: 50k H.O.R.S.E.
Wow... Incredilbe read - Thanks Blair
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#5
07-15-2006, 03:07 PM
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Re: 50k H.O.R.S.E.
Great report. Nice job, Blair.
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#6
07-15-2006, 03:50 PM
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Re: 50k H.O.R.S.E.
[ QUOTE ]
Wow... Incredilbe read - Thanks Blair [/ QUOTE ]
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#9
07-15-2006, 04:33 PM
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Re: 50k H.O.R.S.E.
Great read, cheers.
[ QUOTE ] Gavin is really funny. He was saying that he’d never played razz, and little eight-or-better. While many were saying that this event would determine the world’s best player, he said his goal was to win it and prove that it didn’t. [/ QUOTE ] Couldn't help but laugh at that.
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