$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. — Part II

When I left off in Part I of this column, I was one hour into the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, up about 20,000 in chips, when my potential backer called me. I had a dilemma here: Should I allow myself to be staked and give up much of my action, or just keep it all? Well, I had drawn a good table and was already up a good amount from my starting stack (we started with 150,000 in chips), and I knew I was playing my best, so why give up anything? “Screw it,” I said to myself. “I’m not giving up any of my action.” And with that, I just didn’t answer that call.

My decision appeared to be the right one, as I became one of the top three chip leaders for the first three days of play. Halfway through day four, however, I hit a stumbling block. The first hand was stud high, and it involved Tony G, David Chiu, and myself.

Tony was the low card, bringing it in with a 4. David raised from middle position with an 8. I was two spots behind David and had a 9 up with two sevens in the hole. Normally I would reraise here and represent split nines, but I decided to just call and see how the hand developed.

Fourth street was about as good as I could have hoped. Tony caught an offsuit 10 and David an offsuit 6, while I hit an offsuit 7. Gin! Both players checked to me, I bet, and they both called. This is when all hell broke loose.

Fifth street didn’t seem to be bad. David caught an offsuit deuce and Tony an offsuit ace. They both once again checked to me, but this time, Tony check-raised me. David folded, and the action was on me. Now, Tony had shown no strength whatsoever in this hand, never putting in a bet or raise (until now) that would indicate that he held something strong like buried tens or aces.

So, the most likely hand that he held here was aces up, a huge underdog to my trip sevens, so I went ahead and reraised him. To my surprise, Tony made it four bets! Now I was very concerned. If he also had hidden trips, he was a 2-1 favorite to have bigger trips than I did. But my board may have caused him to give me extra action with aces up.

You see, with my board (9 7 5), Tony knows that I may have something like a pair and a gutshot or a pair and a flush draw (or maybe both), and am gambling here. Knowing this, he may think I’m reraising to try to get a free card, so he’s trying to prevent that from happening by getting in the last bet. In addition to this, I have a board lock here, meaning that I could have a completed straight, so I know that if I reraise one more time, he can’t reraise no matter what he has; so, I hit it one last lick.

To my amazement, Tony reraised yet again, bringing the total to six bets. As I said, he’s not supposed to go beyond five bets, no matter what, when facing my board, so now I’m fairly certain that he has trip aces. However, I can’t fold, as I can fill up (or hit quads) and he can miss, so I call. (He also may have just gone nuts here with aces up.) On sixth street, he catches a blank and I catch the Q, giving me three open clubs.

With that, Tony sighs, and checks. I am fearful of a check-raise, but I bet out anyway, and to my delight, he just calls. What happens on the end makes me even happier; he checks blind! Now, I go back to my original read that he holds aces up, and I bet my hand in the dark. He looks at his river card and moans loudly, declaring that he can’t believe he got this hand beat as he throws in his call.

I announce that I had trips going down, and to my astonishment, as well as everyone else’s at our table, he flips up three aces. Now, as sick as I am, I realize that I haven’t looked at my river card yet. It’s like the governor called and granted me a reprieve. Well, my river card was no help, so I went back to being sick.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, at this point, Tony yelled over to his crew at PokerNews, “I’m over 700K now!” I beat him in a hand a few minutes later, and someone suggested that I do the same, but I know that Tony didn’t mean anything by it, so I let it go. But beware, Tony G. Next time, I may just avenge my fellow Vegas player Ralph Perry! (I’m just kidding, lol.)

Not 30 minutes later, another catastrophe struck. It was limit hold’em, it had been raised, and it was to me. I looked down at pocket jacks, so I three-bet it. The big blind (a crazy Russian) four-bet, and the first raiser and I called. The flop was gin — J-9-3 rainbow! The Russian bet out and the next guy raised. I made it three bets, and after the Russian called, the other guy made it four bets. I capped it, and the turn was a 10. Once again, the Russian called five bets, as the other player and I capped it again.

The river was the sickest card imaginable, a queen, making the board J-9-3-10-Q. The crazy Russian now bet out, and the other guy called. I was forced to overcall, as the pot was beyond huge, and I knew I had the other guy beat. The Russian proudly turned over A-K offsuit for the nuts.

My God! He had called a capped pot on the flop with no pair, no draw. Then, he called another capped pot after he picked up a gutshot-straight draw! Maybe crazy isn’t the adjective I was looking for.

I guess it was fitting that once I became a short stack (and three places out of the money), the crazy Russian knocked me out. The game was razz, and I raised with a three-card 8. He reraised me with a 7, and I reraised. He reraised one more time, and I had just short of a full bet, so he got a few chips back and I was all in.

I was as happy as a clam when he turned over a deuce and a king to go with his upcard 7. My three-card 8 was a little less than a 7-5 favorite. On fourth street, I caught a 4 and he caught a queen. Now, I was about a 2-1 favorite.

On fifth street, we both paired, so not much changed. On sixth street, I paired again and he hit a 3. I was in the 3-1 range now. On the river, I got a queen and he caught an ace. We both made a queen low, but his Q-7 sent me to the rail. Oh well, at least he seemed like a nice crazy Russian.