Kicking a dead HORSE in Dana Point

Work, soccer, then poker made up my Tuesday. Russ had invited me to the game he plays in Dana Point. It was a $20 NL holdem freezeout tourney, followed by a $20 limit HORSE tourney, blinds up every 15 minutes for each tourney. Seven players for the holdem, and we lost one for Horse.

I finished 2nd in the holdem tourney, once again making timely (and uncalled!) first-in pushes when my chips started getting low. One of these days, Russ is going to catch me, and start giving me less credit for a hand. But for now, if I'm pushing with K7s, he's folding A9o.

It was down to heads-up, and I was way short... 3K in chips with the BB at 800, and 15K for the chipleader. I was BB to start, and Russ started jabbering about how I had to be all-in this hand, and I should do it blind. I peeked, and I saw one of Russ's favorite hands, 84 offsuit. I told him I was doing this for him, and call my opponent's all-in to see his 87 offsuit. Crap! My cards aren't even live. His hand was unimproved, but mine hit runner-runner fours to double up.

I couldn't push with the trash I was getting (he was drunk by this point and would've called with any two), so I made my stand with pocket 4's, and he called with KJo. He had two pair by the end of it, and no trips for me. All things considered, I did pretty well to stick around.

It was my first time playing HORSE (holdem, omaha/8, razz, stud, and stud/8) live, and the tourney format was nice. I made a couple of fishy moves, but I had a great double-up late in razz when my seven card hand contained two pair, sevens and twos. My other cards were just good enough to avoid elimination. I ended up busted in stud when the chipleader put me all-in preflop with AK/4 to my J8/8, and his two pair beat my queens up.

I broke even for the evening, but it was a good time and a new experience.