Follow along with a fellow PFA member's low-roller WSOP adventure

First of all I apologize in advance for putting this in the wrong forum...I know it should be in the WSOP one, but that one is kind of slow right now and I wanted to make sure it was seen. Druff can feel free to move this over there if he would like to.

Anyway, I'm excited because exactly one week from now I will be on a plane headed to Vegas to play in only my second WSOP event ever. I'm playing the $1,500 O8 event on May 30, along with a daily O8/Stud8 tournament on May 29 at the Orleans and a $400 O8 tournament at the Orleans on June 1, assuming I'm out of the WSOP event by then.

I've created a new Twitter account to provide updates...the goal is to do as many as possible and pretty much live tweet the tournament action as it happens. It is @mdjpoker if you're interested.

Also, if Druff lets me take him out for lunch Thursday at the restaurant of his choice before the 3 pm O8 event I will donate $50 to the next freeroll, plus another $50 if either of us cashes in the event. If not, I will pledge an amount equivalent to whatever I spend on myself for lunch (probably either a $2-3 tip on a comped buffet or a $6-7 In n Out Burger combo), plus $50 if I cash.

Good luck to anyone reading this who is also playing in the WSOP this summer...maybe I'll see some of you out there!

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

First of all I apologize in advance for putting this in the wrong forum...I know it should be in the WSOP one, but that one is kind of slow right now and I wanted to make sure it was seen. Druff can feel free to move this over there if he would like to.

Anyway, I'm excited because exactly one week from now I will be on a plane headed to Vegas to play in only my second WSOP event ever. I'm playing the $1,500 O8 event on May 30, along with a daily O8/Stud8 tournament on May 29 at the Orleans and a $400 O8 tournament at the Orleans on June 1, assuming I'm out of the WSOP event by then.

I've created a new Twitter account to provide updates...the goal is to do as many as possible and pretty much live tweet the tournament action as it happens. It is @mdjpoker if you're interested.

Also, if Druff lets me take him out for lunch Thursday at the restaurant of his choice before the 3 pm O8 event I will donate $50 to the next freeroll, plus another $50 if either of us cashes in the event. If not, I will pledge an amount equivalent to whatever I spend on myself for lunch (probably either a $2-3 tip on a comped buffet or a $6-7 In n Out Burger combo), plus $50 if I cash.

Good luck to anyone reading this who is also playing in the WSOP this summer...maybe I'll see some of you out there!

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Provided I can wake up in time, yes, I'd like to go to lunch with you before the O8 event. Then we will have to hope not to be at each other's table during the event itself.

Good luck at the events, aside from any hands you might play against me at the $1500 O8, in which case I hope you get bad luck.

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Provided I can wake up in time, yes, I'd like to go to lunch with you before the O8 event. Then we will have to hope not to be at each other's table during the event itself.

Good luck at the events, aside from any hands you might play against me at the $1500 O8, in which case I hope you get bad luck.

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Yeah, I figured with no dinner break and the 3 pm start a big late lunch might be the way to go.

The real question is, if I get the big bald dealer with the heavy NY accent dealing to me, will I get some of the same PFA magic or is that just reserved for you?

I was looking at the list of players who cashed in this event last year and there were quite a few known names. But I'm sure there was probably an equal number of players that either had no (or at least very little) clue what they were doing and still ended up making the money.

The good thing about limit O8, at least in my opinion, is that people who know what they are doing have a decent edge over those that have no clue, but someone who is one of the best players in the world doesn't have a big edge over a player who might be good but not great. As long as you know which starting hands to play and which draws to push, pull and fold, the spots in a tournament where you really need to make an advanced play are so few and far between that most likely not enough of them would come up to make a huge difference. As opposed to a deep NLHE event where a top player is going to crush even a good rec just about every time, because they can put them in difficult spots hand after hand.

Might play the Omaha 08 $1,500 event since I can’t play the seniors. Played it once a few years back. Felt short stacked the entire time, but the play was poorer than your average event and very loose. A lot of people chasing for half the pot. Maybe the structure is a little better now.

Don’t play O8 in cash games. I understand the correct strategy, but after a few hours and bad beats, I go on full tilt. It’s like I can’t help myself. Bad beats and suck outs never affect me in limit hold’em, but drive me crazy in Omaha.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

Also, if Druff lets me take him out for lunch Thursday

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Druff will never turn down a free meal. He will bitch about it after though. The waitress had shoe laces that weren't even...his free meal was 8 seconds late....it was too cold or warm for him. Pick your poison lol.

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Originally Posted by Muck Ficon

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

Also, if Druff lets me take him out for lunch Thursday

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Druff will never turn down a free meal. He will bitch about it after though. The waitress had shoe laces that weren't even...his free meal was 8 seconds late....it was too cold or warm for him. Pick your poison lol.

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tomatoes

This site needs more of these stories.

TID

I have not watched these yet, but if the pictures and descriptions are any indication, these have to be some of the greatest videos ever posted to YouTube:

I love how they made it a four-part series to keep the suspense building. I'm guessing that at the end there must be some sort of disagreement about who has the low hand that leads to them throwing down the cards and literally fighting to the death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKYk19Eobe4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXo_uYKCOo0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ23u7TUT0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P_hf9nMntI

Druff in 2040

I can tell you from experience that, yes, the play at the O8 event is lolbad in the early stages.

That's why I make sure to be there for this one every year, even if inconveniently timed.

Once you get near the money, most of the fish have fallen out, and then you need to just hope to hit hands.

Last year I crushed the donks in the early stages, cashed easily, but then stopped winning hands. However, I kept splitting pots so my short stack was barely surviving for a long time. I finished 59th (out of over 1100 entrants), but wasn't in contention for a super deep run as it would appear from that finish.

If I can give you guys any advice for the WSOP O8 event, it's to just play tight preflop and let the donks hang themselves against you. You will LOL at some of the starting hands people play.

Also, be willing to fold on the flop to 1 bet if you didn't hit a good piece of it. Biggest mistake in O8 is chasing marginal flops, especially with only one side of the pot to be potentially won.

Only Druffs RealGrinders Facebook friend would put up random baby pics

Congrats! mdj1980

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Only Druffs RealGrinders Facebook friend would put up random baby pics

Congrats! mdj1980

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Not random. It's a picture of his baby listening to PFA Radio, and fortunately lowering the average listener age, which is currently about 50.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

First of all I apologize in advance for putting this in the wrong forum...I know it should be in the WSOP one, but that one is kind of slow right now and I wanted to make sure it was seen. Druff can feel free to move this over there if he would like to.

Anyway, I'm excited because exactly one week from now I will be on a plane headed to Vegas to play in only my second WSOP event ever. I'm playing the $1,500 O8 event on May 30, along with a daily O8/Stud8 tournament on May 29 at the Orleans and a $400 O8 tournament at the Orleans on June 1, assuming I'm out of the WSOP event by then.

I've created a new Twitter account to provide updates...the goal is to do as many as possible and pretty much live tweet the tournament action as it happens. It is @mdjpoker if you're interested.

Also, if Druff lets me take him out for lunch Thursday at the restaurant of his choice before the 3 pm O8 event I will donate $50 to the next freeroll, plus another $50 if either of us cashes in the event. If not, I will pledge an amount equivalent to whatever I spend on myself for lunch (probably either a $2-3 tip on a comped buffet or a $6-7 In n Out Burger combo), plus $50 if I cash.

Good luck to anyone reading this who is also playing in the WSOP this summer...maybe I'll see some of you out there!

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So you're basically saying your will pay for the honor of taking Druff out to lunch? That made my day right there. lulz. Can't make this shit up. Good luck in your tourney.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Only Druffs RealGrinders Facebook friend would put up random baby pics

Congrats! mdj1980

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Not random. It's a picture of his baby listening to PFA Radio, and fortunately lowering the average listener age, which is currently about 50.

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Yes that's my youngest son, who actually just turned 2 last week. Fortunately, for the last year and a half he's been sleeping through the night. But unfortunately it means he no longer is awake to hear any PFA radio.

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So you're basically saying your will pay for the honor of taking Druff out to lunch? That made my day right there. lulz. Can't make this shit up. Good luck in your tourney.

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If you want to fly out I will buy your lunch too and up the donation to $51.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I can tell you from experience that, yes, the play at the O8 event is lolbad in the early stages.

That's why I make sure to be there for this one every year, even if inconveniently timed.

Once you get near the money, most of the fish have fallen out, and then you need to just hope to hit hands.

Last year I crushed the donks in the early stages, cashed easily, but then stopped winning hands. However, I kept splitting pots so my short stack was barely surviving for a long time. I finished 59th (out of over 1100 entrants), but wasn't in contention for a super deep run as it would appear from that finish.

If I can give you guys any advice for the WSOP O8 event, it's to just play tight preflop and let the donks hang themselves against you. You will LOL at some of the starting hands people play.

Also, be willing to fold on the flop to 1 bet if you didn't hit a good piece of it. Biggest mistake in O8 is chasing marginal flops, especially with only one side of the pot to be potentially won.

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It really is wild the terrible starting hands some people play in O8 events. The worst thing they do is enter pots with middle cards which are death in O8. I saw a hand in a $400 PLO8 tourney at the Venetian a few years ago that blew me away. We're well into the tournament, past the late registration time, and a guy with a big stack limp-calls preflop with 669T or some such nonsense (probably not even good enough to call in PLO let alone PLO8). The flop is 346 with two hearts. This flop is exactly why you shouldn't call with this type of hand. Of course, this guy gets it all-in after a series of raises and he's up against A278 with the heart flush draw. He fades it and chops the pot. Then he remarks that he got very unlucky after flopping a set.

Here we go! The first event, the lowest of my little low-roller series, starts in just over half an hour! Today's event is a $150 buy-in O.E. tournament at the Orleans. After that it's between the cash O8 game at the Orleans or finding a game to play on the strip. This morning I got my registration taken care of for tomorrow's WSOP event so I'm glad I got that out of the way. The line was long enough at 9:00 this morning with not much going on. I can't even imagine what it will be like tomorrow once the Big 50 starts.

I will post updates from my play on Twitter (@mdjpoker). Tomorrow I'll tag them with #pfa04 so they show in that thread too.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Not random. It's a picture of his baby listening to PFA Radio, and fortunately lowering the average listener age, which is currently about 50.

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Yes that's my youngest son, who actually just turned 2 last week. Fortunately, for the last year and a half he's been sleeping through the night. But unfortunately it means he no longer is awake to hear any PFA radio.

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Baby needs new shoes.

TID

Pretty filthy they have a big Mansour Matloubi picture still hanging given his suspected involvement in the UB cheating scandal.

Well the first tournament didn't go so well. I called a few bets in Stud 8 that I probably shouldn't have and that ended up costing me a lot. The roughest hand was the Stud 8 hand where I started with three kings, didn't improve and lost a huge pot that ended up going to the worst player at our table, who had started with something like 668 and ended up making a full house and a low.

I played the 15/30 limit O8 cash game for just a couple hours and walked away $75 ahead. That game was loose and a couple players were overly aggressive...you could take some pretty decent swings in that game but there would be some money to be won in the long run. I'm planning on going back to play that some more.

So tonight it's off to the Bellagio buffet, then maybe a cash game at the Rio. Gotta try and stay up late so I can sleep late / stay up late tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

Well the first tournament didn't go so well. I called a few bets in Stud 8 that I probably shouldn't have and that ended up costing me a lot. The roughest hand was the Stud 8 hand where I started with three kings, didn't improve and lost a huge pot that ended up going to the worst player at our table, who had started with something like 668 and ended up making a full house and a low.

I played the 15/30 limit O8 cash game for just a couple hours and walked away $75 ahead. That game was loose and a couple players were overly aggressive...you could take some pretty decent swings in that game but there would be some money to be won in the long run. I'm planning on going back to play that some more.

So tonight it's off to the Bellagio buffet, then maybe a cash game at the Rio. Gotta try and stay up late so I can sleep late / stay up late tomorrow.

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In my experience over the past few years the cash games at the strip hotels are much better than the ones at the Rio by a fairly wide margin. If you like PLO the 1-2 and 2-5 at Aria and Wynn are top-top for action and comfort/service.

Quality of WSOP cash games (at and away from Rio) is way overrated.

Action does not always = good game.

Best games are in LA because the good players are in Vegas.

I gave the 10/20 O8 game at the Rio a shot tonight...I played 4 or 5 orbits, got dealt no good hands and only two that were marginally playable. Luckily I got half of a decent pot with one of those.

The game was considerably tighter than the 15/30 at the Orleans. I figured since I had been up for about the last 21 hours it wasn't going to be much fun trying to grind out halves of pots against this group for the rest of the night, with most hands only getting three or four way action at the most.

I ended up leaving $15 ahead.

So after day one:
-$150 in tournaments
+$90 in cash games
+$78.50 of cashed out freeplay (was a credit card bonus)



I have now been up for 23 hours. I have more money than I arrived with. Of course, tomorrow is really the big day that will likely determine whether or not the trip is profitable...time to get some rest!

So are we going to lunch or not?

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

So are we going to lunch or not?

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Sure! I'll text the PFA line so you'll have the number, then just text me where and when and I'll meet you there.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Quality of WSOP cash games (at and away from Rio) is way overrated.

Action does not always = good game.

Best games are in LA because the good players are in Vegas.

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Not always but I’d say there is a very good correlation.

Congrats on finding a bag. Now run that shit up all the way to the FT.

All the tweets with all the details are in the Event #4 thread in the WSOP forum, but to summarize...I got a very tight table to start with, aside from one woman who was overly aggressive, especially when she started losing....this was bad because there weren't any horrible players that were going to give away chips. But it was also good because the play was somewhat passive aside from that one woman, so I was never going to have to get in a lot of chips in a tough spot.

We had one super talkative guy that basically ran his mouth the entire time he was at the table, but generally in a funny way that kind of lightened the mood at the table. Brian from Brooklyn...he said he was a dealer in West Palm Beach. Eventually he would be eliminated, along with everyone from my starting table aside from me and one other guy.

The most interesting of the additions to the table was obviously Phil Hellmuth, who late registered after the NBA game ended. There was one pot where I got about 3-4k of his 10k stack by defending my big blind against his raise then hitting a higher two pair. He looked mad after that hand but didn't say anything. He was very quiet the entire time even though Brian from Brooklyn was trying to get him to talk. Eventually Phil busted in a pretty ordinary hand.

The worst addition to our table was Ian Johns. He was a very nice guy, but he is also a very good player. He really seemed to have complete control at our table, both playing well and running well, and eventually he ran up a stack of over 50k.

I was up close to 38k at one point then the last two hours was pretty card dead and my stack gradually dwindled to 25,400 by the end of day one. That puts me 141/371 coming back for day two this afternoon.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

Well the first tournament didn't go so well. I called a few bets in Stud 8 that I probably shouldn't have and that ended up costing me a lot. The roughest hand was the Stud 8 hand where I started with three kings, didn't improve and lost a huge pot that ended up going to the worst player at our table, who had started with something like 668 and ended up making a full house and a low.

I played the 15/30 limit O8 cash game for just a couple hours and walked away $75 ahead. That game was loose and a couple players were overly aggressive...you could take some pretty decent swings in that game but there would be some money to be won in the long run. I'm planning on going back to play that some more.

So tonight it's off to the Bellagio buffet, then maybe a cash game at the Rio. Gotta try and stay up late so I can sleep late / stay up late tomorrow.

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You are pretty out of your league when stuff like this happens " 668 and ended up making a full house and a low. " ;)

nice TR though. I like this stuff.

He's about 70 away from the money right now, and tweeting actively.

You can see it all here: https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...9-3-00pm/page4

Good luck!

Everyone else I know from PFA is out of the event.

So yesterday went pretty well I'd say! I was able to make it to the money pretty easily without having to ever go all in. The tweets in the other thread have all the details...now that I think of it I think I was down to like 16k when we were playing 1200/2400, so I was starting to get short...but then just a few minutes later I scooped a pot to get back into a more comfortable position.

I got to play some with Jeff Madsen and David Benyamine as far as the big names go. And Andrew Barber. There was a little political discussion but since they were all on the same side it was very friendly. I wonder how Druff would have handled that...

After making the money I kept chipping up and at one point reached a high of 198k when there were around 60 players left. But one misplayed hand cost me a good chunk of that stack, then some blinds and missed flops later and I was down to my day ending stack of 102000 with 46 players left. We return to bet levels of 10k/20k today.

Anyone have advice on how to play such a short stack in O8?

For example, if I get something like A257 in late position and someone raises in front of me, do I re-raise to try and get it heads up, or with such a short stack is it better to save that bet while maybe letting the blinds come in? Does that answer change if you think the initial raiser will 4-bet, or if your hand is suited or double suited?

What about defending the big blind when you have 10k out there, there's a raise and you now only have 90k behind? I'm thinking that there is still room to be selective, at least for the first couple rounds of blinds. After all, the chip leader right now has 475k which can be reached in just a few hands when the bets are 10 and 20k. If there are multiple callers in front of you are you more likely to widen that range? Seems like the obvious answer is yes but I thought I saw an O8 video on YouTube where Bart Hanson actually said something to the contrary.

We start at 2 pm pacific today...hopefully I can catch a hand early and get right back in it! Follow along with the @mdjpoker Twitter account or the event 4 thread in the WSOP forum.

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Originally Posted by donkdowndonedied

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

Well the first tournament didn't go so well. I called a few bets in Stud 8 that I probably shouldn't have and that ended up costing me a lot. The roughest hand was the Stud 8 hand where I started with three kings, didn't improve and lost a huge pot that ended up going to the worst player at our table, who had started with something like 668 and ended up making a full house and a low.

I played the 15/30 limit O8 cash game for just a couple hours and walked away $75 ahead. That game was loose and a couple players were overly aggressive...you could take some pretty decent swings in that game but there would be some money to be won in the long run. I'm planning on going back to play that some more.

So tonight it's off to the Bellagio buffet, then maybe a cash game at the Rio. Gotta try and stay up late so I can sleep late / stay up late tomorrow.

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You are pretty out of your league when stuff like this happens " 668 and ended up making a full house and a low. " ;)

nice TR though. I like this stuff.

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LOL. Oops...just realized my error there. I think it was because she said she had a low or was going for one, and I didn't even think anything of it as I was mad about my three kings not improving. No doubt though, I am not an experienced stud or stud8 player.

Good news and bad news...bad news is I was knocked out in 33rd place when Jeff Madsen's flush rivered my flopped broadway. Had I won that I would have been up to a more reasonable yet still short stack of around 135k, playing 12k/24k limits.

Good news, we didn't have to play in a warehouse.

The best story of the week had nothing to do with poker. Thursday morning I went downtown to look around, and I took one of those coupon books with all the free match play offers. Then as I walked around I played them off and ended up winning like $70...

But I'm getting off track. The funny thing happened when I went to the Main St. Station buffet for a half off breakfast (it actually was pretty good, especially for the price). I went up to the register to pay. There was one couple in front of me and one guy behind me. The restaurant appeared to be like half full...plenty of seating available. The guy behind me speaks up and says "are you just by yourself?" Then to the staff he says "if there are only two tops available I don't mind sharing."

What the?! Clearly there was plenty of seating available and that was not going to be necessary. It was so weird. Luckily they called me over and got me (my own) table and I just ignored him. But I wonder what his thinking was. In Vegas in a casino I could imagine someone who might be trying to sell something or get me to loan him money or something like that. Or maybe just a really lonely person?

So here I am typing this, waiting just a few more minutes before heading to the airport. I had booked my flight home for tonight and I have never missed a flight before. But I was really hoping that tonight would be the first time, and I'd just get one for tomorrow once I made the dinner break tonight. But that's ok...just gives me more motivation to come back next year.

Forgot one last thing...I am a man of my word...so right now, as mentioned in the first post in this thread, I am going to ship Druff $59.63 as a donation for the next freeroll. $50 because I cashed and $9.63 because Druff slept through lunch, and this is what I ended up getting.

To make it more interesting let's say $50 to the main pot and $9.63 as a bounty on me. I don't play much because they are very late for me on east coast time. But I will set an alarm or whatever I need to do to get in the next one. Fair warning though, if I'm too tired I might just shove with any two cards and try to lose so I can get back to sleep...maybe not though...

shit sorry I didn't see this earlier...im no O8 tourney expert, but ive played more O8 than I care to admit...

with a short stack I would be looking to iso with hands with high card/high pair strength and at least some sootedness...AK28ss, AQ45ss, KK34, AA78 type shit...those hands can actually show down a scooper HU based on high card/high pair strength...

Id be looking to go multiway with wheely aces that are nut or double sooted...A752ds, etc...these hands don't have high card strength to showdown HU against guys who aren't total fucking droolers and benefit from worse lows and FDs in there...

maybe im wrong on this in tourneys, but I play a lotta short stack NLO8 and that's all about hot-cold equities and showdownable hands...you just gotta know what can showdown winners against multiple opponents vs. a single opponent when you are a shorty...

TAKE IT DOWN

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Originally Posted by GambleBotsChafedPenis

shit sorry I didn't see this earlier...im no O8 tourney expert, but ive played more O8 than I care to admit...

with a short stack I would be looking to iso with hands with high card/high pair strength and at least some sootedness...AK28ss, AQ45ss, KK34, AA78 type shit...those hands can actually show down a scooper HU based on high card/high pair strength...

Id be looking to go multiway with wheely aces that are nut or double sooted...A752ds, etc...these hands don't have high card strength to showdown HU against guys who aren't total fucking droolers and benefit from worse lows and FDs in there...

maybe im wrong on this in tourneys, but I play a lotta short stack NLO8 and that's all about hot-cold equities and showdownable hands...you just gotta know what can showdown winners against multiple opponents vs. a single opponent when you are a shorty...

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You're correct. Trap hands like AAxx and KKxx, which tend to be crap in O8 cash games (and tournaments when not short stacked), are actually good when you are short and just are going to have the board run out.

The problem with them when you're betting on every street is that you can rarely be confident that those hands are good, and when you get action, you're often beat (or at least going to chop).

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by GambleBotsChafedPenis

shit sorry I didn't see this earlier...im no O8 tourney expert, but ive played more O8 than I care to admit...

with a short stack I would be looking to iso with hands with high card/high pair strength and at least some sootedness...AK28ss, AQ45ss, KK34, AA78 type shit...those hands can actually show down a scooper HU based on high card/high pair strength...

Id be looking to go multiway with wheely aces that are nut or double sooted...A752ds, etc...these hands don't have high card strength to showdown HU against guys who aren't total fucking droolers and benefit from worse lows and FDs in there...

maybe im wrong on this in tourneys, but I play a lotta short stack NLO8 and that's all about hot-cold equities and showdownable hands...you just gotta know what can showdown winners against multiple opponents vs. a single opponent when you are a shorty...

---

You're correct. Trap hands like AAxx and KKxx, which tend to be crap in O8 cash games (and tournaments when not short stacked), are actually good when you are short and just are going to have the board run out.

The problem with them when you're betting on every street is that you can rarely be confident that those hands are good, and when you get action, you're often beat (or at least going to chop).

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The longest I took to make a decision that tournament was when I had 23k left with 10k of that sitting in the big blind, and about 40 players left. I believe my hand was QcQsJh4h. "Uncle Johnny" Esposito (who went on to take third) was in the small blind and it folded around to him. After giving me a walk the last time this happened, this time he says "I gotta try to get rid of you" and raises. I really didn't want to put my tournament life on the line with that hand...my thinking was if everyone folded around there were likely many small cards left in the deck, he probably had at least two himself so he's going to make some sort of low and I'll have to hope the queens hold up just to get the high half. But at the same time I didn't want to move on to the next hand with just 13k, 5 of it going to the small blind.

So I called, he caught middle pair on the flop, and I had to fade a bunch of outs to survive. He ended up making an emergency low and my queens took the high. A lot of the players said that they were surprised I hesitated to call with the queens and such a short stack.

Watching the final table, Ben Yu folded something like 10JKA six or seven handed under the gun when he was very short stacked. I was surprised to see that, although at that point there was another short stack and like a $10k pay jump, so maybe that was part of his thinking there.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

You're correct. Trap hands like AAxx and KKxx, which tend to be crap in O8 cash games (and tournaments when not short stacked), are actually good when you are short and just are going to have the board run out.

The problem with them when you're betting on every street is that you can rarely be confident that those hands are good, and when you get action, you're often beat (or at least going to chop).

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The longest I took to make a decision that tournament was when I had 23k left with 10k of that sitting in the big blind, and about 40 players left. I believe my hand was QcQsJh4h. "Uncle Johnny" Esposito (who went on to take third) was in the small blind and it folded around to him. After giving me a walk the last time this happened, this time he says "I gotta try to get rid of you" and raises. I really didn't want to put my tournament life on the line with that hand...my thinking was if everyone folded around there were likely many small cards left in the deck, he probably had at least two himself so he's going to make some sort of low and I'll have to hope the queens hold up just to get the high half. But at the same time I didn't want to move on to the next hand with just 13k, 5 of it going to the small blind.

So I called, he caught middle pair on the flop, and I had to fade a bunch of outs to survive. He ended up making an emergency low and my queens took the high. A lot of the players said that they were surprised I hesitated to call with the queens and such a short stack.

Watching the final table, Ben Yu folded something like 10JKA six or seven handed under the gun when he was very short stacked. I was surprised to see that, although at that point there was another short stack and like a $10k pay jump, so maybe that was part of his thinking there.

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man that's a really shitty tough one in your spot...it helps that you at least have some sootedness...with 2 big bets left I guess you probably have to go with it and pray...

ben's fold is pretty standard there...not having that low equity is so huge in hot/cold spots if you are just running out the cards...UTG having to fade 6 other hands, you're better off just waiting for the blinds to pass and look to attack from LP...