$10,000 8-Game Mixed Event.

So, in my opinion, $10,000 is a lot of money. I'm not sure if there will ever be a point in my life where it becomes a trivial some. In the poker community, $10k is a roughly small sum. Today's event attracted 194 players. 194 people felt comfortable playing Holdem, Omaha 8/b, Razz, Stud, Stud8/b, Decue to 7 triple draw, NLHE and PLO. My feeling on this event is that though I may not be world class in any one game, I feel I play them all well enough that having no one game I feel very uncomfortable with, makes me a favourite over those who play HORSE for example, at a world class level, but struggle with the big bet games (nlhe and plo). The tables played 8 handed. I had starting in the 1 hole, Jimmy Fricke, myself, some monster amateur from mexico city, ted forrest, john 'pearljammer' turner, sebastian ruthenburg, some very tough live 30 something, howard lederer. I'd say all in all, a really bad table draw. Fricke and the 30 something play all games well. Ruthenberg players nlhe and plo well, manages with the others and is a very comfortable tournament player. Howard is very strong in the horse+deuce games, tight in the others. Ted is really tough in stud, plays a lot of hands in the others but plays very well. I would say omaha was the most exploitable game all in all.

Anyways, right away I lose the first hand in Deuce. I crap out on a 8432 draw. I lose the second hand 234xx aired 1st and 2nd draw and I folded my 3card hand with the last draw remaining. Lose a pot in holdem, win one in o8, down like 3k from 30k starting. Stud Hi, fold fold fold, jimmy opens with xx7, i RR with xxA. he calls. I have 22A, pretty standard/aggressive play here but I think he takes 4th of light and folds if unimproved on 5th. I peel a K he peels a 3, he check calls. 5th street we both catch the case deuces. He leads, I raise, he calls. 6th he pairs his door card, I pull a 3 he check raises. I bet this street because I feel he often has 2pair. His raise says, matt I have 777, but keep in mind my board is xxAK23, it doesn't take a really top hand to raise this board (a point I left out was that he had the 7h on the door, the 2h was 5th for him, I put him on either a buried pair of a FD, hard for him to get to 5th with 77). Anyways, river comes and pairs my K so I have 222KK, he leads, I raise, he 3bets, STOP. River 3betting in level 2 of this tournament is not for bluffing. My nut low tight is a bluff catcher in this spot. With 4900 bets in the pot I have to call, he may have wigged out with hearts or he may just have trips. He shows AA777. He told me he started with AA down and rivered the 7. Either way, massive pot for this level, I'm down to like 22k. I then putter around stud8,nlhe and then plo this hand happens.
Limp by ted forrest, limp by other, I have 78JK in my BB. Flop is 37J rainbow. I lead into both limpers. Ted calls me quick, other folds. Ah on the turn. Ted's flop call meant to me two things. He didn't have a set(I think he raises here on this board, evaluates if I 3bet the flop), I put his call somewhere in the neighborhood of the 4567, 89TJ sort of 3card gut shots with a pair. I bet near full pot into him on the turn, planning on folding if I got raised. He flats. River is a 2h bring back door hearts on board. The pot is 9.8k or something at that point. I check really fast. I want ted to fire his missed draws or turn some made hand into a bluff here. I don't really think Ted's played a ton of PLO so i'm not sure how thin he'd value bet which hurts my ability to figure his holding out. Anyways, he bets 6.5k, and I called. Ted showed me a Q433 with hearts. This is the one hand in the 8 hours of play today that I really wanted back. I didn't put 33 in his holds at all. He limped utg and doesn't raise that flop when I lead. Okay, he induced a worse hand to take the lead and got two streets of value out of his set. The bet on the river I have only two choices I think, check fold or check raise all in. The latter is hyper aggressive without the key card but at that stage of the tournament, he needs squarely the nuts to call me. As played, I like the lead twice if I plan to fold to a turn raise, the river is poorly played. Anyways, down to like 14k in two hours. Not a good start.
Break time, refresh, win a few pots in the other games, nothing too sick happens, lost every razz pot I played all day, crapped out or paired my babies nearly every hand. Then nlhe comes back around. The structure called for antes, and high antes in proportion. Everyone folded to the button who opened to 900 at the 100-200 level. With everyone anteing 75 I defended my BB with JT. Flop: 9TQ. I checked, he bet pot, I called. Turn was a 2, I checked, he bet 4k, I tanked for a minute, felt I had the best hand, thought he was trying to push one through and that he was a strong enough player that he'd check a better ten back for pot control and value. River was a 3 and he put me all in. I called pretty quickly and got back to near 30k. A few pots later I went to dinner with 34k.
After the break, I lost a deuce pot in which I was a card ahead each street, then Howard two-outted me in Limit Hold'em, my 66 vs. his 33 on a 7QQ board, turn 3. I called him down. Fricke smashed me up in a Razz pot, I put a big squeeze bluff on in No Limit to get back the chips I lost in that pot but after that it was a beat-down elevator where every hand just seemed to get run-down or went unimproved to showdown. Finally, I was ground down to around 14k in chips with 30 minutes left in the last level of the day. Stud hand vs. the mexico city fish. Everyone folds, I have 5sKs8s to start with no spades, kings or eights out. I open, he flats xx2h. The bring in folds. I peel a J, he peels a J, i bet, he calls. 5th is a 5h for me a 7 for him. I bet, he calls. 6th street is an Ace for me, a 3 for him, I bet, he calls. Now look at his board, 2J73, no suites. I thought, he started with a pair in the hole, like 552 or 882, more likey a 3flush that hit a pair along the way but the Jh was killed in someones door. Anyways, I air out 7th and bet, he calls with 2277xxx. He called me on 3rd with 272. He two pair on 5th. Now, what hand can I open and bet 4th with that his 22 is even in contention. I was really really speechless to see this hand play out like this. How many times have you heard don't bluff the fish, well no stud player in the world plays 22 like this if at all. He makes no attempt to win the pot, just content to try and table 22 but hits two pair along the way. I'm down to 2500 and get it all in with a 3flush and two babies in Stud 8 or better in the last hand of the day and crap out.

Pretty frustrating day of poker. I was really looking forward to this event and with the exception of the plo hand vs. ted, I felt I played fine giving the situations I was presented with. A lot of the skill to this mixed events in my opinion is playing pots with weaker players if you can, doing what you can to win the hands you're in (which I felt I tried to do all day) and then ultimately when the limits get high you have to run well. A lot of things have to happen for me to lose that stud pot. Anyways, the series goes on, no money for looking back in anger.

On a side note, 10k tournaments don't lend themselves to a chatter-filled table environment. Right off the bat I wanted to start talking to mine. I wanted to loosen then up and see if the would get a little more involved in conversation and a little less in never making a mistake. Ted, Howard and Jimmy were eventually very friendly and talkative. Every topic you can imagine got stirred around in those 8 hours, all about FullTiltPoker, all about what it would cost for Howard to do x (deal at the wsop instead of playing for example), Ted wanting to set a line for everything, Ted talking about what sport Lebron could dominate if given x years, UFC, poker celebrities, cheating, sports betting, the economy, etc. Good fun, terrible run, moving on.