Winning a HORSE

As frequently mentioned here, most nights I play one or two HORSE sit-and-go single-table tournaments on PokerStars for a $5, $10, or $20 entry fee. I've been holding my own in the long run, but had quite a dry spell--19 in a row without taking first place. Ick.

I finally broke that string last night. Cardgrrl went out in third place on hand #120, leaving me heads-up with Villain. (I was the one who knocked her out, in a Stud/8 hand, when I caught a lucky card on 7th street to make a better two pair than hers. I has awesome river skillz.)

The heads-up battle was unusually protracted. It was, in fact, epic. I don't understand why it hasn't been the headline story at all the poker news sites today. Patrik Antonius vs. Tom Dwan? Yawn. This is where the real action was last night.

I think I played better than I usually do--hence my excessive pride at finally taking it down after 55 rounds of mano a mano. Here's how the chip stacks looked over time:




Hands 121-137 were Stud-8 400/800, hands 138-167 were Hold'em 500/1000, and hands 168-176 were Omaha-8 750/1500.

As you can see, we were pretty even at first, then I took a big lead, lost it, took it again, lost it again and was almost down to the felt before staging a final comeback. Just like in the movies.

As I said, it was epic. If you think you have seen epic battles before, this was epicer (a word I have stolen from Cardgrrl).

I can't easily show you the key stud hands, and I don't feel like going through the multi-step pain of the only way I know to do it, so I'll just skip ahead to the hold'em and Omaha hands.

#147:



Not very exciting, obviously, but a lot of chips moved my way. Sadly, I gave them all back--plus some--in the very next hand.

#148:



A real heartbreaker, that one. Ouch.

The next major shift in chip stacks didn't come until hand #154:



Yowza. Yet more pain. I think that was the point at which I asked my opponent who he was sleeping with at Stars to get dealt such lucky river cards. He did not seem to find me amusing.

#167:



I was pleased with myself not to have been intimidated by his flop check-raise, reraising him with just ace-high, and it worked out well for me.

#171, Omaha:



Here I had a crappy starting hand, but flopped a low that I thought was likely good plus an open-ended straight draw, pushed hard with it, and got lucky. I was then ahead for the first time in about 23 hands.

I finally took the thing down with hand #176:



I obviously got lucky to make my full house with the same card with which he made a flush, but I was a 63/37 favorite on the flop when the money went in, which is, I suppose, what matters most.

Anyway, it was a sufficiently fun and grueling match that I thought it was worth posting a few highlights here. I was proud not only of winning but of not giving up when a couple of unlucky hands put me on life support. It's strange how winning a $20 first place feels so good, when if I win $20 in a live hold'em hand at my usual games it doesn't even register enough to be worth remembering two minutes later.

It takes so little to make me happy these days!