So I posted a 24th in the no limit hold’em, and today I finished 14th in the HORSE event. Making that back to back cashes here at the WSOPE and oddly, my last two HORSE tournaments I’ve come 13th (The 50K HORSE) and 14th today.

Once again I gave it my all, but ran dirty ugly in Razz, and frankly, never really held many hands in any of the games for any stretch. I hung tough as long as I could before losing it all on kind of a gross hand.

I raised to 6k with and all folded to Phil Ivey who I figured would defend with virtually any piece of cheese despite the fact that I raised from the two hole. The flop came giving me a set and the nut low draw. Ivey check-raised me, I re-raised, and he re-raised me all in. His hand was a beauty: rainbow for the nuts straight. Nice. Turn a 2 pairing me, then an ugly King on the river and that what was that.

Ivey has a ton of chips so I’ll have to fade him winning a bracelet and firing back 200k his way.

I played an interesting hand earlier in stud with Patrik: he raised with the and I called with () and an called behind us.

On fourth street Patrik caught the and I caught the . Patrik bet and I smooth called. On fifth street Patrik caught the and I caught the .

Me: ()
Patrik: (x x)

Patrik bet, I raised, he re-raised and I called, planning on raising him again on sixth street. With me having three of the nines it was highly unlikely that he held in the hole.

Me: ()
Patrik: (x x)

Patrik bet, I raised, and he re-raised me again. At this point I put him on a hand like in the hole, or possibly trips higher than mine. Based on the way I played my hand it seemed obvious that I had to have trips. There is just no other hand I could really have there aside from trips.

I missed on the river and Patrik bet in the dark. There was a gazillion bets in the pot, but I decided to fold the hand and think it was the right decision even factoring in the pot odds I was being laid. He just couldn’t be bluffing there and I found it highly unlikely that he’d play two pair that fast against my board. After all, if I can raise a super strong board like the one he was showing, twice, then for him to bet he had to be able to beat what I was representing.

My level of focus and determination is definitely there as I predicted it would be this trip. Tomorrow is the Pot Limit Omaha event and it starts a bit later which is good since I’m a bit tired from all the hours of play. Too many hours can make me a bit cranky, and I was definitely a bit cranky tonight… time fro bed.