Tonight after playing a couple forum buy-ins on Absolute I decided to see what tournaments were coming up. I saw that a HORSE game was just starting and taking late registration. It was a $20 buy-in and I love me some HORSE, almost as much as Omaha.
It started out with 32 entries. It started out slow, but patience is the key in HORSE. I push and play my stronger games like Holdem and Omaha and layback on my weaker game like Razz. It seemed like I would sit forever before playing my first hand. Then a nice roll of cards came around and gave me some chips.
About three quarters of the way through the game I was down at the bottom of the barrell. I was card dead and nothing was hitting when I went in. Again, patience, patience, patience. I waited for the right opportunity to push. Finally it came. I slowed played a monster hand against a guy that did not like to lay down high pairs. Sure enough, he paid me off. Ended up putting me in the lead with about 19 players left in the game. At that point, I played it tight and only pushing when I had the nuts. I wanted everyone else to take each other out. Eventually, they did.
We got down to the final table of 9. I was chip leader by only 2 or 3 thousand, so it was no big cushion. At one point I had a strong hand, only to get called by a guy chasing the low in Omaha and he called the entire way. I didn’t let him call for cheap. He was calling the pot size bets. Sure enough, he caught not only his small on the river, but also the flush on the last two cards. Took all I had not to go off on the guy, but I remained calm. I still had chips and I had to keep it together if I wanted to attempt to make a come back.
It was down to 5 players and I was at the bottom of the barrell again. Luck (and maybe a little skill) turned my way and before I knew it, I was back up to chipleader. Once it got down to the final 3, it seemed to take forever. I tried to let the other two player duke it out because they were so close in chips. I knew one would end up taking the other out if I just sat back. Sure enough, they battled it out. We were now heads-up.
We had a pretty decent heads-up match. A heck of a lot of folding on my part. I wanted to take this guy down at the right moment. He was aggressive and he was a chaser. This was information that was very valuable to me. I ended up using it against him and it worked. He had hit two pair. I knew he had at least one pair, possibly trips or two pair. I was on a flush draw. I was showing two of the cards face up, but two were hidden. He shot out a bet and I called. BOOM! I hit the flush. Now I had to pray he doesn’t hit the full house or quads. He just couldn’t let it go and I don’t think he ever saw it coming. I had won! Man, did it feel good.
Here it is….
It was a $20 buy-in. 1st place paid $256. Not a bad ROI. 
