7 Card Stud Game at Foxwoods

[shipitfish]

As promised, I played some limit 5/10 7 Card Stud while at Foxwoods. As roryk suggested, these games are not as "whiny" as the HE games. In the end, I didn't play very long: about 2.5 hours and 79 hands, winning three of those. I lost about $20 (just two BBs, basically all due to the last hand I played).

Mostly, I played a straightforward strategy: playing only big pairs or big drawing hands, and folding on fourth street if they didn't improve. I only played my big pairs beyond fourth street when heads up against certain players and when I felt confident that I had the best hand. The "certain players" were those who would call on third street with just big cards, hoping to pair. I could watch their boards and be sure that they hadn't improved. They had enough tells that I could pretty reliably fold my small one pair if they improved.

However, this did get me into a bit of trouble on two hands against one player. To my left in the game was an 80-year-old perennial calling station. Most of his table chat indicated that he was just there to comfortably pass the time in his retirement. He lived not far away, and he and his wife came down regularly to relax. He didn't mind much about giving money away. He would make deals when heads up to "check the hand down" to see who wins. He was playing poker like it was bingo.

I decided that I wasn't going to play this way against him. He loved to stay in well past third street unpaired, as long as he had big hole cards. He'd fold somewhere around sixth street if he hadn't improved. Twice, I played a hand to the river with him in this situation.

The first time, about halfway through my time in that game, I picked up (3 3) J. I had a small pair with a J kicker, my cards were live, and the bring-in was just to the left of my elderly buddy, so I'd decided to complete. My buddy called with an 8 showing, one of which was dead, and the bring-in folded. We went heads up to fourth street.

I didn't improve, but was still high on fourth street and bet. He called. On fifth street, I caught four-flush and he caught a Q. He was now high and bet out. I decided that he must have picked up a pair of queens, having likely started with AQ in the hole. I decided to raise. The reason being that since he was so passive, he would surely not charge me on sixth street to draw if I needed to, and he would pay me off no matter what I made now that he had a pair of queens.

He called the raise, and we checked through on sixth street when neither of us improved. I rivered the 3, and when he checked to me, I decided to bet. He wouldn't bet even Queens Up in this spot. Meanwhile, he would bet out trips or better. so I was not, I believe, in an "underdog if called" scenario. He called, and he did show Queens Up (which he'd rivered as well), and I said politely, "I rivered you." A good player at the table pointed out that I had a four-flush when I'd raised, and therefore had many outs to win, given his one-pair holding.

This was probably an advanced play that maybe I should not have made, since it was highly read-based. In fact, it did bite me later when we had almost exactly the same holdings.

This time, he had the bring-in, and it was folded to me with a King showing. I raised with (3 3) K. He called, of course, and I was pretty sure he just had big cards in the hole again. I kept betting through fifth street, charging him to draw. On sixth street, he caught a queen. I bet once more, figuring he'd fold in this spot if he still hadn't paired the queen. (I'd seen him take big cards to sixth street like this many times.) He called, so I knew I was behind. I failed to improve to kings up or better on the river, and we checked it down. He showed one pair of queens.

I am not sure I played this right. My read was good, but I suppose that I should have checked sixth street since I was afraid specifically of big cards and queens were live. I should have been more inclined to bet on a king than a queen, since one king was dead. The good player at the table pointed out he would have checked it down, but I think aside from my bet on sixth street, I played the hand correctly. I left shortly after this hand to play HE.