Some thoughts on stud.

I played some 7-stud tonight for a few hands. I 3-tabled some $0.50/1.00 for a little over 500 hands. I was down early do to some of my hands not holding up quite as well as I'd have liked, but I was able to get some good cards and end up profiting over $50.00 on the session. I love stud and I find myself to be a very proficient stud player. I'd like to think of stud as my best game, if not tied with NLHE for sure. I just don't find too much time to play it as the games aren't always as juicy as the NLHE ones.

I generally find that people will chase, chase, chase anything in stud. I think the combination of limit betting and the fact that you get seven cards just draws people in, no pun intended. I love to sit nice and tight and capitalize on the chasers and punish them for their draws. Tonight I did just that. And although they hit some of their draws early on, I exhibited a lot of discipline to be able to get away from some tricky hands when I felt I was beat. It all turned around later on when I was nailing flushes and full houses to the chasers' lesser hands. It felt good to have a good session and I hope to be able to keep it going.

On a side note, I did some reading and watched Poker After Dark (PAD) tonight. Gavin Smith has been playing all week and he ended up getting down to heads up with Phil Ivey. It was pretty funny watching Gavin play so drunk. I am a fan of Gavin, but I would like to point out that I don't think it's a good way to play as inebriated as he was: fumbling chips, misreading his hands, slurring his speech, etc. Ivey seemed to be getting annoyed at times when he couldn't put the drunk away and come out with his third PAD title. It's never a good way to play when you're drunk and I try myself to not do it at all. I will make occasional exceptions, but never when I am playing seriously. Small games with friends for the social aspect never hurt anyone. You can certainly see how Ivey was so focused on the match whereas Gavin was all over the place. It just gave me a outside view of what I must be like when I have played drunk in the past. Doesn't seem like it would make for a profitable outcome.

I'm going to be playing some late night tournaments tonight on FTP. Stop in and say hello if you're on.