Old Schoolers Take on USPC

Day 2 of the USPC kicked off Tuesday and the event of the day was a 7 Card Stud event. Looking around at the players, I recognized a couple of old schoolers, and found a friend of mine in “Detroit” Allen Green.

Al is a great limit poker player and has numerous final tables in limit events, especially stud. Today’s event drew 68 players, so the players were in for a long day at the table. I got to the Taj about 3 p.m., which has been my custom as the cash games don’t get going well until then due to the tournaments. I played Holdem for a while and then was switching to a stud game when I saw Al hanging about.

Al and I had a bit of a chat and found out that he was already out of the event. 64 players were still in and he was one of the first players out. I have never seen that happen to him in the years I have known him. From the sounds of things, he just ran badly, but he didn’t seem to mind. Al has been running well this year, including numerous final tables and a Limit Holdem event win earlier in the year.

After discussing the structure of Thursday’s event, I very well may play the Omaha 8 – Stud 8 event. The turnout will not be that great in my opinion, but it promises to be a great tournament for those that can play a solid game.

In regards to cash games, well let’s just say that my bad beats rolled over to today as well. None was more classic than catching trips on fourth and then watching my opponent catch trip kings showing on fifth. Another great example was in Omaha. I flopped an open ended straight flush draw, turned the nut set, and rivered the 3rd nut flush. As most of you that play Omaha have guessed by “3rd nut” flush, I lost on the river.

I am not terribly worried. I am playing pretty solid. It is just one of those runs we all go on. (See, not all poker bloggers blog about winning major sums of cash only.)