Who's a Stud?

I am becoming quite the Monkey Stud Player. What does this mean? Well according to Felicia the Stud game on party favors monkeys because the blinds in proportion to the stacks are HUGE. So any Monkey can catch a hand and win one of these. I was on both ends of this tonight in my 10/1 Stud MTT.

I started off playing a little loose. Trying to catch a few hands while it was cheap. I ended up sucking on a guy when my two pair beat his Broadway Straight. I was on 6th street before he made his straight so I was in for the end. I also had a straight draw, but he would have had that dominated.

So I am feeling good. Playing my best and somehow winning pots and keeping above the avg or just below. I have Lacerated Sky smoking me on the AIM and I hit a rush of cards. I shoot up from 7K to 28K in a matter of a few hands. This is when about seventy people are left. The top 56 pays. So I ignore how many are left and concentrate on my game. I steal some blinds here and there. Play well and get down to 26th place. I then get two of the most rotten bad beats of the game to knock my 22K stack out of the game. The first one I am dealt AKK. I come in with a raise. Everyone folds except Draw Lady. This is a portent of disaster for anyone who is watching. So I am betting every street. She has a couple of hearts appear at 5th and 6th street. I end up making two pairs. Actually 3 sets of pairs, but you can only use two. She flips a flush she makes at 7th street. She did not even have so much as a heart draw until 5th street when she had 3 hearts. I mean come on!

So now I am down to 11K. A few hands later I am dealt a small pair. I end up hitting my K on 5th street to make two pair! Kings and Two’s! I am good, right? WRONG! Some tool with a small pair hits his second, you guessed it, KING on the river to beat me with Kings and Four’s!!!!! So that was the end of the tourney for me.

I enjoy these little Stud tourneys. They start with 500+ people and the buyin is 10+1. The payout for first is over 1200! I like that!!! Basically anything 8th or up pays nicely. I ended up cashing $40. I could have folded or checked on the river when I lost my 11K, but I was going to be sickened if I lost and so I went all in. I could have maybe hit another ten bucks if I waited with my 2800.

I was thinking what Felicia said about this being Monkey Poker towards the end and I think that fits a good strategy for this game. Play a little loose early on, and try and catch something. Get your stack up a bit to 3-4K if you can in the first four rounds. Then sit back and wait for premium hands until the come-in becomes crazy ass ridiculous. You then just need to wait for one or two premium hands to connect. You will find yourself quickly into the 10-20K range and walla.. money! Anyhow this might not be a good strategy but if this is Monkey Poker then you might as well take advantage of it!!!