Still Stud-y-ing

2 Hours / 1 BI / Too Few Hands

Still hitting the stud tables instead of the RUSH for the moment. Stud is such a different game obviously. Instead of breakneck speeds you start humming "Umpa doompa doompa doompy day" between hands. Ahh yup. Old school TV. The key to NLHE is to stay ahead of your opponents and apply pressure and things like that. In stud it is basically to be patient and take advantage of your opponents mistakes. In the low limit games these mistakes are HUGE. People chase for half the pot. Play one way hands.

I remember one hand that went three ways. I had a decent high not great something like trip aces which is very vulnerable especially three ways. Both of my opponents had some low cards showing. I scooped the entire thing. No low. At all. Surprised the hell out of me.

If I can keep patient and only play premium hands I can make money in two ways. First off I am generating a TON more rake than I do in NLHE. Every hand is an ante. So if I can win enough to stay even then I make money from the rakeback. The other way is scooping these huge pots that develop at these levels. Having great two way hands that hold and getting lucky helps.

I did have a fair amount of luck in a hand or two. One hand I was up against trip nines and I spiked trip jacks early on. The best part was I saw another jack out there. I was going to dump it before 5th but a jack spiked and I scooped a 4 way pot with trip jacks. Sick.

The one thing I really like about Stud is some of the guessing is out. You can have a reasonable idea of what your opponents have by reading the board and seeing what has been discarded. I need to get better at this but it helps to feel comfortable about your hand.