7-stud

LAKE TAHOE, NV--So I played yesterday, and am now a step closer to my dream of becoming a footnote in the almanac of poker history. Turns out that yesterday's $300+40 No-Limit Hold'em/7-Stud was the first event of it's kind ... ever. No, I'm not referring to a "major" event taking a 13 percent vig (!) ... I'm saying that the 7-stud was played no-limit, too. I guess the WSOP Circuit is the place to experiment.

Anyhow, the gametime revelation that this structure wasn't going to shift between short-handed NLH and traditional 7-stud totally screwed with my strategy of extreme gear-shifting ... and for players who rely on math in limit games, traditional 7-stud expectations sorta went out the window, too. Party-playin' friend David Wong told me on break about a Stud hand he thought he misplayed because he didn't know his straight- and flush-draw percentages with three cards to come. "I think I should've pushed," he said.

Indeed ... foreign concept in 7-stud.

I think the WSOP folks expected this format to add some young-guns fireworks to a traditionally slow old-man's game. But because it was new to everyone, that's not really how it happened. There were 47 players in this "historic" event, and we were deep into Level 3 when I went out in 46th place.

LAKE TAHOE, NV--By the way, we're here on the border of Nevada and California to bring you a taste of the action going down at the current WSOP Circuit event. It's called "Harrah's Lake Tahoe," even though it's actually being held at Harvey's Lake Tahoe, across the street.

Anyhow, it's rather mellow here right now. A lot of relatively small buy-in events with relatively small fields ... smaller than last year's apparently. (Will work on getting some numbers confirmation.)

Have yet to see one recognizable pro here -- though that will likely change later this week as the buy-ins get bigger and the $5k main event nears. I did run into noted Party player David Wong ... he tells me to say hi to Jen Leo. ("Hi, Jen!")