Poker evaluation prejudice

Last night, I was done in by poker evaluation prejudice. That's when you overvalue or undervalue a hand based on its worth in a poker flavor other than the one you're currently playing :-) The classic example of poker evaluation prejudice is Hold'em players overvaluing hands when they're playing Omaha. Hands which would have won them truckloads of chips in Hold'em will often lose them boatloads in Omaha. A somewhat less common example, but just as real, is what I fell prey to last night. That's when you overvalue a Razz hand based on its worth in deuce. In deuce, an 8 low is pretty strong; in Razz, it's pretty weak. There are two reasons for this disparity in strength:

1. in Razz, the lowest card is an ace, not a deuce
2. in Razz, straights don't matter; they still qualify as low hands

Therefore, while the nut low in Razz is A 2 3 4 5, the nut low in deuce is 2 3 4 5 7. An 8 low in Razz is basically crap.

On hand 51, my stack was crippled when I way overvalued an 8 low. I lost $1,100 on the hand. That'll larn me :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        65    34        0

delta: $-5,000
MTT 8-game balance: $99,640
balance: $9,549,580