The Monkey on My Back

Omaha Hi Lo. It is a nice game. Somewhat safe if you play truly tight, but nothing replaces the right cards at the right time. It is the monkey on my back.

My wife had given me a book on Omaha Hi Lo some years back I studied and thought I understood the game. I am just beginning to, after reading the book and with at least ten outings, each which lasted many hours. I play the low stakes limit game. Saturday the casino begins a game at 10:00am. I have heard they play Omaha Hi Lo Limit, or some version of it, on Tuesdays and Thursdays also.

I have yet to walk away from a table ahead at Omaha Hi Lo. What is particularly frustrating is that I can sit at the table for hours and win just enough to stay in. Then I watch some seats take hand after hand, almost effortlessly, while I can go two hours without seeing a respectable hand come my why. I am not even tempted to go on tilt as the poor to marginal hands I throw away would never have developed on the flop.

I understand why people sometimes switch seats when they have the chance.

Recently the Omaha Hi Lo table has been loose; near everyone in each hand. I hope this is not on my account. The pot is often driven up pre-flop with straddles and raises, but not always.

After a rebuy, and my stack was growing low, one such circumstance arose. There was a straddle. I called. Followed by a pre-flop raise with a clearly statement of intent to build up the pot. I called. I drew the nut flush draw on the flop and hit it on the turn. The betting was quite aggressive until the turn. I had just under two bets left (this is a limit game).

I was quite tense. All I wanted was the board not to pair. With so many players a full house is common, and even if you make one, the chances are someone may have a higher full house, if you don’t have the nuts. So I was hoping only for the board not to pair on the river and it didn’t. I tried to get all my chips in but no one raised, only one called.

It was a large pot, even split with a low hand. The comments afterwards reflected a general disappointment by all that I had won. I soon left the game, down for the day, but with enough to buy-in another day.

I have been discouraged by my losses at Omaha Hi Lo and it makes me want to go back until I win. I got home. Put together the scribbled accounts of my last several outings and got them down into the ledger. I found myself still extremely in the black. I verified the figures and sighed happily, “Good. I thought I was worse off.”

But I wont be going back to the Hi Lo table until at least one more tournament wins. My last tournament I was doing fairly well and pushed all-in pre-flop, after my raise was re-raised. I was hoping for a heads up, two still on the hand, which I got. My 4’s met Aces and I knew right then I was out. My mistake. I didn’t need to see any cards.

I shy away from cash games. The stability for a tight player (stability for me is playing a very long time before busting) at a Omaha Hi Lo Limit game is a draw for me, though I am wondering if I would be better off in the long run at a No-Limit Hold’m table.

The comments at the table over my last big Hi Lo hand were not the only signals I have received, that most everyone at the table, most everyone playing at the casino regularly, knows who I am. Or at least they think they know. I am in a position where my success in anything is taken as a threat to some. This has been a constant in my life; whether it comes from a disgust for my faith or for more personal reasons.

There has also been a tendency, over several of my last outings, for people to bet out of turn over me. That is they bet without waiting for me to act. This isn’t necessarily uncommon at a table. When it happens to me and only me, and I do not hide my cards as some do, over and over this is an obvious attempt to frustrate me. Yes, I am observant. That is why I do well in poker.

The tournaments at our local casino have far more over sight than the regular daily operation of the cash games. The dealer takes the brunt of any disagreements at the table. Don’t make the dealer’s day miserable.

In poker, however, if you know the game anything that may be considered a disadvantage or obstacle can be turned to your advantage. If people believe you are a person you are not, they cannot read you. If people think you will fold when to large aggressive bets and raises…, no mystery as to how that is not an advantage. Nor is it a mystery that you can make people who think you don’t know the game pay. If people just outright don’t like you, their emotions will do them in. All if you know how to play the game.

Yes, you still need the cards. You still need to be able to spot weakness or strength. But, if you are a good player, the potential to find justice at the poker table can be far greater than the potential to find justice in life. Your abilities will be recognized and respected far more quickly at the poker table than in any other profession. Success is undeniable. People who know the game, and most at the casino do, recognize and respect good players, even when the cards may be against you. That doesn’t mean people will like you. But if I ever won big and became filthy rich would the falsehoods over my life evaporate?

Don’t chase delusions. If your no good and don’t have the money stop playing.

The busy Christmas season has kept me away from any tournaments the last couple of weeks, not to mention the rush to make my writing goals for the month. Click on the “My Store” tab above to find my books. They are works of fiction, not poker tutorials.

It is time to make resolutions for the New Year. Time to talk to my wife over our goals and how to achieve them. The Mid-States Poker Tournament coming in a couple of weeks at The Potawatomi Casino is on my mind. I can’t attach any more significance to it than any other game if I want to do well.

With my current winnings this looks to be a Winter of Poker for me. How it all turns out will determine whether the investment of time is worth the money earned. That means a lot of sitting. I already do a lot of driving and bowling on my friends team, which also strains my back. I recommend the Teeter Hang Up. Some warn against the inversion table, though I have never heard their reasons (just their advertisements for their shows on the radio) but it has brought relief to both me and my wife. Neither of us use it excessively. If sitting for hours on end at the poker table bothers your back this might bring some relief. One of my legs is shorter then the other so I wear one shoe to offset the difference. I had some discomfort using the table before that.

God Bless, Merry Christmas (it is the season) and Happy New Year.

The Build Up

The anticipation builds as an opportunity to enter a tournament arises. Like going off to battle you clear out your bowls, clean and dress to impress, in whatever way one looks to impress their opponents, (and maybe take some breath mints in consideration of the others at the table). You sit down at the table. The tension is palatable. You set to work and soon you hit a rhythm. Everything calms. Even if it doesn’t feel like your night, you play smart. Fortunes shift without warning. Stacks are made and lost.

It is on those nights when nothing comes easy that I find the most rewarding. You get the win and feel like no one in the world can beat you.

Under the conclusion that when I consistently play in tournaments of three tables or more I stay well into the black, I set out this Winter (It is still autumn but you know what I mean) to pursue poker glory. I had some winnings left from this summer, the few tournaments I played, so with that I set off for the casino.

I came out short on my first outing. I split the pool even Steven with one other on my second, for my largest winnings ever. I regret not going for it all, now in hindsight. Our stacks were about even. Chip leader would have change with every hand until one of us trapped the other. I chopped mostly because I thought it was much later in the evening than it actually was.

With plenty of seed money to test my skills I am hoping to get out to a tournament more than once a week. The more I win the greater the frequency of my outings will grow. If I am sitting at a table on the final day of the Mid-States Poker Tournament at The Potawatomi Casino this January, with plenty of seed money for the rest of the Winter I will be very satisfied. I am debating whether to try to win a seat through a satellite, or to just buy in on day one.

Losing bothers me more than it should. I need to play more, lose more but win more than I lose in the long term. This is the comfort level I need to achieve to get the most enjoyment out of the game. If I were in a financially stronger position I wouldn’t fret even if I were to, though I highly doubt I would, drop into the red slightly.

Waiting for a table the other day I read the poker magazine the casino has available. The most substantive article was written by a gentleman who preferred low stakes games. You will always find an article in these publications which encourages people to be satisfied with low stakes games, particularly if you lack the resources or ability (or even not) to compete at a higher level. He was a serious player and has even wrote a book or two on the subject. The writer of the article went on to become a priest and still seems to play poker as a hobby.

The poker world clearly tries to promote responsible play, as I hope I do with this blog.

Again… I am well in the black and, since I am currently under-employed, this Winter is the time to put my skills to the test. I am fairly confident in tournament play. There is one monkey on my back, that had swallowed much of my Summer winnings, that I would like to shake off. More about that later.

I hosted no bar-B-Q this past Summer with my poker winnings, as I hoped to do. I just did not get out enough. I do have many things going on in my life and even my goal of playing once a week over the Winter will take some determination to accomplish.