Strike One.

I'm going to be using this blog space to update my WSOP status starting July 28th (Day 1a). As a prelude I'll use this space to report on 3 events I am playing at the Borgata Summer Open in Atlantic City.

Today's event was $300+50 Pot Limit Omaha (High Only). Probably my 3rd best game, but way below hold-em. However, a lot of people playing didn't appear to be experts either and the game is a lot of fun. 114 people entered. I think 110 of them were dudes. We started with 5000 chips and the blinds were 25/25. Lots of room for play.

Early on I spotted a couple of very bad players at my table that were overplaying mediocre hands. I tried to play in a lot of pots with them but couldn't hit a flop and had to fold. I was able to win a decent pot from a solid player early in the 2nd level by turning the nut straight, but he folded to my 1/4 pot river bet when a blank hit the river and showed AAxx as he folded.

There were a few crazy hands after that, including 1 where 4 players went all-in preflop, including a couple of bad players with mediocre hands. Unfortunately these hands moved lots of chips from bad players to good (or at least decent) players at my table.

About the middle of the 2nd level I won a small pot to move me up to 7600 chips, which was 3rd at the table but still pretty solid overall. Unfortunately that was the last hand I won all tournament. 2.5 hours later I was gone in

I think I played pretty well for most of the tournament. I just didn't hit many flops. But I'll post a couple of hands i think I may have made a mistake on.

1. I check in the BB with KT87 and 5 players see a flop of 976 and 2 diamonds(I have no diamonds) giving me 10 high straight and the current best hand possible. I bet the pot quickly and get 2 callers. Turn is a non-diamond 8 making my straight only 2nd best possible and I check into the field of callers. It checks around. and the river was another low blank. Again I check but this time the button bet 1100 into a pot of over 3000. The SB called quickly and now I have to think. I have the second best possible hand but JT is the best possible and those are cards people are likely to play. I figure I have the button beat as he would have had to check the nut straight when last to act on the turn with a diamond flush possible - if he also had Ax of diamonds then he might do that. I'm not sure if the SB would just call with the nuts to try to get my money rather than raise. But I'm not sure what hands he would want to call with given the previous action. So I figure he's got something pretty good but not good enough to beat me. I end up calling, button shows JT and SB shows a measley set of sevens and I learn that my logic is way off. Not sure if I could have folded this but thought it was mildly interesting.

2. After losing the previous pot and several rounds of blinds getting dealt unplayable hands, I get dealt a great hand AKKJ double suited (clubs and spades) in middle position with the blinds at 50/100. 2 players call before me and I have about 3500 chips. I could raise up to 550 total but instead I decide to just call and hope an aggressive player to my left raises so I can reraise a large amount and take a big pot. Unfortunately he just
called and we get a couple more callers to see a flop that was something like Q83 all diamonds. Checks to me and I decide to bet the pot. The aggressive player thinks and raises just over the minimum. Folds to me. I think something is up with that raise and fold showing my KK. He shows a JT of diamonds. Weird play but I should have raised preflop I think. However I'm not sure how it would have played out if i did raise and he called preflop.

Several rounds of bad hands later with blinds 100/200 and my stack at 2200 i get A8(both diamonds)53. 3 callers and i complete and BB checks. Flop is T93 with 2 diamonds (the 9 and 3) and i check. BB raises pot. another player raises all-in. then another goes all-in. I figure that I am up against at least 1 set and 1 other flush draw reducing my outs severely. But I am very shortstacked and winning this pot would over quadruple my chips to almost 10,000 and I have ugly backdoor straight draws as well. So I feel I must do it and make the all-in call. BB calls the all-ins and flips over TTxx (no diamonds). another player has KQJ3 with QJ diamonds and another player has 99xx with 1 diamond. I need a diamond that doesn't complete anyone elses fullhouse, quads, or straight flush, or i need an unlikely backdoor straight. There are 7 diamonds exposed. 6 remain but the T gives the BB quads and another card will counterfeit my would-be flush on either the turn or river. Turn is a non-diamond 6 and i now have an inside straight draw. river is a non-diamond K giving KQJ3 a straight and i am gone in 55th or so place.

A couple random obs about live omaha:

1. Some dealers had a ton of trouble keeping track of the pot and several times calculated it incorrectly. Others were very on top of things and made the game much easier. I'd say when we had a good dealer we got almost 1.5x as many hands in. The difference is that big.

2. It is hard to handle your cards to look at your hand. Much more unwieldy than the 2 for hold-em. The first few tries I must have looked retarded, eventually I just checked them as they were dealt.

3. It's also hard to remember your hand without repeating it over and over in your head. But then you keep running it through your head even after you have folded. This is complicated further when you have to watch the dealers and calculate pot size to prevent more dealer mistakes.

That's all for today. Tomorrow is the 500+60 NL Hold-Em event. Hopefully I will be in that long enough that my update is very late. Should be quite a few players. I got my seat today and its on Table 16 already so I'm guessing we may get over 300. Maybe way over.