Another Whiff

A good weekend.

Played the $10 +1 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament on Friday evening - and managed to win the damn thing for $555. It was the first online tournament that I had won in a while (not including satellites) and it was a relief to get in the money again. It was a re-buy tournament; however I didn't need to re-buy after tripling up early (although I took the add-on).

I like this tournament. It usually has about 60 to 80 runners - so the field size is not prohibitive - and the payouts are good. In the Friday tournament, for example, there were 65 runners, 8 got paid, but with all the re-buys 8th place got close to a hundred bucks. The players - well, I shouldn't say they're crap - they just don't know the game. I hasten to add that I only know the basics - but I'm playing against people who essentially don't know starting hands values or the value of their hands once the flops hits (two pair may feel donktastic - but brother, it ain't worth the time of day).

On Sunday I played the 30 + 3 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. 235 runners this time and I snuck in to 5th for another $500. Happy with this one too. I was short stack (as in THE short stack) from about 50 players down to the last five. The bubble was 30 - with 31 players left, I had about 3100 in chips with the blinds at 800/1600. But I hung on tenaciously, picked my spots, won a couple of coinflips (in Hi/Lo everything's a coinflip), and before I knew it I was at the final table. The final table seemed intent on dismembering itself - or at least playing hands that no-one in their right mind would - and before I knew it was the short stack with 5 left. I pushed with the best hand. From memory I had A235 with the Ace suited, I was called by AA44 and the board fell with only high cards. But really, I was happy to get that far and happy to hit one of my best tournament weekends in a while.

I think i'm going to play the 10 + 1 re-buy more often and the 30 + 3 at least once a week. I'm also thinking about higher buy-in NLHE tournaments - between 50 + 5 and 100 + 9. I figure I play live with this sort of buy-in regularly, and the bigger buy-ins bring smaller fields and therefore less variance. While the players are better at this level, there are still spectacular fish that will pay off your big hands (a surprising number), with the added bonus of good players who will fold decent hand to well-timed bluffs.

Anyway, that's the plan. Perhaps not a 100 + 9 for a while, but if I hit another big score in the P/L Omaha Hi/Lo, I think it'll be time to give the bigger NLHE tourneys a shot.

Anyway, blah blah blah, right? I'll let you know how things fair.