God Still Loves Me

Recently many things have soured in my life. During the last twenty four hours, my (a bit quasi) girlfriend and I broke up. I was most certainly the villain. I wrote about my poker disenchantment in yesterday's blog. In addition, another issue has really been troubling me. I can't talk about it at all.

I got 4th place today in the $300 Omaha Hi-Lo.

http://news.pokerpages.com/index.php?option=com_simpleblog&task=view&id=1185

I have no idea how to play the game. It might as well have been a bridge tournament. 90% of the field had a gargantuan advantage on me. It was all learning on the fly under the stern but brilliant tutelage of Mike Odeh. Without his help I certainly wouldn't have monied.

How bad am I at Omaha Hi-lo? I got in a raised pot out of position with KJ97 against Miami John Cernuto's AA24. And he's the best O8 tournament player in the world. I sucked out and then I missed a bet. With 9 left at the final table I thought I was out of the tournament and almost mucked my hand on the river. I had a low which I didn't even realize and won half the pot. My guess is if an experienced O8 player critiqued every decision I had today, he would find approximately fifty mistakes.

Making the final table today confirms that anything can happen in poker tournaments, especially when they have fast structures, and luck is far more important than skill in the short term. I'd like to think that if I ever get this lucky in a NLHE tournament, I will easily win it. It's hard to say. A good player in my shoes today might have won the tournament. But maybe he doesn't win some of the pots I won through donkishness, and maybe he loses pots with hands I should have played.

My NLHE tournament game got a lot better today. Learning from Mike Odeh is a pride swallowing, brain-beating, unpleasant experience. But I think he can elevate my game to a higher place.

Tomorrow is the $500 NLHE and the four of us (Wolf, Fish, and the Gambler) will all be playing.

___

Today: +2100

Year to date: 50,101