Catch,You Fish, Catch

So the poker game took another step up last night, with 3 full tables in the tournament and getting very close to full capacity... and let me ask you a question, my fellow degenerates: has live play become just another place to play as if you were online?

At my table, we had nearly as many rebuys in the first hour as we did players, and it's not as if the table was hot with King-King against Ace-Ace. The room had a half dozen newbies, all of them young, all of them shoving, and most of them reaching the final table. It's a brave new world, folks, and the online players are going offline to get their gamble on. They also really want to get their gamble on. I lasted past half of the field despite being down to just one big blind an hour before getting knocked off, and it was one of those tournaments where I was card dead enough to not call down the likely BS raises. But several misreads and missed opportunities (I folded Ace-3 offsuit in early position rather than get cute, then watched a boat arrive for it) took all of the fun out of that, and the cash game called.

Which was 3-more hours of limited fun; some wins to stay .500, but no great momentum in either direction, or flops that screamed out my name. At which point, with five players left and energy lagging, we did what you always do when things are getting slow: switch to Omaha.

I'll admit it: I don't really know what's a good starting hand in Omaha. It seems like no one does, really, so it becomes a game of limps to the flop, then fireworks. With a pre-flop hand of Ace-Ace-Queen-Queen, I know I should raise, but I also know that it's not likely to chase all out of the pot, or stand up as the winner. So I just checked it, and saw 10-Jack-Jack hit, unsuited.

Well, I suppose I've got the gutshot at least, and it's hard to just walk away from big pairs... especially when the bet is a mere buck to stay. I know I'm beat... but the Ace on the turn doesn't, and gosh, I'll take some nuts with my pot any day. Especially when the raiser starts getting into it. A double-up ensues (my opponent had Jack-10, poor guy), and by the time things are done an hour later, I've turned around the whole night, just from 30 minutes of Omaha, and a change of luck.

So if your cash game is getting slow, call Omaha and see where the luck takes you. Mine was good. Now, if I could just get that mojo going in the early part of the program....