Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

No Poker yesterday, so no poker content in the diary. We get a few moans saying there is not enough Poker Content in GD, & so I need to try & keep the balance. I guess floods in India & Foot & Mouth outbreaks don't sit terribly well with everyone on a Poker Forum.

I was chatting to Flushy yesterday about my Omaha game. I'm "competent" but no more, I can't dance but I can duck & dive. I'm hoping I can do more Omaha, so I thought I'd share my Online Stats with you, & maybe the better Omaha players amongst you might be able to help me. But first, let's look at my overall game. The real money in Omaha is in Cash Games, but I get scared in most Live Omaha Cash Games, as everyone seems to sit down with so much cash. I'd like to give them a try though, so I'd appreciate constructive comment on my game, if there are any Omaha buffs out there.

"Live", I've got a half-decent record, 8 cashes from about 13 Events - unsustainable really, but there are so few Omaha Tourneys these days, after they were ruined by Omaha Rebuy Events in Fessies. I refuse to play Omaha Rebuys "live". Not big cashes, it's like my Hold 'Em record really, lots of minor cashes.

5th, Sheffield, £1,140

6th Salford £370

8th Walsall, £830

4th Blackpool, £3,700

9th Barcelona, €1,900

3rd Sheffield, £2,230

1st Luton, (multi-way chop) £4,490. (I think I took £3k).

Nothing to worry Mr Colclough & Co there then.

Online, I just play Cash, & have been doing so for around the last 3 months, starting at $1-$2, & working up to $3-$6 & $5-$10. Here are my stats, which give the clue to my weaknesses &, I guess, my "stengths", such as they are. Some of them are truly embarrassing, but I make a little money at it Online, so I'll handle the flak!

Number of Games won - 14%

Showdowns won - 54%

Flops seen - 48%

Win % of Flops seen - 29%

ACTIONS (this is a corker, flushy will have a field day).

Fold 35%

Check 29%

Call 26%

Bet 5% (!)

Raise 1% (!!)

Re-Raise 0% (I think this must be an error, as my MO frequently sees me check-raising on the end).

WHERE YOU FOLD

Pre-Flop - 51%

Flop 15%

Turn 6%

River 3%

No Fold 23%

What that means is that I'm weak-tight, & I just nut-peddle, patiently. I leave a LOT of money behind to "steals", but I only play on my terms, let them steal, I don't care. I limp pre quite often with big hands, & either Check-Raise Pre-Flop with monsters, try to get Heads up, & if I have position I auto-push on any flop & see how it goes from there. Online, some players auto-Raise pre, & I'm quite disciplined with these, I just Pass until I have something I deem worthy of going to war with. I can Pass for hours on end "pre", it does not bother me at all. I never Raise in early position Pre even with AAKK DS, as everyone calls anyway, but I'd Check-Raise with that sorta hand. I find that most of the profit seems to come in big boom hands, where all the cash flies into the middle. So 1 or 2 of those a sesssion is where it all goes, or comes from. I just can't understand this need to play every hand. These guys are probably better players than me, but I have the patience & discipline. And I'm scared - I freely admit - so I'm wary about getting into big hands unless I'm very strong.

So, should I try my hand at "Live" cash? Do I have the game? I'm inclined to think not, those big piles of cash they load up with scare me to hell.

So if any Omaha expert out there can make any sense of my Online Stats, & know if it'd work Live, I'd be grateful for comment.

[booder]

So, should I try my hand at "Live" cash? Do I have the game? I'm inclined to think not,

proberly

[boldie]

Number of Games won - 14%

Showdowns won - 54%

Flops seen - 48%

Win % of Flops seen - 29%

ACTIONS (this is a corker, flushy will have a field day).

Fold 35%

Check 29%

Call 26%

Bet 5% (!)

Raise 1% (!!)

Re-Raise 0% (I think this must be an error, as my MO frequently sees me check-raising on the end).

WHERE YOU FOLD

Pre-Flop - 51%

Flop 15%

Turn 6%

River 3%

No Fold 23%

I'm rather surprised at these stats.

You see an awful lot of calls preflop (50% for me is rather high), are these limps into unopened pots or do you call pre-flop raises with marginal hands aswell hoping to hit the flop hard?
Your stats also imply a lot of check calling, this would seem very weak to me. (This is backed up by your low betting and very low raising % ..1 % I don't get that at all..how come that's soo low?)

If you truly nut peddle (which is fine of course) I would suggest that you can not see almost 50% flops and then check call that often. If you have a big hand you should bet it and bet it hard. The same goes for big draws.

I would suggest that would go for live play aswell, in tourneys you can make a respectable nr of cashes this way (as can very tight players in hold em) but you'll struggle to take one down to really make the decent sums of money if you don't play a bit more agressively.

I'm by no means an omaha expert of course and could have interpreted the stats completely wrong..please let me know if I'm talking bollox.

[tikay]

Number of Games won - 14%

Showdowns won - 54%

Flops seen - 48%

Win % of Flops seen - 29%

ACTIONS (this is a corker, flushy will have a field day).

Fold 35%

Check 29%

Call 26%

Bet 5% (!)

Raise 1% (!!)

Re-Raise 0% (I think this must be an error, as my MO frequently sees me check-raising on the end).

WHERE YOU FOLD

Pre-Flop - 51%

Flop 15%

Turn 6%

River 3%

No Fold 23%

I'm rather surprised at these stats.

You see an awful lot of calls preflop (50% for me is rather high), are these limps into unopened pots or do you call pre-flop raises with marginal hands aswell hoping to hit the flop hard?
Your stats also imply a lot of check calling, this would seem very weak to me. (This is backed up by your low betting and very low raising % ..1 % I don't get that at all..how come that's soo low?)

If you truly nut peddle (which is fine of course) I would suggest that you can not see almost 50% flops and then check call that often. If you have a big hand you should bet it and bet it hard. The same goes for big draws.

I would suggest that would go for live play aswell, in tourneys you can make a respectable nr of cashes this way (as can very tight players in hold em) but you'll struggle to take one down to really make the decent sums of money if you don't play a bit more agressively.

I'm by no means an omaha expert of course and could have interpreted the stats completely wrong..please let me know if I'm talking bollox.

Of course it's not bollox, that's the kind of feedback I want. I should have said that i almost always play on short-handed tables - 6 max, & these are often not full. This "unbalances" the Stats of course. I always see a flop in any unraised Pot from the SB, whatver I hold, it's an undulgence to combat boredom. I also invariably call with any Suited Ace, flushes seem to generate huge Pots.

Bet big hands hard? I agree that I should, but unless I have a re-draw hand, then I generally check-call to control the Pot Size. The pots get enormous, & it becomes a case of "who's got the biggest todger", & that sure ain't me. I think controlling the Pot Size is key.

And yes, I'm weak, super-weak, super weak-tight, but you have to consider the quality of the other players. They are invariably bad, & loose, & weak-tight works nicely against them - very nicely! By biding my time, I can select where & when to put my money in. I can't impress on you how bad some players (imo) play Online Omaha, & I don't see the need to mix it with them. Just wait patiently, & the hands, situations, & money finds it way to me. But I do leave a lot of money behind on the table, I accept that.

But that's why I'm scared of playing Live Cash Omaha, as it plays so different. Or I think it does.

[boldie]

Live omaha is not far off online omaha..most people who play it have too much money and too little knowledge of the game. If it works for youonline it will work for you in live games (assuming you don't sit down with Mystic Dave every day as you'll be broke very soon)

[tikay]

Live omaha is not far off online omaha..most people who play it have too much money and too little knowledge of the game. If it works for youonline it will work for you in live games (assuming you don't sit down with Mystic Dave every day as you'll be broke very soon)

Don't worry, I avoid Mystic Dave (at the Table) like the plague! There are more than enough bad players out there with whom I can cope, I see no point in taking on better-equipped players. You don't need to be good at the game to win at it, you just have to find bad opponents. Of which, Online, there are plenty.

[Karabiner]

Tikay, you would like to have my PLO/8 tourney record:

Played one in Sheffield about five years ago which I won and there has never been one since

It was a £50R tourney and I was in the final with Burnley John, Howard Plant, RedSimon, and Kim Kostantinou.

 

[tikay]

Tikay, you would like to have my PLO/8 tourney record:

Played one in Sheffield about five years ago which I won and there has never been one since

It was a £50R tourney and I was in the final with Burnley John, Howard Plant, RedSimon, and Kim Kostantinou.

 

Very nice. Kim can play Omaha "a bit", too!

[tikay]

What a weird twist to the Foot & Mouth outbreak. Farmers & the public are being given the usual DEFRA claptrap about taking care, but they've now identified the F & M strain. And it's identical to that being produced (as a vaccine) at a nearby Bio Laboratory, 3 miles away, who share the premises with The Institute of Animal Health! And who funds the IAH? You got it. DEFRA.

The bridge failure in Minneapolisis is an oddity. It was a truss bridge, & these are generally thought to be very safe. The last major Bridge Failure in the UK was in, wait for it, 1879, when the Tay Bridge collapsed. A bridge collapsed in Wales in the Seventies, but that was during it's construction.

Bridges are remarkably resilient. There are tens of thousands in the UK alone, for trains, roads, even canals. They have in-built "redundancy". In plain English, each component does not rely on another component, & if a bit fails, the rest can still do it's job.

A weird day in tikay Towers today. Planned to go to Luton for the £100, but fell asleep, & woke up too late. Then became embroiled in a series of PM exchanges about the APAT announcement. But it's been pretty well  recieved by the genuine Members. There were some pretty bizarre comments, too, some folks always wanna think we have some sort of hidden agenda, some point we've hidden, we are making money covertly. Look as much you you like lads, you are wasting your time. Sadly, ours too.

Spoke to skrikera & Jen, both of whom are at the Ladies Event in Walsall (yes, THAT one.....) trying to win a GUKPT Seat. Both had busted out, but Dana was still going well. How wonderful it would be if she won the Seat! There did seem to be a lot of background noise from the Walsall Casino, can't imagine what it was......

Played Omaha for most of the evening, but dropped from a peak of $1,200 ahead to my current $400 profit. Poo. Two Tourneys went the way of most, it was suckout city night I'm afraid.

 

[tikay]

Cardiff tomorrow, & Red is going down too.

Thats a lovely drive actually. Once off the M5, the M50 runs down past Ledbury, one of the UK's most scenic areas, but then it gets better. The road down to Monmouth is just dramatic, rolling hillside, heavily wooded, & the dualled road swoops downhill. This is the Wye Valley, where the beautifuly named Symonds Yat can be found, as well as plenty of deer, & if you are lucky, peregrine falcons can be spotted.

Then suddenly, Monmouth, (we are in Wales now), & Monmouth has a very old & famous public school, right by the road, with the River the other side of the road. The River forms the boundary between England & Wales for much of it's length.

The school is run by a Trust, The Worshipful Company of Habersdashers - only in the UK could such archaic terms still exist! If you have £20k handy, you can send your kid there for 12 months. The School is a mixture of grand & beautiful buildings, some 200 years old, though ther school dates back 400 years. There have been many new annexes (sp?) built, but architecturally they are a mess. They have their own Boathouse on the Wye - did your school have a Boathouse? - and the kids do a lot of rowing & the like. Oh to have been educated somewhere like that.

Exiting Monmouth, via an arrow straight tunnel (under what I know not), the Dualled road becomes a little boring, but soon we get into dramatic wooded hills again, we are now 5 or 10 miles short of the M4 at Newport.

Then there is an absolute Planners faux pas, as on a huge hill to the right, sits the ugliest, horriblest, most out of character building, which has been clumsily plonked there. I spent 2 years guessing what it was - a Tax Office was my favourite - but in fact it's Celtic Manor Golf Resort, home to the Ryder Cup in 2010. I've since played the course, very pretty, but way too tough for me.

This also sits above the M4 at Newport, & it's a relief to get past that eyesore, but this is not the nicest part of Wales it must be said. The Severn is on the left, & we've at least avoided the M4 Severn Bridge Tolls. It's drab drab drab from here to the Cardiff West turn-off, then it's a cracking dual carriageway right down to Cardiff Bay. The Bay are is wholly redeveloped now, & not exactly pretty, but the road goes through a tunnel (under an inlet in the Bay) & once out the other side, bingo, we are in Mermaid Quay, & there's the Casino on the left, & the Future Inn next to it. Perfect!

Hello - anyone still awake? I'm sorry, I went off on a waffle there.

[KingPoker]

Lol i know that boarding school well, i drove past once and saw, as you do, one of the pupils being picked up on the friday evening in daddy's HELICOPTER- wow!

The part of cardiff and newport you come by is the "functional" side of wales so yes it is definately not the most beautiful part.

It would take a little bit longer but would be such a nicer drive, if when you get to monmouth, head to abergavenny then brecon, all signposted very well, then simpy head for cardiff from there and you will get to drive through the brecon beacons past the reservoirs and past pen-y-fan, on a nice day, it doesnt get much nicer than this stretch of road.

[tikay]

Lol i know that boarding school well, i drove past once and saw, as you do, one of the pupils being picked up on the friday evening in daddy's HELICOPTER- wow!

The part of cardiff and newport you come by is the "functional" side of wales so yes it is definately not the most beautiful part.

It would take a little bit longer but would be such a nicer drive, if when you get to monmouth, head to abergavenny then brecon, all signposted very well, then simpy head for cardiff from there and you will get to drive through the brecon beacons past the reservoirs and past pen-y-fan, on a nice day, it doesnt get much nicer than this stretch of road.

How much time would that add to the journey? I'm quite keen to try that, & I can leave as early as I want tomorrow.

[KingPoker]

I'll figure it out now, gimme 5 minutes

[KingPoker]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

[tikay]

Had a letter from the DVLA today, nearly had a heart attack.

"......your licence has been revoked from 8th July 2007........"

How so? I got done for speeding last year, pleaded guilty by letter, got fined, sent them the cheque, end of. Well not quite.

Seems I failed to send them my Driving Licence, for them to endorse, & now they've got stroppy with me. (I have piles of unopened mail, I can't be arsed to open mail).

They then asked for my "paper" driving licence a while back, & I can't find it, I can only find the plastic bit. So I forgot, & there we are.

So what does "Licence Revoked" actually mean?

Well, according to the letter......

"......you may continue to drive for 12 months....... even though your licence has been revoked.....providing that.......

1) You are not prevented from holding a licence by a court.

2) Any conditions on the Licence are met......"

So I'm none the wiser, What does "licence Revoked" mean if I am permitted to continue to drive?

As to not opening letters, I suppose it's just a lifetime of being obliged to "do" the Mail every day, combined with the crustyness that comes with age.

I rarely open the door when anyone knocks, either. Someone knocked today, I refused to answer it, I was busy, (pokering....) so he banged some more, & then started tapping on the bloody window. I just contnued to ignore him. Why should I open the door? There's no law says I'm obliged to. If I wanna buy something, I'll buy it, & if I don't, I won't. It's usually a survey, or some double-glazing salesman. "Ooh, you MUST sign today Sir, the offer expires tomorrow". Yeah, right, get lost sunshine.

I don't talk to the neighbours either, that can only bring problems, neighbour friends I don't need, tyvm.

I think they all refer to me as the old mad bloke with the daft hair, in the end house. I suppose one can see their point.