Online Poker Tournament part 1
Last night I signed up for a No Limit Texas Hold'em Multi-Table Tournament. The buy-in as per usual was small, borderline micro, and I also played some freerolls during the duration of the game. Yes, I didn't think it was a good idea to mix games i.e. practice playing Omaha at the same time as playing Texas Hold'em but now I'm not as convinced.
What I used to think would make me a little confused jumping back and forth between games actually seemed to keep me focused. Oddly. Granted it was mostly two or three tables of sit 'n gos but as I went deep in the big multi-table tournament I also was going deep in the Omaha freeroll.
With just the two varieties on the monitor at the same time I flipped back and forth and readily adjusted. The Omaha was hi-lo so it was a little more difficult than just adapting to four hole cards vs. two. I found myself playing surprisingly well in Omaha. I imagine if an experienced player was over my shoulder he'd be telling me how well I was running too.
Seemed like I was laying down decent hi hands and decent low hands. I usually knew where I was at. I have a long way to go to be a competent Omaha poker player but I want to add it to my resume. Maybe the extra thought I was devoting to the Omaha portion of play was keeping me patient in the Hold'em.
Which was good because the No Limit Poker tournament was an early grind. Then I got hot. Then I became that huge stack we all hate when we play online poker. The short stacks would shove with less than 10% of my stack size. I'd call with any two, and usually turn a dominated hand into a winner.
I enjoyed the chatbox insults. As my stack grew the insults flung my way increased. “That’s the way you win a tournament ,” one person groused as the money bubble approached in the nearly 1500 person field, “Get f’….ing lucky.” Yeah, that doesn’t hurt.
I watched the stack sizes on the leaderboard and enjoyed seeing me go up from the 20s into the teens. I visualize Chau Giang saying “Poker is fun.”
In the Omaha game I tried not to chase too much and seemed to continue to run good. I have to say to all you Omaholics , yes, I too can enjoy the rush of that game and its never-ending permutations. As that tournament progressed, like a Hold ‘Em tournament, I saw the play tighten up and fewer players were getting to a flop.
Meanwhile, my stack got up to about top ten. Then in one huge hand me and another big stack lock horns and he basically desperation shoves on the river. One of those huge hands where you can kind of feel the other player’s meltdown. I don’t remember the particulars but I believe I flopped top pair with second kicker (some variation with KQ).
The board was kind of dry, no flush draws or straight draws. Hmm. I bet, he raised, I called. The turn made me two pair. I bet, he popped me again. This time for a significant piece of our deep stacks. I decide if I call I’m married to this hand and despite his stack being the bulk of my stack, I would have to call the implied river bet which might be well be that stack. I called. River was brickzilla. I put out a fishy looking small bet. Dude, shoves and it just feels like that he thought that was his only chance. Wow. Top two in chips.
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
What I used to think would make me a little confused jumping back and forth between games actually seemed to keep me focused. Oddly. Granted it was mostly two or three tables of sit 'n gos but as I went deep in the big multi-table tournament I also was going deep in the Omaha freeroll.
With just the two varieties on the monitor at the same time I flipped back and forth and readily adjusted. The Omaha was hi-lo so it was a little more difficult than just adapting to four hole cards vs. two. I found myself playing surprisingly well in Omaha. I imagine if an experienced player was over my shoulder he'd be telling me how well I was running too.
Seemed like I was laying down decent hi hands and decent low hands. I usually knew where I was at. I have a long way to go to be a competent Omaha poker player but I want to add it to my resume. Maybe the extra thought I was devoting to the Omaha portion of play was keeping me patient in the Hold'em.
Which was good because the No Limit Poker tournament was an early grind. Then I got hot. Then I became that huge stack we all hate when we play online poker. The short stacks would shove with less than 10% of my stack size. I'd call with any two, and usually turn a dominated hand into a winner.
I enjoyed the chatbox insults. As my stack grew the insults flung my way increased. “That’s the way you win a tournament ,” one person groused as the money bubble approached in the nearly 1500 person field, “Get f’….ing lucky.” Yeah, that doesn’t hurt.
I watched the stack sizes on the leaderboard and enjoyed seeing me go up from the 20s into the teens. I visualize Chau Giang saying “Poker is fun.”
In the Omaha game I tried not to chase too much and seemed to continue to run good. I have to say to all you Omaholics , yes, I too can enjoy the rush of that game and its never-ending permutations. As that tournament progressed, like a Hold ‘Em tournament, I saw the play tighten up and fewer players were getting to a flop.
Meanwhile, my stack got up to about top ten. Then in one huge hand me and another big stack lock horns and he basically desperation shoves on the river. One of those huge hands where you can kind of feel the other player’s meltdown. I don’t remember the particulars but I believe I flopped top pair with second kicker (some variation with KQ).
The board was kind of dry, no flush draws or straight draws. Hmm. I bet, he raised, I called. The turn made me two pair. I bet, he popped me again. This time for a significant piece of our deep stacks. I decide if I call I’m married to this hand and despite his stack being the bulk of my stack, I would have to call the implied river bet which might be well be that stack. I called. River was brickzilla. I put out a fishy looking small bet. Dude, shoves and it just feels like that he thought that was his only chance. Wow. Top two in chips.
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
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