Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

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 wel...

Alright maybe not tape delay the stuff that matters, though it would be nice if I could TiVo some of these tournaments I play in and fast forward to the end to see how I fared. Would make patience easier huh? Though it's not the destination it's the journey, the trite quote that rattles around my skull when I've been card dead in a large Multi-table tournament and I feel boredom onset. Maybe it's my background in soccer where they will be long spells of inactivity (especially as the up striker or goalkeeper), where as a really young kid, my attention would be diverted to a buzzing bee or the soccer moms on the sideline, but as I got older I'd stay focused knowing that in that sport suddenly there would be a spurt of action that would determine the outcome of the game. You don't know when it's going to come but you have to be ready when it does. That's tournament poker (okay deep stack tournament poker). Alright, that's a typical tangent for me. ...

Headed up to the saturday tournament at the IP. Big Smoove and I planned out a day of tournament action but his littlest one got sick so I went solo. The plan was threefold play some small buy-ins at the IP, the Isle of Capris or Hard Rock, and then check out the Island View at six. I got about 1/3rd through the plan and bailed--ie I played one and went home. Not much to say. I started out on a table of alternates and basically blinded away 1/5th of my stack. Lots of novices splashing around with weak hands. I figured out who I could steal from but was never first into the pot. It's charming to see inexperienced players trying to play correctly but not quite doing it. Yes, they get that aggression is important but applying it is often a problem. They'd make min raises on draw heavy boards, or flop the stone cold nuts like AJ and hit AAJ and go all-in. Their opponent folds and they show their hand proudly. Yes, you essentially had all the outs you can't get paid th...