Oops! Pot Limit Day

Work was kinda cool today if you like dealing to a room filled with the Poker players that you often see on television.  My first table at the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em Championship included Annette Oberstadt,  Jason Mercier, Sam Stein, Josh Arieh and Beth Shak  I later dealt to Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Men Nguyen, James Ankenhead, John Juanda and Hoyt Corkins.  Several others like Mike Matusow, David Benjamine and Eric Lindgren were at adjacent tables.

I thought it was interesting that they played the Pot Limit version of Hold'em tighter than they played No Limit.  Of all the Poker celebs mentioned above, the actress Jennifer Tilly was doing best by end of day building up a tidy stack of chips.

After work we headed over to the Venetian and found a $1-$2 Pot Limit Omaha game to our liking.  I blew a few hands early to get down a buy-in and then almost lost all of that before things began to turn around for me.  I hit a few sets that held and Pocket Aces held up for me and after a few hours I was back to even.  Feeling pretty good about my turnaround I started playing more hands and calling more raises with weaker holdings mistakenly thinking that the cards had turned in my favor and I wanted to press the advantage.  Ha.  It took a few hours, but I wasted the entire stack chasing second place hands and calling bets on the end with hands that could only beat a bluff.  Obviously, I didn't snap off very many bluffs.  Glad I didn't bring any more of my bankroll.

I must say that Pot Limit Omaha is a lot more fun to play than Hold'em.  With four cards in hand there are just  so many more possibilities, but you have to be very sharp.  If you aren't paying attention to how each hand develops from the opening raises, you can get crushed.  Because of all the draws, hands may often be behind, but favorites to win with two cards to come.  Win a few of these coin flips and your stack can grow quickly.  Lose a few and you're headed to the ATM.

Tight - aggressive is the way to go.  Maybe even loose - aggressive before the flop but very tight after.  The objective, as with all Poker, is to win the big pots and lose small ones when the cards don't go your way...