I’ve played the Omaha-8 cash games at Bay-101 many times. I either make a lot of money, or I lose a lot of money. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. The players are the problem, not my abilities. The players seem like they play at the same level as the $5 tournaments on Party Poker (bad and loose). When these players are present, I lose a lot of money because they play any hand, no matter how improbable, to the river. When better players are present, I tend to make a lot of money. It’s never in between.

The tournament got off to a great start. We started with 3000 in tournament chips, the blinds are 25-25, and each blind round lasts 30 minutes. I started on the button, and I was dealt A34J suited – clubs – and just as I expected from Bay-101, four people wanted to see the flop. When two clubs and two low cards appeared, I was very pleased. The buy in the small blind (immediately to my left) bets, everybody calls, then I raise in position to try and steal the lead and see free cards. The SB didn’t want any part of this and he immediately 3-bet me; so I call. The turn brings a high club, and seals my security in winning the high portion of the hand. The SB called the river, showing two low clubs in his hand, and I scooped the very first pot.

I scooped other pots as well, and by the end of the second blind round I had increased my stack to over 4000 chips.

The player immediately to my left raised with any A2xx in his hand, no matter his position on the table. If he had A23x in his hand, he would cap any pre-flop action – even from the SB. I recognized him, as one of the regulars in the cash games, and I knew his strategy was doomed to failure (since the probability of a low is slightly less than 50-50). The girl two places to my right, also raised with any A2 in her hand – so she too was very easy to read.

Coming 30 minutes late to the game was the madman in seat-1 – a guy who I’ve seen play $100/200 mixed cash games with Cindy Violette. He’s a fearless player, and that makes him better than most, but he was also reckless in his card choice selection. He also gave away far too much information through his betting patterns. When he arrived at the table, he played the first 6 straight hands, and he placed a pre-flop raise in every one of those hands. After the flop he simply tried to outplay his competitors, and sometimes showed down very bad hands such as Q875 single suited. His pre-flop raising criteria seemed any be any pocket pair with connectors, any pocket pair with suited cards, and of course the A2xx combinations. After the flop, he would relentlessly bet his position on the table. Due to this intimidating tactic, he amassed a huge chip stack in a very short order. But I saw things differently, I saw him and his style as one that would not last, and would be easy to pick off with the right set of cards.

Unfortunately, after my early successes, the cards went completely dead. In one hand against the mad-man in seat-1, he raised pre-flop when I had AA36 double suited. So I three bet him to isolate him. The only problem for me: he got lucky and hit his two-outter on the flop of J47. I tried to bet him off of the hand, but he wouldn’t budge. He had raised with JJT9, single suited, and hit the magic jack on the flop to make his set. My hand never improved, nor did a low come for me, so I check-called him in the hopes my aces were good; and if they weren’t, just to get valuable information.

From this point onward, I split only one hand, and lost every other hand I contested in the tournament. I started taking some very bad beats. I folded gut-shot straight draws when the action was 3-bet in front of me (the straight hit on the next card), and I saw my low counterfeited on just about every flop, turn, or river. Thus after round-3, I had less than 2000 chips remaining.

After the break, things didn’t improve. For the next entire blind round I didn’t see a single playable hand. Therefore, I essentially let myself get blinded. By round-5, I was down to 1100 chips with 200-400 blinds. When the big blind hit me, I looked down and saw a miracle hand: A24Q double suited. Since there were already three other people in the pot, my instincts said “raise” to increase the value of this pot. But there were a problems with that strategy: I only had 2 bets left (which means I needed to hit or I’ll be out), I was out of position throughout the hand, and there’s a slightly less than 50% chance I’ll hit a low. Thank goodness I didn’t listen to my instincts – because the flop was J92, none of my suits. I had to fold this hand on the flop.

My hand in the SB was almost equally as impressive: A36J single suited. Instead of raising, again I went against my instincts and just called the blinds. Thank goodness once again – because the flop was no help and I had to fold. Two hands later, I look down at A2 and don’t even look at the remainder of my cards. I raise myself all-in, split the pot, and am now back up to 1000 chips (whoopee). The next hand was unfortunately going to be my last; at least the cards were coming now, and I wouldn’t be ashamed by anything in the way I was playing.

On my final hand, I was dealt A227 single suited; I raised with multiple callers. The flop was GREAT: 2Q9, I flopped bottom set. When I bet, the mad-man in seat-1 re-raised me, and I ended up going all-in; everybody else folded. I turned over my set of 2’s, and he turned over two pair: Q’s and 9’s. When he saw this, he realized just how far behind in the hand he was: he was drawing to four outs, and didn’t even have a any low cards to make an emergency low – should two running low cards come on the board. When the turn brought a 5, that was even better for me (not that I needed it). Still the only four cards I should fear were two queens, and the two nines remaining in the deck. As fate would have it, the river was a QUEEN, and I was knocked out of the tournament.

Summary:
In retrospect I had nothing to be ashamed of in my tournament play. The blinds went up too fast and too aggressive; but I decided to play my same exact on-line tournament strategy because it was very close to the number of hands dealt per round as this live tournament. I got off to a great start, then went card dead. Got quartered twice, outdrawn, laid down hands that didn’t produce results, then finally got taken out when my opponent hit one of the only four cards in the deck that could help him. All-in-all, nothing to be ashamed of.