After finishing so well in the World Series of Poker hi/lo tournament this summer, I anxiously anticipated playing in the LA Poker Classic. I was much more excited to play this tournament than the Bay-101 Open for many reasons. 1) Bay-101 is my home town, and I already know how bad the players are. One would think this makes winning easy, but it actually has the opposite effect. 2) Many of the WSOP players, and even one of my final table-mates came from the LA area, and I was looking forward to seeing many of them again. I was also looking forward to meeting many players that I've met online -- including the always fun, "Dr. Mouse."

In spite of playing well and bombing out early, I was upbeat when I got home. I came home early so I could spend time with my wife and kids. I hadn't decided whether or not to play at night, and if I did...what I would play. Finally, at the last minute I sat down, and decided to play in the nightly Poker Stars O8 tournament.

Even though I didn't fare so well in the Bay-101 Omaha-8 tournament, I had much better luck at the cash games. Bay-101 usually has a $4/8 O8 cash game, but frankly I wasn't interested in this low-stakes suck-out extravaganza. Thankfully, they had a $10/20 O8 list going, and as soon as I busted, I put my name right on it.

This was the tournament that I not only looked forward to playing, but I dreaded as well. Even though I consistently finish high in the money in online Omaha-8 tournaments, I was eager to prove to myself that I could repeat my performance in the WSOP. I didn't think the problem would be with my play, but would be with the players themselves -- specifically, the players at Bay-101.

This tournament was made for me; it has more starting chips, and the blinds go up every 30 minutes. With this tournament structure, I can play exactly like my WSOP style -- wait for the hands to come to me.

953 people either ponied up $530 buy-in, or won their way through satellites. (See my previous blog entry -- "Winning my way to the WCOOP." First place paid a whopping $103,162.

After initially buying my way directly into the WCOOP $530 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, I subsequently won my way as well. There weren't too many Omaha Hi/Lo tournaments last night on Poker Stars, so I decided to participate in the tournament instead.

The other night it was my son's 21 birthday party; lots of booze and crazy activity at my house. I'm downstairs keeping an eye on everything, and I decide to play in a freeroll Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. The top 27 players of this tournament win their entry into some other freeroll NLHE tournament -- with real cash payouts. Nearly 4600 people enter this tournament.

Last night, I played my fourth Omaha hi/lo tournament since competing in the WSOP. I have made the final table in two of these four tournament; and cashed in three of them.