Thursday, September 24, 2009

Artichoke Joe's Limit Hold em & Limit Omaha Tourney

John, Hanso and I decided to go over to Artichoke's in San Bruno to play a nighttime tournament they had. This is the first time I been here and its a totally different feel than Lucky Chances.

We enter a limit texas hold em/limit omaha hi-low tourney with a $50 dollar buy-in. $20 dollar rebuys until the break with $40 dollar add on.

I was excited by the fact that this was a mix game tournament, like HORSE except without the RSE. John and I got put at the same table and here we go:

Just like my last limit texas hold em tournament at bay101, I decided to put pressure right off the bat and achieve two things: to control the table (meaning if they going to play garbage cards, then pay for it) and put the aggressive image out there. What good is play poker if everyone is in the hand? Trust me, there is a method to my madness...So I pretty much two-three bet every hand in the first round. Sure, I lost a bunch of chips, but I also gain a lot when I finally hit one of my hands.

It really seem like the whole table was after me. Some guy said "man, this guy....so aggressive", another guy "You won't make it to the final table" and a woman "raise again? ...gosh!"...Already right there! I got tells on all of them. They didn't have anything good in their hands, so I could put their range and read them better. They say its hard to bluff in limit, but I pulled one off when I represented a flush on the river.

When the Omaha hi-lo round came along, I had to give John and Hanso a crash course in the game. While I didn't see how hanso did, John did pretty well and hit a couple wheel hands (A2345) and scoop some huge pots!

Omaha rounds are the ones you can lose a lot of chips, because you are constantly drawing to a hand and when you miss...you don't really much choice except to fold. I tried to never draw to a low hand, except if the pot is huge. This is a game I still need to work on, but its basically if the pot odds are there...you should call to hit...given your stack.

The event started with around 30 players and I played for 3 hours before it finally got down to the final table! I made it yet again to the final table! It's such a great feeling, especially since this was my first Omaha tournament. I've alway kind of pride myself that I took time to learn all the different form of poker games.

But, it wasn't long I was met with disappointment when I busted out in 8th.

At this point, the blinds were so high and I only had 2.5 bb left. It gets folded to the LB who two bets me and I push it all in. I couldn't afford to fold anyways. He shows 34 and I show 64. He somehow gets a straight on the turn and I'm dead.

Overall, it was fun and interesting. Not bad for the first time here. I wish I could have seen that guy's face when he told me "i've never seen you at the final table"

3 comments:

  1. I should have studied Omaha. You gave me a great 5 minute crash course. If I knew Omaha, I would have also have made it to the final table, sucks to be 10th.

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