Purgatory: $0.1/0.25 No Limit Omaha

After getting rid of $1.4k of my bankroll, I decided it was time for me to punish myself.  I’d been reading about an exercise that Kurosh did earlier this year where he would take a sponsor for $50, then min buy-in at a LHE table, then keep building and doing that to see if he could turn a $1k profit, splitting the upside with the sponsor.  I decided to try PLO on FullTilt, but the only table open was a No Limit Omaha table.

I bought in for $10 and hunkered down for a long afternoon.  Buying in light actually changed my play somewhat:  getting more aggressive early if I was in a pot (I stole several five and six way limps), betting hard with big hands, avoiding draws early on.  I was able to get it up above the max buy-in of $25 fairly quickly, then I changed gears as the table allowed it.  I ended up seeing a whopping 70% of the flops over several hours and ended at $150 for the session.  There were a few interesting things that I did during the session.  First, I limped regardless of what I had almost every time.  I figured that raising at these stakes wouldn’t get too many folks out, and disguising my hand would be more profitable than tipping everyone off.  I mainly played passively on the flop, especially if I had a big draw.  I’d always bet my draws in Omaha, so this was a significant change.  Again, it was really about seeing if I could catch a hand, letting others do the betting for me.  If the opportunity arose and I did have a sizable pot with a big draw, I would bet it hard.  I also overbet the nuts as well as missed hands a few times which worked out very well.  I ended up alone at the table with $100 a couple times, then a lone player would sit down with $10, I’d mop them up in a couple hands, then I’d be alone again.

I figured that it would be a good exercise after Monday just to go off on a tangent, and I’m glad that I did.  It eliminated putting any of my bankroll at risk, forced me to think differently about the game, and brought back a little fun as well.  That the outcome was slightly positive was OK as well.  It is so easy to focus on the chunk of change that was lost when you’ve had a big losing session rather than refocusing on your game.

So that’s that with me and poker.  On the home front, the Little Guy (our two-year old) had a tough afternoon as we ate his Baby Cousin for supper last night.  His Baby Cousin was a canteloupe that he’d named My Baby Cousin and had toted around the house for the last week.  I joined his hunger strike, although his brothers and Mom simply shrugged at us and chomped away.  While Sweetie went to the school for the last of her four week video series on all the horrible things awaiting our kids as they grow up, the boys and I went to Best Buy and Target.  I had to look at laptops as mine will be out of commission for two-three weeks (I’ll probably will not get a new one as we have literally seven PC’s and two Apple G5′s in the house plus a server).

We bought napkins and toilet paper at Target along with a few more pounds of candy for Halloween.  Man, what it would be like to be a kid in our neighborhood today.  Say what you want about Suburbia, but Halloween is incredible.  The neighbor across the street gives the half pound Hershey bars to the kids that are friends with their kids, they bring home at least four full size candy bars each year, and only 5-10% of the stuff is gross that they get.  Growing up, our take was probably 60-70% good stuff with an assorted mix of melted taffy, the orange and black cubes that you didn’t know what they were, plus a few weird things that only came out at Halloween.  My top five things to get at Halloween:  Snickers, Reese’s, Butterfinger, peanut butter log (the little white and brown striped hard candy), and Tootsie Pop.  Least favorite by a mile is candy corn, although Sweetie likes it.

Good luck at the table, and get your favorite candy for Halloween today.  Then eat some each day until Halloween comes.