Where'd She Go?

I really hate when bloggers take an extended break from their blogs without leaving a single word as to why they have simply vanished from the virtual earth. Are they sick? Did they die? Did they run off to Paris with the plumber...what happened???

Then I realized, I have done the exact same thing! My sincere appologies.

I still love poker. I'm just taking a break to persue other interests at the moment. A person only has so much free time, ya know. Lately, I've been devoting all of my free time to photography and since I have so much to learn there, it'll probably take a while.

But I am having a great time with it!

I'll be back here...eventually. :)

Pot Limit Omaha 8 by Dan Deppen

So, I had the good fortune of receiving this book from the author for review and I may have found a new game.

Pot Limit Omaha 8 Revealed Expert Advice For Beating Pot Limit Omaha 8 Poker Games by Dan Deppen.

Deppen states this book is for people who are already familiar with big bet games; NLHE and PLO. His main focus is the online 6-max cash games, but there's also advice for full ring and a chapter on tournament play. Keep in mind while reading this that these are pot limit concepts, not particularly for use in Limit O8. He does, however, note some key differences in Limit vs. Pot Limit, which are useful to the limit player.

"...this book will make no attempt to present cookbook type formulas." Instead, Deppen wants the reader to develop a sound thought process, backed by statistics, that will eventually become second nature to them.

He discusses the importance of starting hand selection. Always play to scoop or what he terms, "freeroll hands". When it comes to starting hand knowledge, "Knowing what hands to stay away from can have more value than knowing what hands are good." To me this means, limit your margin of error from the beginnning and this will greatly lesson your post flop mistakes.

Deppen covers basic post flop play very well and also includes a chapter on advanced post flop concepts, which I found interesting and informative. He includes hand examples and tables showing equity vs. hand range percentages that contain some eye-opening numbers.

All in all, I thought it was a very well researched, well written and put-together book. If you're growing weary of all-holdem-all-the-time, PLO8 can be a refreshing and profitable change. I recommend you add it to your poker library; I'm glad I did.

For more information on Dan Deppen and his book, Pot Limit Omaha 8 Revealed, you can visit his website here.

Good luck!

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post, it means a lot to me. It's been a rough week, but I'm sure we'll get through this. It really hurt me to sell his truck, but I did. I'm sure it hurt him even more, but his license has been suspended, so it's not like he could drive it anyway. I'm back to being a chauffeur for the time being, driving him to/from school and to/from work. It must really suck having your mommy pick you up in the senior parking lot when all of your friends are getting in their own vehicles and hitting the freedom road. I hope it sucks enough for him to never make that choice again. Time will tell.

I'll get back to the poker content soon. I also have a PLO8 book review I'll be posting this week.

Soul Crushed

Thanks for the feedback on my previous post, I guess I'm not alone on the subject. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to be a donkey calling station, but I've got to start factoring in all the odds (pot, implied, tilt) before I make a final decision on how to best proceed with a hand. Giving up the best hand too frequently is a real nightmare.

I went back and re-calculated my profits for last month and found that I had accidentally combined my tournament losses into my cash game losses. In my haste, I just subtracted all of the red numbers from the black on my spreadsheet and didn't realize at the time that those numbers also contained tournament buyins. So, while my fold-itis left a lot of money on the table for me, the month wasn't nearly as bad as I first thought. Still, it could've been so much better. Sigh.

I doubt I'll be playing any this week; I wouldn't be able to focus at all. As teenagers are known to do, my 17 yr old son broke my heart over the weekend. Just shattered it to pieces. It is such a shame that his senior year, which is supposed to be one of the best years of his life, will now be one of his worst. He's lost his freedom, his independence and sadly, he's lost my respect and my trust. I was so proud of that boy, he could do no wrong in my eyes. To find out he is not the young man I thought he was is such a tough pill to swallow. They say love is blind; I guess that applies to parent/child relationships as well. Sometimes, we only see what we want to see.

Making Big Laydowns

When does this certain strength become an actual leak in your game? Where's that fine line? When I first started playing poker, I heard the phrase, If you never fold a winner, you'll always be a loser. It stuck with me and I would often repeat that phrase in my head after I'd been bluffed off the best hand or folded an overpair to an agressive raise. That was several years ago, though, now it is much harder to bluff me or get me off a strong hand. BUT. It can happen. I still make folds that most people would never dream of releasing. Sometimes it's a good fold, sometimes not. I remember the 'nots' a lot more vividly, though.

As I was thinking back on those 'not' hands, I realized that just in the last 2 months alone I have cost myself close to $500 with those 'great laydowns' of mine. That's not only shocking to me, it's down right embarrassing. The worst thing a player can do at the poker table is fold the winning hand and I have done it. Time and time again.

I need an intervention! Is there a rehab for idiots?!?

Most of these folds are made on the flop, where I don't have much money invested, but still. Enough already. Play the freakin' hand! This 'leak' has been the difference in being a winning player vs. a break even player. My profit last month was $14. Pitiful.

I saw this quote from one of my favorite LHE posters on 2+2, leo doc. He was responding to a person wanting to know if he made a good fold with AA on the turn after an opponent had capped the Q high flop. Someone posted that it was a straight forward muck, a -EV call and leo doc said,

I'm sure you're right "math-wise" and I do like the maths playin' the LHE. Trouble is, I'm only good enuf to figure a few implied odds and most pot odds. I'm much better at figuring "tilt odds", both for me and my opponent. My tilt odds are close to zero unless I make a bad fold. I never tilt when I make a bad call, tho, so I reckon I got a little protection there......I've also learned not to fold in monster pots for another bet or two 'cause it beats the alternative by a country mile.

It's like he was speaking directly to me! When I grow up, I wanna be just like him.

Say Cheese, Senatobia

I've started a new blog. Like I really need another one, right? Anyhoo, it's a photo blog, so there won't be much writing involved. Maybe that way, I'll be able to keep it up! Yes, I'm a lazy writer.
My current camera's not so hot, but I won an ebay auction during the night, so I have a 'lightly used, well cared for' Canon EOS Rebel 2000 35mm with accessories on the way (with a money back guarantee, ftw!) I've seen some shots on Flickr taken with this camera that are mucho awesome. If I decide that I like my new hobby, I'll invest in a digital Canon. For now, I'm going old school with the 35mm.

I love photography, I always have, but I'll admit I'm a clueless beginner. Everybody has to start somewhere, though! Here's the link to my new hobby blog.

Tornadoes, Crub Frushes and Name That Pro

~As interesting as it sounded, I decided not to play the Cash Blast tournament at Horseshoe yesterday. I'm pretty nitty with my bankroll and $339 would've been stretching it. I played cash there, instead. When I was cashing out (FTW!), the man in front of me was cashing out $1600 from the tournament. Not bad. I heard one woman had around 500 and tripled up with AA vs QQ and Tens. She was yelling Cash Out! before the dealer could even finish pushing her the pot LOL. Maybe they will start running that tournament on a regular basis. I hope so.

~While I was there, I witnessed a crazy hand at my table involving crubs and frushes, as CK likes to call them. The board read Kc Qc Jc 10c x. Two players got into a raising war on the river. (In LHE, the river betting is unlimited if it's heads-up.) The young guy on the other end of the table finally gave up and just called the man on my left to end the betting. The young guy flips the 9c for the straight flush and you already know the man on my left flipped the Ac for the royal flush....That poor kid was crushed. That could only happen with crubs!

~My husband was supposed to play in a golf scramble in Tunica while I played cards, but it kept raining, like it has all week, so he told me to go ahead and he would just stay home. As I got closer to Tunica, the sky turned from grey to black and I started to get nervous. I sent him a text, Did you just send me off into a tornado?? Actually, he unknowingly sent me away from a tornado, as one came through just a few miles south of our house. Yikes! I'm glad I wasn't here, because I know when the sirens started blaring, I would've been freaking out. Thankfully, we didn't have any damage. East Memphis and Olive Branch, MS got hit pretty hard, tho.

~As I was walking into Horseshoe, I saw a man walking out towards Gold Strike. I know he is a Vegas pro, a bracelet winner even, but I can't think of his name for anything. It's driving me nuts! He's tall, has kinda spiky, dirty-blonde hair, wears glasses and has put on quite a bit of weight in the last few years. Not that he's fat, he was just really slim before. If you know who I am talking about, please tell me! LOL I also heard Eskimo Clark is there, but I didn't see him. (Not that I really wanted to anyway, haha)