Well, I don't have much to write about in this entry, so I'll probably resort to posting hand histories, writing about golf and sharing some personal stuff that has no business being in a poker blog.

First of all, I love pot-limit omaha. I'd say it's the new black if that weren't such an overused quip (like "too soon" and "snap") but it is. The new black, that is. Everybody's playing it, and everybody's writing about it. And by "everybody" I mean Norwegians, Russians, Swedes and Romanians, because that's who I'm usually up against. Oh, and SirWatts too! We played at the same $5/$10 PLO table at Party the other night! Omg! I like tried to chat with him but he musta been playing volume and didn't notice me writing "Hey Mike it's Devin, how's it going?" and "NH Mike... kings full that was sweet!". Etc. He must have been busy.

It amuses me that I've gotten into PLO, because I dissed PLO in this very blog not long ago:

"Speaking of Omaha, I've been watching Benyamine, Durrrrr, Brian Townsend, etc. play the $200/$400 PLO game at Full Tilt. Five-figure pots are routine, and some of these players are winning and losing literally millions of dollars in a period of four to six weeks. Insane. The chatbox is full of railtards typing the dumbest shit, but one person wrote: "There doesn't actually seem to be a lot of skill involved here". And you know what? I agree. These shorthanded nosebleed PLO games seem to work like this: see the flop with pretty much any four cards. If you hit, bet pot. If you have a two-way hand, re-pot until all-in, and then pray. Nobody ever gets it in truly good or truly bad because there are always so many freakin' outs after the money goes in. You're pretty much leaving it up to the fates or whatever to decide if you're going to win or lose 100K in the session. No thanks. Maybe I'm over-simplifying things a bit. I probably am. But man, I gotta tell you, it just looks like gamboooooling to me. Entertaining to watch."

So like I've always said, PLO is an awesome, awesome game of skill.

There's a half-decent article about it in the March/April issue of CardPlayer by Jeff Hwang. He says: "The line between the "made hand" and the "drawing hand" is blurred, and all-in confrontations between multiple players who believe they are entitled to the pot inevitably occur far more frequently than in hold'em". This isn't news to you, but I like the way he puts it. Here's an example of that:

$400 USD PL Omaha - Tuesday, May 13, 23:49:56 ET 2008
Table Table  126445 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: gams09100 ( $204.50 USD )
Seat 10: RiccoLaw ( $556.37 USD )
Seat 5: Aces_All ( $664.16 USD )
Seat 2: schusch ( $402 USD )
Seat 4: Arl0rd ( $464.02 USD )
Seat 7: Helga1957 ( $521.80 USD )
Seat 1: nogent ( $450.37 USD )
Seat 8: narzissegirl ( $93.13 USD )
Seat 3: lamthanh029 ( $137.78 USD )
Seat 9: g_icet ( $350.78 USD )
schusch posts small blind [$2 USD].
lamthanh029 posts big blind [$4 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Aces_All [  Kh Kd Th Qs ]
Arl0rd calls [$4 USD]
>You have options at Speed #1384111 Table!.
Aces_All raises [$16 USD]
gams09100 raises [$58 USD]
Helga1957 folds
narzissegirl folds
g_icet folds
>You have options at Speed #1384111 Table!.
RiccoLaw did not respond in time
RiccoLaw folds
nogent folds
schusch folds
lamthanh029 folds
Arl0rd folds
Aces_All calls [$42 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, Qc, 4d ]
Aces_All checks
gams09100 bets [$123 USD]
>You have options at Speed #1384111 Table!.
Aces_All raises [$492 USD]
gams09100 is all-In  [$23.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
Aces_All shows [ Kh, Kd, Th, Qs ]a pair of Kings.
gams09100 shows [ 5c, Ad, Jd, Ah ]a pair of Aces.
Aces_All wins $345.50 USD from the side pot 1 with a pair of Kings.
gams09100 wins $416 USD from the main pot with a pair of Aces.

Preflop it was obvious that my opponent had aces. But on the flop, I wasn't going anywhere. I twodimes'd the hand and found that we were about 50/50 to win after the flop was dealt. This perfectly illustrates how you can sometimes be behind and be even at the same time, or better still, be ahead at the same time! Who doesn't love that bucket of fun! "Behind" is a relative term? Sign me up! I love this shit!

What I've also learned about PLO is that it's actually better to play while on tilt. I'm only half-kidding. PLO is such a draw-heavy game that sometimes you just have to get it in there. You can't be a nitty folder like you are in hold'em. Go to a PLO table and slam that little bet size bar all the way to the right baby:

$600 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, May 15, 00:39:23 ET 2008
Table Table  135440 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: ORPHE ( $745.60 USD )
Seat 4: LarryEmdur ( $3,774.91 USD )
Seat 5: nogent ( $705.41 USD )
Seat 6: roberto26333 ( $684.15 USD )
Seat 3: Aces_All ( $540 USD )
Seat 1: RonDworkin ( $436 USD )
RonDworkin posts small blind [$3 USD].
ORPHE posts big blind [$6 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Aces_All [  Ad 7s Ac 6c ]
Aces_All raises [$18 USD]
LarryEmdur raises [$63 USD]
nogent folds
roberto26333 folds
>You have options at Speed #1384137 Table!.
>You have options at Speed #1384137 Table!.
RonDworkin folds
ORPHE folds
>You have options at Speed #1384137 Table!.
Aces_All raises [$180 USD]
LarryEmdur calls [$135 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 7d, 5c ]
Aces_All is all-In  [$342 USD]
>You have options at Speed #1384137 Table!.
LarryEmdur calls [$342 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4d ]
Aces_All shows [ Ad, 7s, Ac, 6c ]a pair of Aces.
LarryEmdur shows [ Js, Td, Qd, Kd ]a pair of Tens.
Aces_All wins $1,086 USD from the main pot with a pair of Aces.
ORPHE has left the table.

OK, that actually wasn't a bad flop for aces, but I sure needed the board to brick off. He's live to any ten, jack, queen or king, running draws to straights and flushes, etc. Gambooool!

Enough boring PLO hh's. I'm having fun with it, and it's going well enough. Party in general is going well enough... The recent history: I crushed their SNG's earlier this year, and then cashed out the majority of it when the $200 and $300 action dried up. Then they added some high stakes SNG's and dropped the rake, and all of the SNG's came back to life. So I went back to check out the new and improved action, and my $500 redeposit is now sitting at $7600. I know that's nothing to most of you ballers out there, but to me it's pretty good for two weeks of casual online SNG play. I don't have a lot of time to play, so when I do, I play volume. A typical screen in front of me might have a $300, a $200 and a $100 nlhe SNG, a $600 max PLO game, a $400 max PLO8 game, and a shorthanded $20/$40 lhe game. I enjoy playing a number of different kinds of games at the same time; it keeps me focused. I'll also take shots at the 1K PLO game if it's a full ten-handed table, and I'll play the occasional $500 SNG as well.

Speaking of which, here are some boring $500 SNG hand histories:

NL Texas Hold'em $510 USD Buy-in Trny:40085819 Level:7   Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25) - Thursday, May 15, 00:44:10 ET 2008
Table Speed #1384137 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 6: Aces_All ( 10,860 )
Seat 9: charlie79501 ( 9,140 )
Trny:40085819 Level:7
 Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25)
Aces_All posts ante [25]
charlie79501 posts ante [25]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Aces_All [  6h 7h ]
Aces_All calls [400]
charlie79501 checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, Qc, 4h ]
charlie79501 bets [1,200]
Aces_All calls [1,200]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
charlie79501 checks
Aces_All bets [1,600]
charlie79501 folds
Aces_All does not show cards.
Aces_All wins 5,650 chips

Told you they'd be boring. I liked that one because I won it. Haha just kidding. I liked it because it's rare to see small-pot poker being played so late in these SNG's, and I was glad my opponent was willing to participate, even if only for one hand. This one is the classic: "He knows a paired flop is good to bluff at, and he's right, but I'm going to float him because I know that he knows that, and I don't think he'll be able to pull the trigger on a re-re-steal even if he does know that I know that he knows that."

More excitement:

NL Texas Hold'em $510 USD Buy-in Trny:40085819 Level:7   Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25) - Thursday, May 15, 00:47:18 ET 2008
Table Speed #1384137 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 6: Aces_All ( 10,065 )
Seat 9: charlie79501 ( 9,935 )
Trny:40085819 Level:7
 Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25)
Aces_All posts ante [25]
charlie79501 posts ante [25]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Aces_All [  5c 8c ]
Aces_All calls [400]
charlie79501 checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 7c, 3c ]
charlie79501 checks
Aces_All checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
charlie79501 bets [800]
Aces_All calls [800]
** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
charlie79501 bets [1,600]
Aces_All calls [1,600]
charlie79501 shows [ 6s, 9h ]two pairs, Nines and Threes.
Aces_All doesn't show [ 5c, 8c ]two pairs, Fives and Threes.
charlie79501 wins 6,450 chips from the main pot with two pairs, Nines and Threes.

Ugh. I played that hand so bad... so weak... but from a results-oriented point of view I'm glad I didn't get it all-in on the flop. What really pissed me off was my river call... I knew my fives weren't any good but paid off like the donk I am.

And finally:

NL Texas Hold'em $510 USD Buy-in Trny:40085819 Level:7   Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25) - Thursday, May 15, 00:48:20 ET 2008
Table Speed #1384137 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 6: Aces_All ( 13,255 )
Seat 9: charlie79501 ( 6,745 )
Trny:40085819 Level:7
 Blinds-Antes(400/800 -25)
Aces_All posts ante [25]
charlie79501 posts ante [25]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Aces_All [  7h Th ]
charlie79501 calls [400]
Aces_All checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, Td, 7c ]
Aces_All checks
charlie79501 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
Aces_All checks
charlie79501 checks
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
Aces_All bets [1,600]
charlie79501 is all-In  [5,920]
Aces_All calls [4,320]
Aces_All shows [ 7h, Th ]a full house, Sevens full of Tens.
charlie79501 shows [ Ts, 7d ]a full house, Sevens full of Tens.
charlie79501 wins 6,745 chips from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of Tens.
Aces_All wins 6,745 chips from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of Tens.

That was entertaining... I don't think I've ever seen both players flop the second nuts heads-up. And of course we played it the exact same way lol. Anyway it was a great heads up match that lasted about ten minutes... we exchanged the chip lead time and time again but eventually I took it down.

Let's see... what else... Well that about does it for the poker content. Before I get to the bonus footage, let me leave you with one piece of advice: don't play drums for Rock Band while hammered. You'll think you can do it, but you can't. You'll only embarrass yourself.

Bonus Footage:

Last weekend I went to my cousin Mel's wedding in London. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding on a beautiful day, and they are a great couple. Congrats to them.

A few interesting moments: After the reception a bunch of us went off to play hammered Rock Band. When we were done I said I was calling a cab to the hotel, and a friend of the family asked if she could get a lift with us. I said "of course!". A few minutes later she walked up to me and said: "have they left yet?". I said "who" and she said "the people who were going in the cab". I said "I'm they. I'm the people. We haven't left yet". Lol alcoholaments.

At the wedding I ran into a distant relative who remembered me from when I was like 12. She said she loved that I used to read all of the books in her den, and asked what I was up to these days. I told her that I work in television. An hour later we were talking again, and she was telling me about her grandson who is apparently very smart and creative but for some reason thinks he is stupid. Her words: "I told him he's not stupid but if things don't work out for him he can always go into television or something". Holy. Fuckin'. Dis. Not only was I right there, but she was talking DIRECTLY TO ME. Jesus.

In other news, I'm still terrible at golf and don't really know what to do about it. Maybe lessons, but everytime I have time for lessons, that means I have time for actual golf, and who wants to take lessons at a driving range when they can be out there driving a golf cart and swinging away. You can see the dillemna.

And finally, I'm going to a cottage this weekend and I plan to do a lot of fishing. We got a "fishing package" which means they're going to supply us with the boat and the gas, and live bait every day. They seem pretty hardcore about the bait... I don't think it's going to be worms. Looks like it'll be leeches and frogs and crayfish. Here's the thing: I've hooked hundreds of worms and minnows in my time, but no leeches or frogs or crayfish. I can't really see myself hooking a frog in particular to be honest. I have no quarrel with them, in fact I quite like them. The frogs will probably be set free in some quiet place on the lake. As for the fishing, apparently it's illegal to fish for bass this early in the season which is problematic because that's really all I ever catch. My question was: how am I supposed to control whether it's a bass or a perch or a walleye or any other kind of fish that goes for my hook? For your edification, the answer is that you can't control whether or not you catch illegal bass, but you have to release them if you do. Furthermore, if you catch and release one, and then catch another within your next three casts, you are legally obliged to move your boat a good distance from that spot. Live and learn. If I catch anything good I'll post a picture in the middle of talking about poker in my next entry.