Go to hell, Captain Luckbox.

I've got a case of the lazies, and it's extending to poker and blogging. Oh well. The highlights:

I think Thursday night may have been the first and last time my mom attempts NL holdem. She won two hands, then lost two big ones, and busted out of the cashgame within 45 minutes. Her big mistake was holding onto A5o way too long. She hit an ace on the river, but somebody else's AJ made a boat on the same card. Oops.

I had a down session playing NL holdem, but Russ was begging for me to play him in PL Omaha/8. We played four-handed for a few minutes with Shawn and Chris, then another hour heads-up. I turned my third $10 of the night into $36, mostly on good cards and easy decisions in Omaha/8. When Russ had something, I had zilch. When I was drawing strong or already made, Russ was sticking around and paying me.
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The tourney Sunday was a blur. I was busted in 10th when Jesse reraised me all-in from his BB with AJo. My kings got cracked by a turned ace, and he had me covered. I would've gone from medium-stack to chipleader - instead I went from medium-stack to cheerleader. Albert played well, trapping the overly aggressive money finishers (Quagmire, Sam, Barker) to win it.
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I'm a short-sighted bastard when it comes to freebies. UltimateBet is offering a Frequent Player Freeroll this Saturday, only requirements are earning 300 points through ring games from Nov 12-18. I triple tabled at quarter BB limit O/8, and signed up last night.

Short-sighted? I can't actually play in the freeroll, which starts 30 minutes after I have to clock in for my Saturday lunch bartender shift. Albert will be stepping in for me. If he can't make it, Barker will.

Nice prize pool though - $5,500 in cash, ten seats to the $1 Million Stone Cold Nuts tourney, and some other odds 'n ends.
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I don't play MTT's regularly, but I had some time and found a juicy one - the UB $5 rebuy, $10K guaranteed. Ten K? That's a lotta rebuys for 637 people. And they hit it, when it was all said and done for a prize pool of $10.2K. Top 70 paid.

I think UB just started $5 rebuy cash-payout tourneys. Pretty nice.

I played well, and my chips stayed steady. I don't think I ever cracked the top 15 in chips, and stayed very near the median for the whole darn thing.

With Barker, Albert, and Fast Eddie watching, I coasted into the money, still with a medium-sized stack. The hand on the bubble made me a little sad, though I think I took the safe route. A super-shorty went all-in UTG, and the table chipleader reraised a significant amount. With six players left to act behind me, and a chipstack right at the average, I mucked pocket jacks. After they showed 88 and 99, I felt a little foolish. Neither hit a set, and we were all in the money. It didn't occur to me until a few minutes afterward that if I pushed and was called, and the chipleader beat us both, I'm in the money and super-shorty isn't, based on the chipcount at the start of the hand.

I know the short stack has a huge range there, and I knew the other guy knew that. If I'm the BB or a short stack myself, it's an easy all-in.

I still wonder if I gave up too much by mucking those jacks though.

The next hand I played was my last. MP with AJ-hearts, I bumped it up normally. The button called, as did the BB. The flop was an uncoordinated J-high. Looking good unless somebody hit a small set, as I expected queens or kings would reraise preflop. BB bet $8K, about 1/3 of the pot, into me. I reraised all-in for an additional $20K. The button mucked, and the BB called with J8-suited. Which was great, until the 8 on the turn. I had him covered by less than 1K. I was pleased to see pocket sevens on the very next hand, and to see somebody raise large in front of me, but his queens held up. Top 70 paid, I finished 70th.

Oh man, I didn't need to see that. Barker continued to watch the tourney, and noticed Mister Jack-Eight at the final table, then stopped watching. Just for kicks right now, I checked the results of the tourney. Captain Luckbox won the whole fuckin' thing. $2.5K for him, $26 for me.

Despite the title of this post, I feel good about it all. I played well and made the money. Can't begrudge a guy for winning. Suckouts happen.

The take-away message, at least during this rebuy tourney, is that stealing a lot less is a good idea. Callers were everywhere, and every big hand I had got paid. I toned down my steal/bluff attempts for the first 2-3 hours, and limped a few middle pairs in more, figuring for a huge payoff if I hit a set (and for a tough decision if I raised, got 3 callers and 2 overcards). I modified my in-game strategy a little and it seemed to work very well.

The tourney cash was a tiny profit, and the O/8 workout beefed up my bankroll a bit more, with the help of coverted bonus dollars. I'm hovering in the neighborhood of $800. Not bad. I think that quarter limit O8 is easy money - and I haven't even finished Cappelleti's O/8 book. After some more experience, I think I'll give PLO8 a shot, and/or move up a level at limit O8.

I've been reading a lot more of drizz lately, hoping to pick up Omaha/8 wisdom nuggets. At least I hope they're wisdom nuggets.