Another Cop-Out

I absolutely cannot get my brain or motivation in gear to write a good post. I don't know if the desert sun is sucking up my energy or what. I just don't have it this week, I guess.

There are a few things I can talk about, however, both on-topic and off-topic. One is kind of scary, so I'll save that 'til last ;)
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Starting off with something light, Iggy reminded me of a faux-pas I made a few years ago while playing against a racist, senior citizen in Laughlin. He shocked the heck out of me when he leaned over and whispered in my ear something I hadn't heard since the last time I'd been in Missouri.

"You know what, I can't stand any of them. I wish they would just take those Indians, Mexicans and niggers and get rid of them!"

So a while later, I was referring to this incident and penned my faux-pas, "Don, as you may remember, is the elderly racist who exposed himself to me last week."

Oops! Sometimes I type so fast, and without editing or proofreading, that I really dig myself into a hole.

Okay, so let's move on, lol.
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Another funny topic I got involved in over the weekend was my famous alcohol enema shtick. This is an oldie but goodie (in my mind only), in which I fell into a discussion with some bloggers about trying alcohol ememas. When I saw how absolutely revolted they were, I decided, in my warped mind that I should make it my new shtick. It didn't quite go over as well as I expected, most bloggers being horrified and disgusted rather than just shocked and fumbling around for replies. I guess the gay shtick always seemed to work wonders.

But after all of this time (a year), I still hadn't lost my initial curiosity about getting an alcohol enema.

As a small aside, a while back Mat decided to give the moderators a bonus for our work. He created a forum call the Moderator's Playground, which is run by a different mod each week, and can be whatever subject we wish.

So when the moderator's playground on 2+2 became the alcohol forum, I had to give it a try:

"Has anyone ever tried an alcohol enema?"

I got several serious responses, oddly enough (expected tons of jokes), and then one of the many doctors who frequent 2+2 replied:

"And, the entire blood volume circulates in about 1 minute. So the liver will eventually be given a chance to metabolize the alcohol that you have cleverly shoved up your ass."

He also said some non-funny things, too ;)
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Making a smooooooth transition into poker, here is an e-mail I sent to a new LO8 player:

As far as passive vs. aggressive, the best analogy I can give you is that it's like fishing. You sit, sit, sit. Sometimes with your pole in the water and bait on the hook. But you are sitting comfortably, no tension. Then the fish bites, and suddenly you get aggressive with the pole. You pull and reel, pull and reel. You never know you are actually going to get the fish until you unhook him and he is in your bucket, but once he bites you have to do some work.

So in LO8, you sit, sit, sit. Then you are in a hand, and you just passively check/call, check/call, check/call. Sometimes all the way through a hand, sometimes only until the flop. The bigger hand you flop, the more apt you are to start pumping the pot and becoming aggressive.

Right after you flop something good, ask yourself these questions:

1) How many people do I want chasing me right now?

Usually if YOU are in the pot, and have flopped a big hand, it's the nuts. Like the NUT flush, the NUT straight, the NUT full house. So you want chasers.

2) Does my hand have a high chance of being outdrawn or a low one?

You can't help those times when you flop the nut straight, yet there is a flush draw out there. No matter how much you pump the pot, the flush draw will NOT get out. You cannot cut his odds by pumping (in his mind), because it just isn't going to happen. So learn to earn or save a bet here and there when your nut hand is vulnerable.

3) Does this nut hand have any redraws?

This is key. If your nut hand gets outdrawn, you want it to be outdrawn by YOU! This could mean backing into a low for half the pot, going runner for a flush, etc. In those cases, you can put a ton of money into the pot.

But always remember when you are going hog wild and betting and raising like mad...how many bets are you really getting BACK when you win?

If by going nuts on the flop or turn, you only managed to make 2.5 big bets, whereas if you had been passive and kept just calling along you would have made 12 big bets, stop beating your chest and just back down. You're in the game to make money, not prove how "aggressive" you are.

This is the one thing that makes players nuts, and also makes the more aggressive, Hold'em players, losers. I see it constantly. Mr. Super Aggro comes sauntering over to the 10/20 O8 game, swaggering along, cocky half smirk on his face, just sure he's going to run over the dumb O8 playes with his "advanced" play and hyper aggressiveness.

Thirty minutes later he finds himself down a grand, and just can't believe it. He keeps cursing the other players, yelling about how they "outdrew" him. Screaming "How could you call with that hand???" He is just sure he outplayed them with his superior Hold'em skills, yet he is the one walking away broke.

I see it every, single time I play O8, bar none. Truly. Sometimes it's because he can't get a seat right away in Hold'em, other times it's because he's spotted us, the "weak" Omaha players. For whatever reason, Hold'em players cannot adjust quickly to Omaha, and get killed with their hyper aggressive play.

Learn to just sit back, passively, and then strike later in the hand. Learn to very, very quickly figure out if you will make more big bets by check-calling, betting out, overcalling or raising. It's not hard to figure out, believe it or not. It's not like Stud, where 20 years later you are still shaking your head in confusion. It just takes a few hundred hands.

Good luck!
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You know, after that neato e-mail, I think I'll save the scary OT post for later. It can be it's own subject, and available to friends-only, methinks!

Felicia :)