This month's winner:

Event: World Series of Poker, Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (Various Buy-Ins), July 13 – July 28, 2006

Played in the Pot-Limit Omaha tourney today and lasted a pretty long time — i.e., got knocked out on the second hand! The format for this tournament is so stupid; everyone was complaining. Anyway, I was up against Devilfish and Tom McEvoy (the 1983 WSOP Main Event champ), and all three of us got all our chips in on the turn. I had the top three pair and the nut flush draw. Basically, I had to go for it — and I would’ve tripled up if I’d hit one of my 17 outs. Devilfish ended up scooping the pot with bottom set when one of the only blanks left in the deck hit on the river and knocked out both me and McEvoy.

Afterward, I played again in the pot-limit Omaha cash game. Damn, I wish there were a regular game spread back home. Pot-limit Omaha is quickly becoming my favorite game.

Well, that’s all for now. Tomorrow is a $1,500 NL Hold’em tourney.

Event: World Series of Poker, Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (Various Buy-Ins), July 13 – July 28, 2006

Played in the NL Shootout today. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the event. We ended up playing our first table six-handed and most people expected to play the first table 10-handed. The event also paid 100 out of 600 entries, which I can’t stand; I love the shootout format. Anyway, I couldn’t get anything going today. The player to my left flopped set after set and accumulated all the chips. He eventually knocked me out when I had 10-10, he had 3-3, and he flopped a set on a board of 9-8-3.

I’ve been playing in the 10-25 pot-limit Omaha game the last two days and have done very well (up around $8,000). I think I like the pot-limit format better in all games, including Hold’em. No limit is suited second best to my strengths, and limit poker is by far my weakest game. My main strengths are reading players and making good post-flop decisions, which I think have the least value in limit. Pot limit is great because most of the heavy betting comes AFTER the flop and that plays right into my strength. It allows me to take a lot of flops cheap in order to score big when I hit.

I lost $1,100 on the very first hand of pot-limit Omaha I played yesterday, but I saved $2,800 by reading the other two players correctly. The board came 5-4-2-5-4, in that order, with the 5-4-2 of spades. I had 5-2 in my hand, so I’d made a full house on the turn. On the river, the player last to act bet $2,800 and the other guy called. I thought about it for a while because I was steamed from getting beaten up pretty good in the 75-150 Omaha HL game, but I felt sure that the last guy had a straight flush and the other guy had 4-4; those really were the only hands that made any sense. I saved the $2,800 by making the fold because it was, indeed, a straight flush versus quads. I’d bought into the game for $5,000 and after the first hand I was already down to $3,800. After two hours, though, I’d built my stack up to $10,000 and then it was time for sleep.

I played in the pot-limit Omaha game again today, after getting knocked out of the tournament, and picked up another $3,000. It really is an awesome game and I wish they had a regular pot-limit Omaha game at all casinos. It’s a lot more fun than NL Hold’em, in my opinion. I think it’ll be my first choice for cash games while I’m here in Las Vegas.

Tomorrow’s tournament, oddly enough: $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha. Should be fun!

Event: World Series of Poker, Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (Various Buy-Ins), July 13 – July 28, 2006

After four levels in the $2,000 No-Limit tourney today, I have about 21,500 in chips. The second highest chip count at my table is around 6,000, so I’m doing really well so far.

* * * *

I’m on dinner break. Not sure where I am in relation to the field, but I have around 33,000 in chips. Cardplayer.com keeps asking about my chip count, so I’m probably on their site. Still a long ways left for today; we’ll probably be playing until 2:00 a.m. or so. They’re paying the top 153 spots and we’re down to about 400 players from 2,000.

* * * *

Woohoo, I’ve cashed in at the second event! We’re down to about 150. I still have a healthy stack at about 45,000. One more level for today then we break for tomorrow.

* * * *

Ended the day with 56,000 in chips. I’m currently 18th in chips of the 101 players remaining. We go back tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. to get rolling again. I am definitely in the hunt. I don’t have a lot of time to discuss today’s hands because I need to hit the hay, but one interesting hand happened when my stack was at around 40,000. I had red queens and under-the-gun raised to 3,600 (blinds were 600-1200). I just smoothed called his raise to see the hand played out when a tight French player behind me re-raised an additional 10,000. He had about another 15,000 left, so this hand could potentially put me down to around 10,000 if I misplayed it. My first consideration was whether he had K-K or A-A. This was a strong possibility as I’d only seen good hands from him and he’d also shown the ability to make a big fold. I decided I was going to take a flop and if no ace or king flopped, I’d move in. The flop came J-J-6 and I moved all-in. He thought about it and ended up folding. He told me he had A-K and I believe this to be true. He said that if I checked the flop, he would have moved in. My hand was not the type to trap with. I was happy to take the pot without having to endure a turn and river, and giving him the chance to hit an ace or a king. I really like this play — the smooth calling a big re-raise pre-flop and then pushing in on the flop. It puts a lot of pressure on one’s opponent to make the right decision.

* * * *

Got half my stack in with A-9 suited versus A-5 off suit and lost when a 5 came. Then I waited around and pushed in with 10-10 and lost to A-J. Finished 68th. Oh, well. Tomorrow is a new day.