Allligator Blood

Played my first-ever Omaha 9-person Sit-n-Go this morning.... and won it. Woo hoo! It was only a $2 game, but my heart rate was elevated and my attention completely focused. It was a hoot. Unlike even a $10 Hold'em SnG, where I can be, frankly, a little bored at times during a normal 1-hour game, I was completely into this low-dollar tournament. The reason, of course, is that it was a novelty-- the first real Omaha SnG for me, so I was seriously interested and involved. Cool.

Like any other SnG, the secret for me was patience. My tournament equity increased every time another player got knocked out, so for the first 3-4 blind levels I just sat back and waited for cards. Then, as the blinds increased and we got down to five or six players, I started opening up my game. I had a nice triple-up near the bubble, so I was very content to slow down again at that point and let the other three remaining players duke it out. There was a super short stack but, strangely, the two medium stacks seemed to ignore him and, instead, focused on battling each other for third place. The short stack just kept patiently hanging around, refusing to die (or as Teddy KGB said in Rounders, "Hhhhanging arrround. Hhhhanging arrrrround. Kid's got alligator blood. Can't get rid of him."

Eventually, one of the mid-stacks got knocked out by the other and bada-bing I was in the money with the chip lead. Shortly thereafter, I knocked the other midstack out, and it was then heads-up with the alligator. Unfortunately, he doubled up a couple of times-- one time flopping a higher straight than me, and the other sucking out with with a bizzarre 22233 fullhouse against my otherwise flopped nut flush. No problem, as I sucked out on him the very next hand with fives full of fours for the win.

Like I said: woo hoo!

The interesting part for me was how similar playing an Omaha SnG is to a Hold'em game. The same principles apply: tight is right in the beginning, and open up your game as the blinds increase. The biggest problem I faced was determining what "opening up your game" meant as the blinds rose. I need a lot more experience in short-handed situations to be more comfortable playing....

.....but then, if I was more comfortable swimming in these waters, maybe I wouldn't have been as focused.... and the 'gator might have had me for lunch instead.

-All-in for now....
-Bug