Will Lightening Strike Twice?

About a dozen years ago while I was enroute to Florida to accept a reporting job, I stopped in Tunica, MS. to see a friend and ended up winning a World Poker Open tournament.

I won't go into a lot of details about the tourney since I have written about it on this website in the past. But the game was Omaha High-Low, a game that was relatively new to me. Everything worked perfectly and I defeated just under 300 other players to win the first prize of $42,000.

On Wednesday, Jan. 23, BestBet Casino in Jacksonville, FL. is hosting a similar Omaha High-Low tournament. The entry fee is $240 and I am going to compete in it.

I am hoping lightning will strike twice.

To my way of thinking, a limit tournament like this is far superior to no-limit tournaments. Limit poker gives you time to think, to play, and to plan strategy.

You start out with $10,000 in chips and you call on all your skills, all your talents and all your luck to beat the other players. It's fun, it's exciting and it's challenging. It's like plugging yourself into an electrical socket.

I still remember some of the highlights of the tournament in Tunica. I doubt that I will play the Florida tournament in the same manner. Luck was really riding with me that day and I pushed hands I had no business pushing that turned out well for me.

Omaha High-Low is a tricky game. Texas Hold'em players who switch to it often play it poorly because they raise with the same hands they would raise with in Hold'em. The difference is that in Omaha High-Low, the low hand, eight or under, gets half the pot.

You need to play to scoop the entire pot in Omaha High-Low. That's the only way to play the game if you hope to win, especially in a tournament setting.

A good Omaha High-Low player raises less and plays his opponents more. If an opponent raises, he is going low 95 percent of the time and probably has pocket aces. A player in position can call the raise, hoping big cards flop. If you are in position and last to act, there are many things you can do to win the pot.

BestBet is running a series of poker tournaments but this is the only one I really want to play.

There are some good Omaha High-Low players in Jacksonville. I have played against them, I know them, and I like them. It's going to be a challenging event to make the final table.

Not that I am over-confident, but I already know how I am going to spend at least part of the money if I do well. I am planning to return to Arizona for one thing and the oil experts are already predicting the price of gas is going to raise in the next couple of months.

I know the odds against lightning striking twice in the same place, but I feel good about this tourney. Naturally I will keep my readers on this website informed on what happens. Wish me luck. Let the games begin.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).