Welcome to PLO

Pot-Limit Omaha is a unique game. It is one of the few poker games that is much more widely played in Europe than in North America. Pot-Limit Omaha also is a game that tends to have huge swings. Even a poor player can be lucky one night and win almost all of the chips at the table in a game of Pot-Limit Omaha. It is also one of the few games that tends to be associated with higher stakes.

Pot-Limit Omaha centers on two things: building the nut hand, and position. The first point is obvious. The hands are strong in Pot-Limit Omaha, so you want to be able to hold the best hand. Most Pot-Limit Omaha games do not go to a showdown. When they do, more than likely one player has the nuts or was drawing to the nuts. When two players have strong made hands against each other, generally one has the nut hand or second-nut and the other player also has a near nut hand. An example would be a board with AQ554. One player could have AAxx and the other player might have QQxx. If a poker player called a huge bet on this board with 23xx, they would be a fool. While this straight would be a strong hand in Texas Hold'em, it would be a very weak hand for this board in Omaha.

Another central concept to Pot-Limit Omaha is position. Omaha is all about position. There are several reasons for this. First, free cards are death in Omaha. If you are in early position, you will almost always have to bet your hand, even if you hold the nuts. For example, if the board is 567 and you hold 899A, you definitely have to bet. Someone could too easily draw to a full house, flush, or perhaps even a higher straight. Because of this, people in early positions tend to give away their hands. People in late position can much more easily bluff at pots because they can be fairly certain that people in early posiitons do not have a hand, and people in late position can sometimes earn themselves extremely valuable free cards.

The following are some poker tips when evaluating preflop in Omaha:

• High pocket pairs are good. This is because they have the chance at building a big full house. If you do not hit a set with a big pair, the pair is essentially worthless.

• Connecting cards are helpful. A hand like JT98 is a very good Pot-Limit Omaha hand because it affords the player with so many straight opportunities. Holding JT98 is far superior to holding QJ56 because you can build many multi-way straight possibilities with JT98. However, you cannot with QJ56.

• Suited cards should be treated with caution. One can call and draw to an ace high flush. However, drawing to any non-nut flush can be very foolish. Having non-ace high suited cards is only helpful for redraws, multiple draws (i.e. also having a straight draw), or back-door flush draws. One should never draw to just a flush that is not a nut flush.

• Low and mid pocket pairs are close to worthless. A hand like 5588 belongs in the muck. Even if you hit a set, you can easily lose to a higher set, straight, or flush.

P.S. Kobe was definitely playing Speed Hold'em in the photo.

Today in the History

Frankly, my dear, I don"t give a damn
November 5, 1913
Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India. The actress was impeccable in the film "Gone with the Wind", and was rewarded with Academy Awards for Best Actress (Oscar). She was always the favorite actress of Winston Churchill, who was quoted as saying of Vivien, “By Jove, she's a clinker”.

Change has come
November 5, 2008
Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. The Democratic candidate defeated Republican candidate John McCain by a large margin. He has now become the first black president of the nation.

Virtual broadcaster
November 5, 2008
CNN launched the first edition of video reports with "hologram". The media giant covered the U.S. Election Day with this top imaging technology. Over 40 cameras and computers are set in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed live on site. Images of the reporter are processed and projected in the broadcasting lobby.

Turn Over Your Shoulder

A stranger walks into a saloon and gets a drink. He sees a poker game and asks if he can play. He's told to take a seat. It's a no limit 5-card draw game and he's a pretty good poker player. After about an hour of so-so hands, he draws Aces full and makes a sizable bet. The old guy across from him raises all-in and the stranger calls. The old guy lays down 23457o and reaches for the chips.

"Whoa, there. I've got Aces-full."

"Yeah, but I've got a wild cat.", says the old guy.

"A wild cat? What the hell is a wild cat?"

"A wild cat is 23457 off-suit." Like this, "Says the old man."

The stranger starts to burn and says, "I've played a lot of poker, but I've never heard of a wild cat."

"Well, if you've played a lot of poker, you oughta know that you should learn the house rules before you play. And this here's a house rule."

At that, the old guy points to a sign just over the stranger's right shoulder. The sign says,

"House Rule - Wild Cat is a 23457 off-suit and it beats everything"

Being a gentleman and an honorable gambler, the stranger takes his lumps and settles back for more poker.

Several hours later, the stranger is dealt 23457o. He bets and the same old guy raises him the pot. Without the slightest hint of a tell, the stranger raises all-in. The old guy calls and lays down an ace high flush, and reaches for the poker chips.

"Whoa there! I've got a wild cat.", says the stranger as he lays down his cards.

"Nice hand.", says the old guy as he scoops up the pot. "What did I tell you about house rules?", as he points to a sign over the stranger's left shoulder.

"House Rule -Wild Cat - Only Good Once a Night"

Cruel and Delicious

It is one of the most popular and well-known delicacies in French cuisine and its flavor is described as rich, buttery, and delicate. It's called Foie Gras, "the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage".

The physiological basis of foie gras production is migratory birds' capacity for weight gain, particularly in the liver, in preparation for migration. The technique of gavage dates as far back as 2500 BC, when the ancient Egyptians began keeping birds for food and deliberately fattened the birds through force-feeding. Typical foie gras production involves force-feeding birds more food than they would eat in the wild, and much more than they would voluntarily eat domestically. The feed, usually corn boiled with fat (to facilitate ingestion), deposits large amounts of fat in the liver, thereby producing the buttery consistency sought by the gastronome.

The geese or ducks used in foie gras production are usually kept in a building on straw for the first four weeks, then kept outside for some weeks, feeding on grasses that toughen the esophagus. The birds are then brought inside for gradually longer periods while introduced to a high starch diet. The next feeding phase, which the French call gavage or finition d'engraissement, or "completion of fattening", involves forced daily ingestion of controlled amounts of feed for 12 to 15 days with ducks and for 15 to 18 days with geese. During this phase ducks are usually fed twice daily while geese are fed up to 4 times daily. Modern systems usually use a tube fed by a pneumatic pump; with such a system the operation time per duck takes about 2 to 3 seconds. During feeding, efforts are made to avoid damaging the bird's esophagus, which could cause injury or death.

France is the leading producer and consumer of duck and goose foie gras. In 2005, the country produced 18,450 tons of foie gras (78.5% of the world's estimated total production of 23,500 tons) of which 96% was duck liver and the rest goose liver.

Poker Championship Final Results

A Canadian not named Gavin Smith wins the 2008 North American Poker Championship in Niagra Falls, Ontario.

Gavin Smith's effort to win his first major poker title on his home Canadian soil came up one spot shy of the target. He found himself head's up with Glen Witmer for the title but facing an uphill battle with a near 3 to 1 chip deficit. Down to two players, the HU battle went nearly as many hands as the entire final table of the 2008 Borgata Poker Open. Smith eventually lost a coin flip (55 versus AK) which would have switched the poker chip stack into his favor but the small pair did not hold up.

When it was three handed, Witmer found himself with a nice stack but going up against Smith and Kathy Liebert, the all time leading women's poker tournament money winner. Even with the big stack, poker odds seemed against him but he held out and took down the top prize of $1,254,152 CAD.

Final table results (in Canadian dollars):
1. Glen Witmer - $1,254,152
2. Gavin Smith - $612,427
3. Kathy Liebert - $319,337
4. Ryan Fisler - $262,469
5. Marc Karam - $196,851
6. James Trenholm - $153,107