Saturday, April 15, 2006

Gambling major boost to economy

From BBC Text- TV today:

Gambling could become one of the most lucrative industries in the British economy, researchers have claimed. By relaxing regulations surrounding betting and gaming and by abolishing tax on punters, the government has ensured an economic boost they said. That could eventually see more money generated by the gambling sector than any other, said the Betting Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. It could «only be good news for the economy», said researchers.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The Paradise Poker PLO Masters

I was out after about three hours, and never took off, really, and in a field of just above 500 players I never went above the one percent of the total chips range. It was a slow table, and also hard to dominate, and the cards were slow as well.

Not the best of evenings.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Paradise Poker Masters Omaha

I’m going to play the $215 Omaha Paradise Poker Master tournament on Wednesday. I like Omaha, and I’ve discovered that my changes are currently slightly higher there, comparatively speaking, then in Texas Hold’em. And the buy-in is within my current direct buy-in range.

Omaha is different from Texas Hold’em in two important aspects: You get four «hole» cards, and only two of them can be used to make the end result. And thus, by default only three on the table, can be used to make the counting hand. This creates a variety of situations clearly differing from those in ordinary Hold’em. I see seasoned Hold’em players fuck up constantly while stumbling on to an Omaha table, which is both profitable and always fun watching.

One could argue that Omaha and especially pot limit Omaha is more poker than Texas Hold’em. I agree with those saying that it’s «easier» to read the game, and that it’s not that much prone to the coincidences haunting Texas Hold’em. Anyway, It is a preference. I am better at it, comparatively speaking. And playing Omaha, you will also avoid the insanely large fields of Texas Hold’em No Limit. The game on Wednesday will have a guaranteed price pool of $150000, and will probably reach about $200000, and a first price of about 40 to 50k. I can live with that. I choose this game, this battle, at this time, this hour, in yet another attempt at making a good starting point to a great year of Poker.