Dealing with "fold'em" boredom in poker before you go crazy!
TEXAS FOLD’EM? THAT’S NO FUN? Do you ever get those days or nights with Texas Hold’em when you feel like you’re folding too many hands? Eventually you start to crave some action. Any action. The wrong response to that lack of active involvement is to start bluffing like crazy. A much better way to lift the frustration is to switch to Omaha for a while. Omaha, by its very nature, provides you with better hands. Make sure you’ve been an Omaha railbird for a while if you haven’t played it before. Receiving four hole cards instead of two can make you feel like Santa’s arrived early but sometimes it’s a “wallet assassin” with a false white beard. Right off the bat there’s a good chance you’re going to find yourself with a strong pair among your hole cards. However, oddly enough, in Omaha you’re actually likely to do better with suited connectors like 8-9 of spades and 10-Jack of clubs. The reason for this is that once the flop comes you’re looking at a choice of seven cards already to form the major portion of your five card hand with the turn and the river still in reserve. You’ll find you have a very good chance of making a suit-connected straight. This will of course demolish even the mighty four-of-a-kind which is not an uncommon hand in Omaha. Certainly “trips” makes a regular appearance. Get some excitement. Give Omaha a try.
IS HE HAVIN’ A LAAK? Phil “The Unabomber” Laak not only brings an extra-ordinary look to a live televised poker table in his famous “hoodie” anorak, he also brings a rather unconventional bunch of theories along with him. He claims to use a “higher order of thinking” than the average and indeed above average poker player. Looking rather like a Jedi knight in his customised cape, he claims he has the ability to detect “tells” mere mortals would not be capable of noticing. He asserts a psychic connection with opponents and is building an exceptional reputation among professionals. I suppose a man who relaxes with judo, races motorbikes, scuba dives and sky dives is likely to be psychic, if not now, certainly eventually if the parachute ever fails to open. Churlish to speculate whether or not any of his bruised opponents have ever placed a bet on a time and a place? Surely gamblers would never give thinking space to such an event? (Well, not “higher order” thinking anyway). In a contest which conclusively established Phil as Sir Weirdness of Pokerdom he famously took on the winner of the World Poker Robot Championship in 2005 and after three hundred hands in a “man-versus-machine” heads up eventually came out the winner on the strength of Pocket Rockets and probably some sort of mental spanner. Look out for the man who likes a Laak next time you see him billed on poker TV. He’s a one-off and a World Series of Poker Champion in waiting.
