Bullseye

Pub games like darts and pool are getting mashed up with poker. It is simple why this need to mix two difficult games is sensible for pubs.

When you go tout for relief sometimes you need excitement so a quiet game of poker just wont do it, likewise a quiet game of pool or darts do not measure up so by combining the three or even just two helps to stimulate the pleasure part of the brain with intellectual and skilful thoughts. 

Why beach volleyball is an Olympic sport and darts is not has always baffled me. Both are skilful and fun to watch. To play darts at any standard requires skill. Yes the people can be drinking beer monsters and still throw decent darts could be an image problem. However, in his day when alive, a drunken Jocky Wilson could still have beaten 99 out of hundred average darts player who was stone cold sober, he was that good.

So with this in mind I will post the rules and regulations for the Knot Knockout:

This Sunday (18-11-12) at The Staffordshire Knot, Darlaston.

Entry fee will be £3, registration at 3pm and ToE oche 3:30pm.

It’s a 301 – best of 3.

This is a complete tract into understanding the magnificent game of Omaha. It is a poker game but not as we know it. A game where bluffing is so refined that you will miss a well timed bluff by a country mile. So since you have mastered the game of Texas Hold Em which can be described as the ‘Michael Jackson’ of the poker world, welcome to Omaha the ‘Santana’ of poker.

1. Omaha is a city in the state of Nebraska in the USofA, just as Texas is a state but not a city.

2. Omaha may share the same name as the city but that is the extent of the games relevance to the city.

3. Warren Buffett is from Omaha and is credited as being the 2nd most loaded man in the world.

4. Mr Buffett (The Sage of Omaha as he is known) plays bridge not poker which is probably why he is so rich.

5. in Omaha you get 4 hole cards.

6. Having 4 of a kind as your hole cards is not necessarily a good thing, in fact it maybe a good idea to chuck them away.

7. The best starting hand is hard to determine, however, having 4 rainbow cards is not necessarily all that bad.

8. Having a pair at the turn is very bad unless you are psychic, lucky or both.

9. Remember do not try and buy the pot because most people do not understand the game and are likely to call your bluff.

10. Bluffing is very difficult.

11. Checking is very dangerous.

12. A check raise is almost unheard of in the game therefore devastating when used.

13. Omaha is great fun if you are bored with Texas Hold Em.

14. Hi – Lo Omaha is so difficult do not bother unless you are a rocket scientist.

15. Having 4 of the same suit as your hole cards is also not good.

16. Most teenagers do not play Omaha because it is not simple or sexy.

17. Since teenagers are not interested, therefore, you can get a more sensible game without the outrageous suck outs associated with Texas Hold Em, unless you play a kidult.

18. Going all in pre-flop to steal the blinds will not scare people, in fact it will probably get called.

19. Pot limit Omaha is great if you are a grinder at the lower stakes.

20. Remember, remember you use only two of your 4 hole cards not one, three or all four to win.

Well I am not entirely bored just bruised, dazed and confused. Lost massively in a Omaha cash game when my full house Kings full of Eights got turned over by a straight flush.

It wasn’t pretty and whatever I did the opponent was not having it and got extremely lucky. When you get bad beats like this I tend to sulk and then go on a bender getting drunk, chasing impossible skirts and looking for a uncompromising row to get rid of pent up anger and tension.

Dont evem mention Rudyard Kiplings’ ‘If’ as it’s not clever or warranted. Anyway check out this video as it will make you laugh and keep you interested especially the cause of the black thongs.

Gillian Cooke’s super tight all-in-one ripped as she bent over just seconds before jumping into the bobsleigh with her team-mate Nicola Minichiello. The fart noise are there for added humor as us poker players tend to have juvenile tendencies and stunted emotions.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbx7tb

The first video features one John H. Ford, 35, of Cleveland, US, being searched after a robbery at the First Merit bank in Ohio. Mr Ford eats a paper which the police believe was the note which demanded the money from the bank.

The second video features the biggest online pot ever and it was between Isildur1and Patrik Antonius who were playing online Omaha. The total pot was $1.35 million dollars and was played on November 21, 200.

The one thing I will say is that isildur1 played extremely badly in this hand and I cannot understand how he put over $600,000 into the pot?

The Million Dollar Poker Pot

Marius rating for poker blog chart

After a report from Marius and various views from some of the Poker Totty’s I am now in the middle of re-vamping the website as a Poker blogging engine, as well as a window into the world of fashion and glamour. This is to tie in with the 1st anniversary of the launch of pokerknave.com, and, hopefully this will make the use of the website much more easy to use and to utilise.

Although there is a relatively easy to read guide to playing Texas Hold Em, there is also a need to come up with a page for Omaha. Also, when it comes to writing about the lifestyle of a poker player there is a need to simplify the basic functions such as uploading pictures, video and other media stuff. Plus we need to add social bookmark buttons to make it easy to promote the blogs.

More links to modelling agency and casino’s would be an area of further interest as part of the PokerKnave Poker Klub, which believe or not is very difficult at the moment because we have a particular line (fun) with quite a prominently independent online presence (we do and say what we want).

On the fun side of poker playing it would be good for a definitive guide to playing strip poker – including reverse strip poker, with maybe a video to illustrate the tactics and the outcome of such a game. Not because I want to show copious amount of naked flesh (heaven forbid), but to help newby’s to this game have some sort of reference point to the game.

As for the area of live poker games there have been various enquiries about tipping within casino’s especially those located in Las Vegas. I have not been to Las Vegas, but I know that in the UK it is really hot issue with establishments especially restaurants using the tips as part of the wages, which was pretty standard. Quite clearly I am against this dubious practice and a definitive guide should be done on this subject.

Being a premier online poker blogging website it is clear that issues such as poker rake backs, cash backs, free roll tournament strategy and other such things need to be explained as this can lead to total confusion for the recreational players who can get confused by all these schemes. To tell you the truth it confuses me and I am minded to say where there is a scheme, there is a schemer! I will say no more.

The industry is changing and we will be changing to reflect this, however, we will never submit to anyone who want to us to be a straight forward poker, site we will always be eclectic, we will always be irreverent about the world of poker and also comment on other things which on the face of it have nothing to do with poker but as you know my view is life is a poker game just as silly and raw. I would like your views on this so send me a message – ideally it should be on the forum but I am to anally retentive to let spammers have their way so drop me a line via this link <CONTACT>.

As yours truly continue to espouse the virtue of Omaha I have just received an email from Kate at Coolhandpoker.com about their new concept Omahahaha $1000 tourney.

For all those that have done Texas Hold Em it is about time you went and tried Omaha. It does get you thinking and it will infuriate you from time to time but the joys of playing it will be enhanced as it will also improve your regular Texas Hold Em game – it did mine…

Check out the blurb below and have a go.

Cool Hand Poker

Register now for our Omahahaha $1,000 Guaranteed Tournament taking place this Sunday the 26th of July 2009 at 19:00 BST.

Tournament structure:

Take part in freeroll feeders on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:00 BST and on Sunday at 16:00 BST leading up to the main event on Sunday.

It’s free to enter and you get 1000 starting chips. A minimum of 10 players is necessary.

AND…

On Tuesday and Saturday at 19:00 BST, 20 seats are up for grabs in a feeder that only requires a minimum of 20 players to start. These feeders require 1 raked hand 24 hours prior to signup.

Re-buys and an Add-on available for the first 30 minutes will cost 50 Cool Points or 50 cents each, getting you 1000 chips.

Any additional prize money value over and above the seats awarded, will be handed to the next player, not receiving an entry.

Seats are limited to one entry per player so don’t miss out on this fun Tournament!!

Get playing and win, win, win!

In my last post I was chatting about the pleasure of winning my first Omaha tournament and how it was spoilt by a group of ‘gossiping guys’. Well since then I have a couple more and got placed in the money in some Sit and Go’s – all for low stakes.

I may have won because the people I was playing against were poor themselves, however, even when I lost I left the table feeling my life had been enriched by a small percentage. In fact I would say that Texas Hold Em is boring and Omaha is king!

OK, my intention now is to really get into Omaha because the possibilities of your hold cards are numerous, I haven’t read any books or material about the maths of your opening hands in Omaha so I am going on gut instincts. So far, so good.

Texas Hold Em is a great game but it does limit you in taxing the brain that’s why several people I know gan have 8 games going at the same time. With Omaha you do have to think about your opponent more as well as well as the cards.

The only downside I can see is the amount of chatting that goes on which seems to be endless. Dont ask me why there seems to be a load of chat from the keyboard warriors but I suppose thats the price you have to pay for a game which has got my betting juices running again.
Feed Shark
omaha
poker
addiction
Turbo Tagger

Having had a bad week and not up for much in the sense of going out and getting sloshed, I decided to have a proper dabble at Omaha a variation of poker that is said to be the game of the poker intellectuals and elite.

Boy what a hard game to read and play! I think I have mastered the finer points of Texas Hold Em and I definitely got the game of Five Card Stud under orders, but Omaha is blindingly difficult and not the sort of game to play when you have had a can of lager or two.

The game must be played when you are total in touch with your faculties and prepared to throw in your hands when sitting on two pairs. It’s a game where you play the man more than the cards. Online poker is so difficult to read players because there are pretty much standard ways of raising, checking and bluffing which most players who have read the numerous websites and books, have elaborated on at length.

With Omaha I finally realised that most players haven’t really got to grips with the maths of the game so it helps people like me who have no patients and subtlety to take liberties, which I do constantly.

Anyway, I was in a cheap game looking to learn by osmosis the maths and strategy Omaha. Luckily I had managed to get to the final table playing some risky cards and was able to check out the playing styles of other players who had quite clearly been at the game for a while because they were chatting away amongst themselves and abusing an online player from the Ukraine for being a fish.

For a while I thought they were in league together as they were comfortable in each others little gossip and chit chats. I did feel sorry for the guy from the Ukraine because he was playing loose and aggressive which may be bad play but you don’t have to ridicule a guy for playing like that especially when the game is for pennies. In fact you should keep your mouth shut and just nick his chips of him.

Anyway I managed to bluff and blag my way to second chip leader, basically stitching up the Ukraine guy, and the leader was quite clearly a good player so I avoided him like the plague unless I had a very pretty hand. These ‘gossiping guys’ had obviously read some manual about playing Omaha and literally had the same moves, so, it was a question of waiting to get them on their own and just watch their betting patterns because these guys never went in without a decent hand.

The other player was like me bit inexperience and tempted to go for ragged hands hoping to make a decent hand on the turn and river. It may not be standard poker playing, but, when you are playing with text book merchants it’s the way to play until they know your moves.

After the tournament break I must admit I got bored and just wanted to shut the ‘gossiping guys’ up, and, didn’t really care if I won or lost so I went into super aggressive play on two of them who followed me in the betting. I nicked their blinds by raising aggressively and watching them fold. They were determined to get into the money so unless they had super pretty hands they just folded. They caught me a couple of times but I wanted their blood and targeted them like a heat seeking missile.

In the end I was left with the chip leader and the other rookie who had caught onto the strategy of targeting the ‘gossiping guys’. The rookie eventually took down the chip leader and I kept out of the way and when the chip leader was no longer chip leader me and the rookie just went mad and eventually I won. If we could of split first and second I certainly would of and I suspect that the rookie would have done likewise because the online Omaha game is seriously difficult and taxing. Our heads up game was over and done with in 3 hands.

Omaha poker is definitely a game to be played live and not online if you don’t like folding hands constantly. Now I have won my first Omaha tournament (I have done well before but simply ran out of patience and got bored) I may go for Sit and Go Omaha tournaments because it gives you a better chance of reading your opponents and taking out the randomness of online Texas Hold Em tournament game. As for the ‘gossiping guys’, I hope to god I never have to play those muppets, their online chit chat just drives me crazy.

Do you sometimes get bored with poker? Well, I am! Maybe it’s the constant sucking out to really bad players and bad play that is doing it but it is really driving me insane. Or it could be that I need a new stimulus like Omaha or even draw poker instead of the now standard Texas Hold Em.

I used to get a thrill out of live play but even that is beginning to wind me up a little and the endless chat of tactics, strategy and maths which can get a bit anoraky and geeky. And. please do not get me started on online poker and the ‘banter’ which is usually nothing more than  abuse and childish threats of violence via the internet as if the perpetrators can really do anything about it.

I have never really heard a discussion on the merit of taking time out but I do feel the need to do this as it may refresh my enthusiasm for poker and energise my tactics. OK, maybe I just need a good win LOL.

While playing a low stack Omaha with some friends, some of the players were taking it far too serious and led the rest of use to start having conversations on all sorts of topics including the Austrian nutter Josef Fritzl.

Ok some of you out there will say that unless you chat to gain an advantage over your opponents then you should not do it. Some say that it is bad etiquette to chat over a game of cards. My response is that as long as you are not losing to heavily having a conversation helps to pass the time away and leads to a better game. Why be bored when you’re winning money?

So we started to do our analysis of the Mr Fritzl and more importantly the good citizens of the town where this incidence occurred. Some of us put it down to the Austrian rather dodgy recent history; some of us put it down to middle class proclivities for not getting involved in other peoples business.

In the UK we would put it down to an English mans home being his castle, and, poking your nose into peoples business is ‘PC Correctness gone made’ so the chances of our social services finding out what was going on would have been no different to what was going on in Austria. So in effect my Fritzl would have been able to continue his rather interesting hobby.

The fact that this has happened before in Austria led to some of us thinking if this was part of the ‘Aryan’ DNA to lock people up. Either in concentration camps or cellars they do like corralling people in small areas where they then abuse those people till their hearts content. Some of us thought it was more nurture than nature and it is just another ‘…you could not make it up…’ stories.

By the way it is funny how all those text message jokes have suddenly appeared. My belief it is the phone operators who design and disseminate these gags because when they get passed on they earn! Anyway here are my versions:

What does an Austrian say to his mates when he introduces his new girlfriend? ‘’Have you met my daughter’’?

What is a favourite Austrian chat up line? ‘’Would you like to see my cellar’’?