PLO and Susan Boyle from Ansky. 20 April 2009, 16:16.

Before we talk poker, I hope everyone has seen this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Everything about it is perfect. The look of skepticism from the judges, the girl at 1:25 (who probably now feels like the biggest bitch in the world), Susan Boyle's total awkwardness and bizarre persona. It all adds up to just a great moment in time, which thankfully the internet allows us to cherish.

In the past I said I had been trying to learn PLO, but I have really been stepping it up lately, mostly in the form of heads up. I think heads up NL is really where I began to understand the game, so I see no reason for PLO to be different. I'm still not particularly great, and I make a relatively big mistake every session it seems like. It doesn't really bother me though, as I feel like I am getting significantly better every hand.

The other day I was very confident that my opponent was bluffing in a spot, where all I had was KK68 on a 974QA board. His river bet size was very suspicious given the way the hand played out and I decided to go for the hero call. He ended up having ATTx w/ a missed FD, for top pair-- which he was turning into a bluff. I felt like an idiot, and probably regret the call, but it definitely made me think a lot about really analyzing which hands my opponents can possibly be bluffing with. It is a bizarre feeling to be learning poker again, especially a game which is in all honesty, pretty "immature" compared to NL. By that I mean, NL has really advanced a lot in the last 5 years, and even at mid stakes the level of play is quite high. At plo tho, there are very few people who are fantastic at it, and so it is far more of an open market of skill to be gained. I am pretty excited to keep getting better, and a few years down the road it may end up being my better game.

Ship it.
-Dani Stern