Thanks to all who responded to the poll question.

It was indeed the usual group of local degenerates who gathered on Friday for a monopoly money tournament. M$20 buyin, total prize pool of M$140.

The payout structure: Two places paid. Second place got their money back, the winner got M$120.

Yes, I finished second, but that's not the point.

The point is this: Breaking even sucks. In a tournament, you either win or you lose. If you make the money, you should have something positive to show for it, even if it's not much. If you want to play winner-take-all, fine. Just don't give a token payout of M$1 to M$20 to anyone who "moneys". **

Just my opinion.***

** the only exception to this rule I can think of is when you're playing for non-cash prizes, like Full Tilt tokens. In that case, returning the odd dollars is only fair, although I'd add it to the top finisher's prize instead of paying out another place. I understand why FT doesn't do it, though.

*** speaking of my opinion, if it were up to me I would have gone with payouts of M$100 and M$40.

Other than the payout structure, it was a good time as usual. I chipped up on the first hand with TT vs AKs, but was hurt badly when I ran JJ into AA on an all-unders board. Fortunately AA boy had been crippled earlier when his limped AA ran into the formidable 65o. AA twice in level one, what a concept!

After some awful play, I got as low as T250 (from T2000), but held on long enough to get some cards, a couple big pairs and a flopped straight with 86s. We had a good battle 3-handed, before the host was finally knocked out. Heads up, I proposed a chop based on chip counts, which was declined. It didn't take long to finish. What can I say, I'm still a donkey and I was ready to go home.

Finishing second didn't bother me all that much. Having a deal declined was no problem. But getting my buyin back left me steaming on the ride home. It felt more like a loss.

Nothing a late night snack couldn't fix, though. And there's always next time.

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Blog comment of the week, in case you missed it:

Senator Frist here. Just wanted to let you know Jebus just told me that Monopoly is the work of Clinton and can no longer be allowed.

Why, I heard just the other day a teenager landed on Park Place (with a hotel) and ended up yelling "criminy" at the top of his lungs. I've been e-mailed a video of the boy and I've been able to determine that, medically, he's only got months to live as a result.

Since you and your unChristian cohorts are going to burn in the hellfire of eternal damnation anyway, you might as well save your buy-ins for some wholesome lotto tickets or that freaky porn site the FBI tells me you posted about earlier.

Thanks, c.l. russo!

Blog post of the week is Felicia Lee:

Poker Blogs???

To Do List:

1) Delete any "poker" blog (harhar) with mention of Spice Girls




No offense.

Even though my blog consists mostly of everything Felicia hates -- except Spice Girl posts -- I sure enjoy her take on things.

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I got myself a copy of Rolf Slotboom's Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha and licensed Poker Tracker Omaha as a belated birthday present.

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

I'm still working my way through the book, but when I finished the section on short stack play, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

I promptly got stacked seven times. PLOing ain't easy.

Heh.

Looking back at the hands, I was a favorite for four of them and an underdog for three. One was a really dumb move on my part -- I made a play for a big pot with bottom set and a flush redraw. Middle set was way ahead. Otherwise, I just missed and missed and missed again. In one hand I had a the largest wrap possible and the only flush draw - turn brick, river brick, REBUY! So standard.

Good times. I doubt very much that I'll use this strategy, since it doesn't seem like a good fit for the games I've been playing lately, but it's been a really good read so far. Best PLO book I've seen.

I also had PTO load in some old hand histories, and it -- surprise! -- shows me as a losing player. Now, some of that is variance -- I got stacked twice on Crypto when I took full buyins at a level way above my head, each time on a horrendous beat. Overall Stars numbers are negative (despite a positive 7.24 BB/100) due to one bad higher limit session. I haven't loaded some of the other sites which I can no longer play at, but at least I know Titan was wildly profitable. RIP, Titan.

Anyway, one of my projects for the next week or so is to finish the book and to think about some of the leaks in my PLO game. Now that I'm playing for play chips I don't expect to get a lot better, but I can always dream of playing live PLO in Vegas some day.