Irish Open Omaha - Devilfish and Micky Wernick's Bacon Roll

I expected to struggle badly in the Omaha - it was a highly competitive field of only about 120 players. It was rebuy format - 400 euro - plus an add on at the break.

At my table were Devilfish and Micky Wernick, plus a couple of guys they knew, so clearly this was going to be tough. The play was aggressive, but I was pleasantly surprised to get to the break without a rebuy with 12k in chips (from starting stack of 3k), so with the top up I would start the freezout with 16k, which was plenty to work with.

The average age of the tournament must have been 40, as opposed to 25 in the Holdem events. The action was fast and furious - the table next door had Andy Black and Bruno Fitoussi on it, and all ten players agreed to go all-in blind on the first hand!

Devilfish was providing a mix of self promotion, witty table banter and some frankly lewd comments, which we could have done without. His tennis elbow story isn’t going to make it onto this blog. His girlfriend arrived on the scene - can’t be older than 22, but Devilfish informed me she was excellent for the around the house chores and a decent cook to boot. Sometimes I wonder if if he wasn’t plucked out of the 1930s.

The big incident of the tournament occurs as follows: Micky Wernick is enjoying a bacon and sausage baguette and turns back to the table to play his hand. He folds, and looks back and the staff have taking his baguette away.

Wernick is furious:

Brummie accent “Where’s me foooking cobb gone? I only turned away for 10 seconds! What is this place?”

A couple of waitresses and the manager are called over to resolve this traumatic incident. After a detailed inquest, Micky is placated by the provision of a brand new baguette, which Devilfish manages to secure a 50% share of.

I’m afraid I can’t remember Omaha hands with the same detail as holdem hands, and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since this tournament.

However, I was pleased with my performance, and certainly didn’t feel outclassed. I am confident I’ll be able to compete in WSOP now in the discipline. After the rebuy period, I kept getting decent starting hands like KQJ10 but then missing the flops completely. It was hard to get people off hands pre-flop, and a couple of times I get short stacked and have to raise pre-flop, and then push on any flop just to get some chips back.

I eventually bust holding A223 in the big blind and shove short stacked on a double Ace flop. I am called by someone holding the other Ace, and I don’t hit the house. The turn and river are both Jacks, and the other guy thinks it’s a split pot before I explain to him that it isn’t.

All in all, a good experience and a boost to my Omaha confidence.