#378 - Dogs, Guns, and Omaha EOB

One of the virtues of the Wynn Classic was that it ran events other than No-Limit Hold ‘Em. This is true of many tournaments but with the popularity of NLHE, “giving the people what they want” has meant giving a large group what it wants most to the exclusion of one of poker’s greatest virtues: diversity. We are already seeing the big cash games online morph from NLHE to PLO. From what I hear, the big game in Bobby’s Room, when it’s really, really, REALLY big, will sometimes be NLHE and PLO, not the old-timey mix of HORSE games with some triple-draw or Chinese tossed in.

Things change and poker excellence – both for players and their hosts – tends to be connected with the variety of games. Just about the only easy criticism I could make of Doug Dalton and Jack McClelland at the Bellagio – and please weigh this against superlatives for almost every other aspect of tournament operation – is that they have thrown in the towel on diversity. All 15 events at the upcoming Five Star World Poker Classic are NLHE.

The Wynn Classic, a younger and smaller series of events expertly operated by tournament director David Eglseder and poker director Deborah Giardina, maintained the variety of games. Of their 17 events, NLHE naturally dominated. But there were PLO, LHE, OEOB, and HOSE events as well.

I played LHE and OEOB. (I would have played HOSE and maybe PLO but my Mom’s husband David had shoulder surgery and I wanted to be around if they needed me.) I played late but unsuccessfully in both LHE and OEOB, finishing 30th out of 140 in Omaha and 19th of 98 in Hold ‘Em.

One of the nice things about limit-poker tournaments is that you know you will be with the same players for awhile. I’m not even talking about the strategic benefits. It can be nice having the same company for several hours at a poker table. (Of course, it can also be awful, too, but I prefer not to think of it that way.)

I spent 7-8 hours in the Omaha tournament in the presence of a nice woman named Mindy. Mindy caught my attention for two reasons. First, though she was clearly a poker regular from the way she handled the chips, she was not a regular Omaha EOB player and some guy who told me his name was Yoyo kept pointing out how lucky she was getting in accumulating her stack. Second, she looked exactly like a girl I had a crush on in high school. But so no one gets the wrong idea, I’m remembering back 30 years and that’s what Mindy looks like NOW. That girl was out of my league in 1977; this was a coincidence, not an attraction.

I wouldn’t have even thought to mention it except that Mindy ended up at my table for 10 minutes during the afternoon of the $2,000 NLHE a week later. She was all-in after the flop with K-K against J-J and her opponent hit a jack on the river.

And I still wouldn’t have even thought to mention it – though I felt a pang of regret when my high-school-fantasy-girlfriend busted; I had about 50 high-school-fantasy-girlfriends but she was the only doppelganger (who I knew of) in the field of this event – except that Mindy was wearing a bejeweled handgun around her neck. Someone asked her about it and she said, fact-of-fact, “I got it because I thought it looked nice, and because I carry a concealed weapon.”

And I STILL wouldn’t have thought to mention it until I talked with my Mom earlier today. David’s shoulder surgery was a success but he’s having a lot of discomfort with the bulky sling, the pain from the surgery, and the medication for the pain from the surgery. She told me, “We decided that maybe what we need to get through this is a dog.”

Their faithful companion Homer had died during their winter here in Scottsdale two years ago and their own intervening medical issues had postponed getting another dog. But now they thought it would help so my Mom was looking in the local papers.

Scottsdale is trying to become L.A. Jr. but certain unchangeable elements are at odds with that image. If you breed, raise, or train animals – still pretty common occupations in the Phoenix area – you probably never noticed that the Electric Ladyland boutique across from Kierland Commons changed its name to Electric Couture. (This is not to say that people who raise horses or dogs don’t like nice things or have fancy friends. Our friends Bruce and Bonnie bought a Coton de Tulear from a local breeder who is close friends with Barbra Streisand and James Brolin. The breeder organized a weekend retreat for clients and their dogs at a very exclusive resort favored by the Streisand/Brolin. The place was so nice that it was only a mild disappointment that Barbra and James didn’t make an appearance.)

My Mom found this ad in the local paper today, which got me thinking about limit poker, OEOB, Mindy, Yoyo, and all the other items in this blog:

Mini-Schnauzers

3 male pups

American Kennel Club

6 weeks

Shots

Very small & beautiful

$400 or trade for gun