Getting Started....

Right before Christmas of 2004, the DWDuck household was a busy place.  Two young daughters (the third would come late the next year), lots of presents to buy, and seemingly no time to do any of it.  In order to save time and further anguish, my wife and I decided to buy presents for ourselves instead of trying to come up with something clever for each other.

For my present, I decided to try out online poker.  My wife agreed but was nervous.  The agreement was I could put in $100.  If I lost it... that was as far as my online career would go.  Because of this, I decided I better learn more about what I was doing, so I dove into some books.  SSHE by Sklansky got me off and running.  I hopped around sites picking up bonuses, and eventually got a bankroll.  I settled onto Empire poker, and spent my first many years playing MTTs and SNGs.  In May of that year I entered my first WSOP satellite, an 81-person double shootout.  My boomswitch must have been on that day, because somehow I managed to win!

Over the next 5 years there were many highlights.  2 more WSOP sat wins, many WSOP events (cash has eluded me thus far however), winning a $5 MTT 3 times in a row, a WSOP and $109 freezeout win on the same night, and a few 2nd place finishes in the $162 nightly on Pokerstars, and countless other MTT wins.  SNGs on Empire and Party was a gold mine back in those days.  I foolishly figured that would last forever..... if I knew then what I know now, I would have played a lot more!

For the last year and a half I have settled into the 6-max PLO on PokerStars.  I still enjoy MTTs... however I was in need of a change.  The feeling of a final table in an MTT is still unmatched for me in poker, but the game of Omaha proved to be consistantly far more interesting to me.  NLHE was becoming a bit stale.  Sure, you could get creative... but usually it was solid steady poker that got me deep in MTTs.  PLO was different.  People are more willing to gamble in PLO.  The other, and more important key to me, is that the game is more difficult to learn.  The game is enticing to people new to the game, and the variance is high enough that the poor players feel like they know what they are doing at times.  With a bit of work, there is a lot of money to be made in PLO.  Sure, it's not quite like the good 'ol days  But I think PLO cash is about as close as we can get right now.

I'm don't claim to be an expert at PLO.  I'm beating the game, but certainly not by an awful lot.  I'm slowly figuring out my flaws though, and I'm hoping posting on this blog will keep me honest with my progress.

DWDuck