Broken Promises

I’m under pressure.

I read somewhere that the most depressing day of the year is the fourth Monday of January. It is official.

(UK only. If you are reading from other parts of the world, there may be different days that make you feel like you have stumbled onto the set of a Bergman movie. For further details, please consult your regional Eeyore. They are easy to find. Either search for a wet blanket, or find a ray of sunshine and walk as far away from it as possible.)

Cliff Arnall, an expert on depression, and presumably not likely to fill many chairs on the after-dinner speech circuit, used a mathematical formula to arrive at ‘Blue Monday’. He combined: the weather, debt, Christmas comedown, ebbing motivation, existential questioning and broken resolutions.

I read them again and thought, ‘When is he going to start his list?’

Disbelief entered my mind.

Some people’s resolutions last until the fourth Monday of January?

Time to reopen that bottle.....

You may recall that I made a resolution to play Pot Limit Omaha.

That didn’t last until the fourth Monday of January.

That lasted approximately three minutes.

I discovered I had opened a game of Omaha Hi/Low by mistake and a player snaffled half of my pot. OK, I thought, time to reassess my goals.

I have always been intrigued by Omaha Hi/Low. It is rare to see the pre-flop % dip lower than 45% as a lot of players like the action. That appeals to me too. Deep down, I’ve always seen myself as a bit of an action hero. However, I didn’t want to enter the battle field wearing the same Cape of Ignorance as some of my opponents, so I hit the books.

So, after spending the last four days nostril deep in flops, semis and implied odds, I thought it might be advantageous to offer a poker glossary. A deep immersion in the game’s manuals can leave the reader gasping for O2 and H20, as the books are laden with formulae and pseudo-scientific terminology.

Therefore, over the next few posts, I will provide a breakdown of some of the game’s more specific terms before beginning a tutorial on how easy it can be to beat Omaha Hi/Low. No need to thank me. I do it purely for selfish reasons.

I want to try to convince myself that if I channel my energies into Omaha Hi/Low, I need not feel like I have broken a resolution. I don’t want to feel under pressure or depressed. It is officially not acceptable this early in January.