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Well, I elbowed my way into the final seven of the USPC PLO tournament, which means you’ll all get to see me playing this crazy game on SpikeTV sometime in the near future.

I was up and down all day today. I lost 12k with 9876ss on the first hand I played to knock me down to 40k, but I worked that back up to 60k without showing down a hand (though I did have the nuts several times). I got chipped down a little, and then lost 28k to Michael Binger with AAT8s against his AAQ5ss. At my lowest I was down to about 17k. I finished at 41k, and again I don’t think I had to showdown a hand to climb back up. I only have 25 blinds, and I’m the second-shortest stack; but I haven’t once been all-in needing to win a showdown to survive, so maybe we can keep that streak going a little longer.

Joining me in the final seven are Binger, Matt Glantz, Amnon Filippi, Steve Zolotow, Allie Prescott, and a European player I don’t know (he’s on the short stack). It’s a fun group. All these guys are really accomplished players, and as we wound down towards the TV table today, all of us were talking hands, cracking jokes (some funnier than others), and we just generally had a really good rapport. I hope the event will make for entertaining TV for the many, many people who have no idea what Pot Limit Omaha is.

Time to start planning my 25 big blind strategy! I know what to do with that stack size in NLHE, having played a million NLHE tournaments. In PLO…I’m still trying to work it out. We play on Monday. Wish me luck.