Sorel Mizzi may have made his mark online as a professional MTT player, but he’s now ambushing the live felt and has picked up several impressive results totalling in excess of $1.5 million. Although relatively new to the Omaha scene, he’s similarly flourished, missing out on bracelet gold by just one place both at WSOP and WSOPE. In 2007 he was just one card away from victory…
Player: Sorel Mizzi
Event: £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Freezeout
Date: Sep 24, 2008
Runners = 165
Position = 2nd
Prize = £132,000
Today’s event is Event 60: £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Freezeout
Mizzi on…
… His Omaha Experience:
You know, it’s weird, because whenever I play cash now, I usually play Omaha, and I never thought it would be like that. But just like No Limit, I haven’t researched, read books or whatever, I’ve just played and learned that way. At the WSOPE, it was actually only my second Omaha tournament, so I didn’t really have high expectations. I’d played the event the year before and lost a massive pot worth 200,000, but still wasn’t disappointed as I was new to the game. These days, I've improved a lot and I play the game a lot more.
… The Standard of Play:
The overall standard in Omaha tournaments is horrible, it really is, even among some of the pros. I don't think my game was good last year, but I was still above average. Heading in this year, I'm feeling pretty comfortable about my game and think I have a big edge over the field. In my first Omaha tournaments, I was making a lot of mistakes. I knew the basics, but was doing things like limping middle pocket pairs. I would ask people for advice back at the hotel, and I quickly learned that you’re not supposed to call with hands like that. Now I've adjusted my calling ranges a lot more.
Thinking back, it’s strange, because there were many times when I’d takes ages thinking about a decision, without realising how easy the decision really was. Sometimes I’d make the call, and someone would say, “What took you so long?” There was this one hand on the final where I had T-7-2-x and the flop came T-7-2. It went pot, all-in and the decision was on me. I called in the end, but they were surprised I didn’t call straight away. At the time, I was thinking he had to have T-T or something, because if this happens in Hold'em, someone will have the nuts. But here I have to make the call. There were many spots like this where I took longer than I should have.
Compared to WSOP, the standard is a lot tougher in London. The field is bigger in Vegas, though, so it probably balances out.
… Preflop Strategy:
A lot of players tend to play aces really badly. People have to realise that if they aren't three-betting often, that when they do, it's going to be aces and people are going to find it easy to play against them because their cards are basically face-up. If you’re three-betting regularly, then it's not a problem, your hand is disguised because your range is wider. The worst thing you can do in poker is telegraph your hand and narrow the range to such a level where people can put you on specific cards.
Personally, I three-bet a lot more in cash, whilst in tournaments I prefer to call behind as three-betting is very high variance and gets you involved in a lot of big pots. Therefore, I might consider just calling aces. Too many people three-bet, then can't get away on the flop, but so many flops are bad for aces.
I got knocked out at the WSOP with aces. Richard Austin limped and I just checked with them because I knew that if I raised, he’d know that I have a big hand. Overall you should tread carefully with them unless you can get at least a third of your stack in. In poker, you always need to be deceptive, avoid bad situations and keep confusing people.
… Position:
Playing position is a lot more important in Omaha than Hold’em in my opinion. This is because the extra cards mean you’re more likely to hit something. Being in position then allows you to float more and represent a much wider range.
… Coin Flips:
I don't massively like coin flips, but I wouldn't avoid them. I had one big coin flip in Vegas, but mainly I tried to play pot control. There's a lot more pot control involved in Omaha than people think, it's not just about big coin flips. The classic wrap versus set hands don't have to happen as often as they do. You're meant to call your draws in Omaha a lot more and extract value. In fact, you'd be surprised how bad a shape you can get players in. The standard is so bad, that you can get people in dominated positions a lot and not worry about outdraws as much. It's all about knowing your opponent.
… A Tough Final Table:
I wasn't a great judge of standard back then, I was still learning myself, but I do remember thinking that Erik Friberg was a good player. He was a machine, and picked off so many bluffs. The calls he made were sick, and I don’t know how he made some of them. He knew that I knew he was calling light, so I was really pleased when I bluffed him in one hand.
Theo Jorgensen also impressed me. I didn't think much of his play at first and wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing, but I thought about the moves he was making afterwards, and it began to make a lot more sense. I can see that now.
… Final Table Strategies:
I didn't have any strategies heading in to the final. I wanted to keep things pretty small ball, stick to the basics, play position, and see how the tempo progressed. Once we got short-handed, I was definitely more in my comfort zone and a lot more confident. To be honest, I don't tend to think strategy too much, a lot of it is just instinctive. Sometimes I wonder how I did so well and beat certain people, but a lot of the decisions I make just come naturally. I'm not a maths, EV, etc king of guy, it's all done subconsciously.
… Coming so Close… Twice!
The first one in London hurt a lot more than WSOP because I was so close. I think I had him all in when I was 85 or 90 percent to win and take the bracelet, and even when I lost the hand, I still could have won. It's an ambition of mine to become one of the leaders in poker from the online world, and winning a bracelet is a big part of that. If it were a direct choice between the money and the bracelet, then yeah, I’d still take the money, but with just two remaining, there’s certainly a price I’d pay to get my hands on the bracelet.
… Omaha Versus Hold’em:
Both have different qualities. Hold'em is certainly considered less prestigious than Omaha because so many people are good at the game, but Omaha is different, few have mastered it. That might be because it's relatively knew, but either way, to master both would be a major accomplishment, I truly believe that.
… Future Goals:
I think I’ve established myself as a live player, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement and I’d like some more results. I've had so many good spots where I've ended up going out 10th to 30th. I want to win over a million in an event, but to be honest, my goal isn't about winning tournaments. Tournaments are such high variance, and so hard to win, that my goal is simply to play the best poker I can and make the correct decision as often as possible. For example, everyone thinks ElkY is the best player because he's winning everything, but that doesn't mean he's playing the best poker. It's very difficult to set your goals at winning tournaments.