I won a 27 player LO8 live tourney on Saturday night, which I'm very proud of, since I've been working a lot on my O8 game, and it really paid off. I didn't take notes, and can't mentally recreate many hands right now, because I was very 'in the moment' at the game.
I do remember that I won the tourney with 29 of hearts for a flush, and 23 for the lock low with an ace on the board.
I also remember a crucial hand at the final 6 players where I started with A33X and raised from early position, got two callers, and I flopped trips with two low cards on the flop, and I bet them all the way down, both callers stayed through the turn, and one of them even kept me honest on the river, and there was no possible low and my trips held, which gave me the healthy stack I needed to be choosy about my starting hands during the final phase.
The level of play was varied, with at least half the field having a reasonable understanding of O8, and the other half using hold'em logic plus luckboxing to survive. There weren't any luckboxes at the final table that I recall. (except me.) You could tell the hold'em-only players because they would frequently stay to the river with the third or fourth best hand, while those with more O8 clarity had frequently tossed a better hand than what they had stuck around with. That's always frustrating, but sooner or later, fourth-best hand always comes back to haunt you.
