Vietnamese-born poker player Thang Luu has just proved he is the indisputable king of Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better: he took the title two years in a row, and was runner-up the year before that. “Tiger” Luu shared some of his thoughts with Poker News Daily.
Poker News Daily: When did you first start playing cards professionally?
Thang Luu: I started playing in 2003 or 2004.
PND: Was Omaha the first game you learned?
Luu: No, I played a lot of games, but mostly Omaha. I started with the small limits and learned how to play the game. I first started playing about ten years ago.
PND: Do you play Hold’em at all?
Luu: Not quite. There’s not as much action in Hold’em as Omaha and it is no fun. I get bored sitting there when there are only two cards.
PND: We saw you playing the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha event this morning. Is your PLO game as good as your Hi/Lo game?
Luu: No, I’m not as good in that game and I know that.
PND: So do you prefer the Limit games?
Luu: Not all of them, specifically just Limit Hi/Lo games. Stud Hi/Lo, Omaha Hi/Lo. Limit games I play better, not No Limit. No Limit I’ve played like twice. No Limit Hold’em is okay.
PND: When you won this event last year you were chip leader for much of the tournament. This year you had an up and down road to the final table, right?
Luu: On the final table, yeah I went down. I was second chip leader for a while and went down to not many chips left, but then I tried to just play wise to get to the end.
PND: At what point in this year’s event did start seriously you were going to take the tournament down again?
Luu: This year I got so confident since last year I won that I thought I could take it down.
PND: You were confident from Day One of the event?
Luu: Yeah, from Day One. Plus, I was chip leader at the end of Day One this year too. I was so confident about playing I even flew all the way home to Vegas from my vacation to play.
PND: Where were you vacationing?
Luu: In Vietnam. I fly back to Vietnam to go back home and visit. I saw on the schedule that the event was on the 29th, so I came back the 28th and played the tournament the next day.
PND: Are you flying back to Vietnam after this?
Luu: No, I’m going to stay and play the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event, the $2,500 event and then I’ll play the $10,000 Main Event. I’ll probably end up playing six more tournaments.
PND: Well, good luck. Congratulations again on your impressive accomplishment.
