The Poker Moth

Here’s a fun little quandary for you.

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http://www.holdemmanager.net
PL Omaha $0.20(BB)

SB ($19.73)
BB ($9.94)
UTG ($42.11)
Dermoth ($15.36)
CO ($11.98)
Button ($28.29)

Let’s get the introductions out of the way first; the BB is quite loose passive, and the cutoff is VERY loose passive; I haven’t seen him raise in 60 hands, and he plays 60% of his hands. (Yes, I am using tracking software again). As for me, I’m a little bit tilty after losing a 90/10 race a few hands ago.

SB posts (SB) $0.10
BB posts (BB) $0.20

Dealt to Dermoth 4h 7c Ad Ac
fold,
Dermoth calls $0.20

I have a bad habit of limping Aces in Omaha.  This is partly because I’ve been playing a lot of full ring PLO, where preflop raising isn’t much better than setting fire to your money. However, I’ve moved to 6max games in the last few days, and I’m a lot busier preflop in the short-handed game, but I still limp a lot of aces for disguise, and the opportunity to reraise shortstacks. No-one’s short enough here to justify that angle, though. I should have raised.

CO raises to $0.90
fold, fold,
BB calls $0.70

So, a raise from the loose-passive player (who I’ve never seen raise preflop before), followed by a call from the other LAP.  The pot’s now big enough for me to 3bet and get all the chips in on the flop. Thing is, I’m almost positive the Cutoff has aces as well, and the chances are they’re better than mine. Nonetheless, I decide to pot it back at them and worry about my side cards on the flop (if nothing else, we can divvy up the BB’s money)…

Dermoth raises to $3.70
CO calls $2.80
BB calls $2.80

FLOP ($11.20) Ah 8c 4s

OK, so the Cutoff doesn’t have aces.  I’m pretty sure about that, now. The problem here is that my 3bet preflop has effectively turned my hand face-up; there’s no way I can earn any more money by betting here. So, let the checking begin!

check, check, check,

TURN ($11.20) Ah 8c 4s 8d
BB bets $0.20

Owoosay… lol? I couldn’t have dealt this any better myself, and, err, what’s with the minbet? It has to be a spectacularly pathetic blocking bet with an 8 in his hand, surely?  No point raising here, I just call and hope that he fills up on the river.

Dermoth calls $0.20
CO calls $0.20

RIVER ($11.80) Ah 8c 4s 8d 8s
BB bets $6.04 (AI)

Oh, fuck off! And the hand history doesn’t reflect the incredible speed with which all the remaining chips went in the middle; with two players still to act, it’s a hell of a bluff. On the other hand, I have the second nuts, I’m getting almost 3/1, and… he’s blatantly got the case eight. Or KK? He could have KK. The minbet on the turn  is deranged, but maybe… ah, fuck it, I call.

Dermoth calls $6.04
CO calls $6.04

Oh, fuck off! But there’s no time to digest this disastrous news before the showdown…

Dermoth shows 4h 7c Ad Ac
(Flop 76.1%, Turn 100.0%)

CO shows Kh 3h Jd Ks
(Flop 5.9%, Turn 0.0%)

So the Cutoff has KK! They can’t both have them, can they?

BB shows 7s Qs 6d As
(Flop 18.1%, Turn 0.0%)

!!!

Dermoth wins $28.92, and is very, very surprised…

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The moral of the story; don’t play Omaha if you don’t know the rules. It had never even occurred to me that he could be shoving a Hold’em Boat. Although I would have been sick to my stomach if I had pulled out a hero fold there (and I very nearly did), the pain would have been lessened by the thought of the Big Blind trying to work out why he lost to KK. As it stands, he’s probably bemoaning his terrible luck… that lesson will whave to wait for another day.

Omaha is hard. But endlessly entertaining.

Man, it’s been a while since I basked in the reflected glory of Pokertube. Possibly because there hasn’t been that much quality poker telly to write about of late?

UNTIL NOW, that is. I direct your attention to the magnificent Aurrrrt-zee Millions Cash Game 2009, probably the best bit of poker-watchy you’ll see in a long time. There are links at the bottom of the post, but first! Some words.

Americans can’t say “Aussie”. (Or “Craig”. Or “bloody wanker”). They can say “Ozzy”, as in Osbourne, but seem to be incapable of making the exact same sounds when spelled slightly differently.  Barry Tompkins, (who plays Presenting Man on the show), is particularly bad at saying Aussie, which I mentioned in passing when I reviewed the first Aussie Millions , back in 2007.This hasn’t changed.

I also mentioned Michael Konik’s obsession with the word “prohibitive”. This has changed, because Konik has been replaced by Bart Hanson, who does an extremely good job of calling the action, but is obsessed with the word “bluffcatcher”, to the point where I started to think he was subliminally advertising some ghastly product of that name. As if that wasn’t enough, the sensation of being subtly reprogrammed to buy BLUFFCATCHER products is heightened by a truly bizarre addition to the AM format – background music. Weird, wobbly, vaguely hippyish ambient background music, of the sort you’d expect to hear in a Scientology Org while they wave an e-meter around and size up your wallet. Then there’s the sound effects; every card the dealer turns over sets off a whooshy burst of white  noise , and every bet triggers the “mobile phone receiving a text message” alert. It’s disorientating; your eyes see poker, while your ears hear “Channel Five daytime quiz show”.

Happily, the poker itself is fantastic. There are two shows; the first is a full ring game, featuring the likes of Durrrr, Antonius, Laak, the excellent Niki Jedlicka and the truly awful Andrew Robl, and some Australian guy (mercifully not the one with the sodding crocodile), and the second episode is a heads up match between Durrrr and Antonius, who are clearly deeply in love with each other. (Get a room, guys! Oh, you did). And the stacks are DEEP; the minimum buy-in for the ring game is $200,000 (they don’t specify whether those are USD or AUD, I suspect the former), but Durrrr and Antonius decide to bring seven figure sums with them. I forget exactly how much Antonius is playing, but it’s something like $2,000,000. They sit down for the heads up match with $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 respectively.

Better yet, it’s a mixed  game; NLHE and (joy!) PLO. I’m delighted to see Omaha being played on the telly, and it doesn’t disappoint here; there’s one hand in particular which has to be seen to be believed, and several other merely fascinating hands. There’s also some spectacularly inept commentary from Tompkins in the heads up match, which… well, I’ll not spoiler it for you. Links below, and I’ll post some thoughts in the comments.

Watch it. It’s superb.

Episode 1 Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Episode 2 Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4