…so full of action, his name should be a verb

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.

Yep, it’s another fascinating PLO hand history!

Actually, this one isn’t distance-quotes-fascinating in the same way that the last one was distance-quotes-fascinating. I’m mostly posting it up here because I’m either quite proud of the play I made,  or I just made a really rash move and got lucky. Only one way to find out!

Happily, I’ve worked out a way of getting at the text of iPoker’s hand histories, allowing me more time to DISSEMINATE ESSENTIAL INFORMATION (*). To wit –

It’s a $10 game, and I’ve been on the table for about ninety minutes. At one point, I was up to about $25, but some recent loose play has seen my stack dwindle down to $18 and change. I am on the button. The table is mostly made up of shortstackers, all of whom are terrible. On my right, I have a solid player with $20, and on my immediate left I have a..a well, he’s hard to pigeonhole. He joined the table with a short buy-in, played like a maniac, rebought a couple of times, eventually spun himself up to about $20, at which point he calmed right down and started playing solid TAG poker. However, he’s just been viciously sucked out on a couple of hands earlier, and is clearly tilting.

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Poker Ocean Burnley (No DP) 0.05/0.10, hand converted by the iPoker Converter at Talking-Poker
Visit Hand HQ to purchase hand histories from a range of sites, game types and levels.

saw flop | saw showdown

Button dermoth ($18.39)
SB ($13.78)
BB ($2.86)
UTG ($5.90)
UTG+1 ($1.45)
MP ($2.60)
CO-1 ($1.80)
CO ($19.90)

Preflop: dermoth is on the Button with 8 T 6 K
UTG calls 0.10, 1 fold, MP calls 0.10, 2 folds, dermoth calls 0.10, SB raises to 0.60, 1 fold, UTG calls 0.50, MP calls 0.50, dermoth calls 0.50.

Pretty standard to limp in with this on the button, and the call is mandatory; I’m getting 4-1 on my money.

Flop (2.50) 4 T K
SB bets 1.25, UTG calls 1.25, 1 fold, dermoth calls 1.25.

So, I flop top two pair on a fairly safe board. The SB bets half the pot, and with a caller coming round, I’m getting 4-1 on the call again. How many times have I lost money playing top two pair against a preflop raiser this way? LOADS. And I’ve only been playing PLO in earnest for a week or so…

Turn (6.25) 3
SB bets 6.25,

And not only does he bet the pot, he bets it like he was playing whack-a-mole. The turn card pops up and before you can blink, BANG, in goes the money. My thought process went pretty much like this – “Srsly? The three of diamonds? I’m supposed to believe that’s helped you in some way? None of this makes sense to me… I’m all-in”.

1 fold, dermoth raises to 16.54, SB moves all-in for 5.68.

And he calls, and for the record, looking back at it with the benefit of hindsight, I HATE my shove. As mentioned before, the old “I have top two pair, so he can’t have a set of kings or tens” just does not apply in Omaha. In Hold’em, when that happens, you take your lumps and complain about running bad. In Omaha… it’s standard.I also can’t rule out something like AA33, QQ33, JJ33… and pretty much everything else in his range has redraws against my rather weak hand. In hindsight, I think I should have folded. However…

River (34.72) Q

dermoth shows 8 T 6 K
SB shows 5 3 A A

dermoth wins 34.72 with Two pair, Kings and Tens with a Queen for a kicker

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…I’m glad I didn’t.  BUT. If I were to put him on Aces with no redraws – which would be one explanation for his panicky pot bet when the second flush draw arrives on the turn – I’d have been fading an ace, three, or four, and would have been a 62% favourite. OTOH, I could have been up against a big, big draw: AQJx with the spade draw, say. Against a hand like that I’m  exactly 50/50.  Throw in a wheel draw and I’m an underdog. Throw in a second flush draw and I’m… eww.

And that’s assuming I have the best made hand on the turn. I could always have been drawing dead to a set of Kings, or merely  miles and miles and miles behind to a lower set. But fortunately, I was just up against a flush draw + a gutshot wheel draw + superior two pair draws, and I was a WHOPPING 57% favourite to win the hand.

That’s sorted that out, then; it was a  textbook small favourite/ massive underdog ERROR, which ended up netting me quite a nice pot. I AM A FISH.

Omaha is hard.

Hey, it’s a bad beat story.

Fortunately, it’s only a $5 game; a little background poker while I do some work. Had this happened at a higher limit I’d have a mouth full of furniture right now…

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PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.02 BB (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG+1 ($5)

MP1 ($11.39)

MP2 ($2.98)

MP3 ($2.62)

CO ($1)

dermoth (Button) ($4.80)

SB ($5.28)

BB ($3)

UTG ($3.74)

Preflop: dermoth is Button with 6, A, 9, A

UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.02, MP2 bets $0.08, 2 folds, dermoth raises to $0.31, SB calls $0.30, 3 folds, MP2 calls $0.23

Flop: ($0.99) K, A, J (3 players)

SB bets $0.06, MP2 raises to $0.64, dermoth calls $0.64, SB calls $0.58

Turn: ($2.91) K (3 players)

SB checks, MP2 bets $2.03 (All-In), dermoth calls $2.03, SB raises to $4.08, dermoth calls $1.82 (All-In)

River: ($12.64) 7 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $12.64 | Rake: $0.60

Results:

dermoth had 6, A, 9, A (full house, Aces over Kings).

SB had K, 3, 9, K (four of a kind, Kings).

MP2 had J, 6, A, J (full house, Jacks over Kings).

Outcome: SB won $12.04

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It’s a fascinating hand. The small blind is a very tight player, and wouldn’t coldcall two bets preflop without a strong holding. We played a hand earlier where we both had aces; I raised preflop, he reraised, I threebet, and he flat called, then shoved on the flop which failed to improve his hand. ( I had flopped two pair with my raggy kickers, so called; he made a runner-runner broadway straight, of course).

The  player in MP2 is new to the table, and I have no reads on him.

The small blind bets super weak on the flop, which means he’s definitely hit something; MP2 makes a weakish reraise, which means he’s probably hit something too; and I’m sitting there with top set. I can only assume my opponents both have QT, or one has QT and the other an underset, or possibly one of them has KKQT/JJQT. There’s probably a flush draw out there, too.  I would never, in a million years, assume they both have undersets.

So, I just call. So does the Small Blind. And then he makes quads on the turn, so obviously he checks to the raiser, who instashoves with the worst possible full house.  The call is mandatory, and I want a call behind, so I’m not raising to isolate. When the SB shoves instead… eww. I knew I was behind; he could have been playing AK or KJ, but given his range and the action, it would have to be something very specific like AKQT, or KJQT. And by this point, I’ve worked out that the guy in MP2 has got a full house or quads as well, which means the number of hands the SB plays in that way that I can beat is pretty damn small. But it’s only $1.82 to call, and there’s $10.22 in the pot. Folding is clearly not an option.

Omaha, there. Sick, sick game. But fun.