Holdem Notebook

What is it about the last hand?

2012-01-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get more Omaha into the weekly cash game, but some players aren't thrilled with the idea. So this week, I halved the stakes down to .50/.50 blinds in an attempt to let the less experienced play around with smaller dollar amounts. We got a nice full table alternating orbits of Omaha and Holdem.

I didn't play particularly well. I flopped middle set and then call/call/called to the river, letting a guy with a monster wrap hit his straight. I don't think a raise anywhere would have gotten this hand to fold, so the calls on flop and turn were ok, but the river call was weak, and I paid off an obviously better hand.

Later in the night, I made a bad fold with the nut flush, on a paired board. My opponent was talking up a storm and happy and making speeches - I thought he had the boat. He proudly showed complete air.

I was up 40 blinds or so on the last hand of the night - an Omaha hand. I followed a couple limpers with a mediocre Ten-Eight-Eight-Seven - not a hand to write home about, but our collective Omaha game is usually weak-tight (myself included) and I figured I would see a flop.

Tony was having none of it. He raised the pot up to $15 - a ridiculous overbet into a $2.50 pot (we were officially playing NO limit Omaha, mostly out of laziness of not wanting to keep count of the pot). Everyone folded back to me. I took an extra second to think things through. Tony was stuck on the night and tends to change his play based on his status on the evening. He also makes 2 or 3 aggressive plays every night without regard to opponent or cards, maintaining just enough of an image to keep people guessing.

I was guessing here. I felt like this was a move. I checked his stack - he was losing on the evening as I mentioned, and had only $27 behind after his $15 bet. Would a limp-reraise-all-in get him to fold some of the time? Or would he decide to gamble it up?

"I'll put you all in" I declared. Tony called before I could put the period on the sentence, and flipped over ace-ace-ten-three.

Alllll-righty then.

He outplayed me on this one. My reasoning was pretty good, but he was guiding my reasoning with a perfect, well-timed, out-leveling play. Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.

And sometimes, the bear gets you but you suck out with an eight on the flop and win anyway.

I have come a long way with my emotional state in live play - at least in my own home game. I was irritated about being outplayed (the true long-term outcome of the hand), and not really pleased in any way about sucking out and winning the hand. The suckouts will happen, both for and against me. (if I'm a good player, I should get sucked on far more often than the other way around, because I should be getting my money in good more often). Emotional state is an even more important facet of Omaha - a game with bigger pots, bigger swings, more frequent swaps from nuts to garbage with a turn of a card. The rollercoaster never stops.

Monsterpotten

2011-12-18T12:09:00.000-05:00

Got to squeeze in some Saturday night live Holdem/Omaha, with an affordable .25/.25 blind structure. Time to try out a few things, maybe ramp up the aggression against some players who don't know my game.

Things went well, except one player on my left got the better of me a couple times. I went for the accidental 3bet bluff from an early position raiser (because I threw the wrong color chips out, lol), but it looked like it was going to work for a second, until the big blind cold-4 bet me. He was kind enough to show aces as I folded. Later, I raised from late position with KQ, he defended with JT, then runner-runner boated me after I checked top pair to get value from a good player later. Whoopsie.

This was all made up for with a monster Omaha pot. I limped with Js Tc 8c 6s - a nice structured wrap and double suited to boot. Board comes 7c 8s 9c, I've got the current nuts and a pretty little straight flush redraw. I bet pot and get re-potted, something pretty rare in this game. The joy of Omaha, he might have the same current hand, with a higher (even nut) flush redraw. My monster hand suddenly looks more like showdown value - can I get to the river without a club coming or the board pairing. I call the bet, the pot is getting big, and life is not great.

Then, fortunes change again, the most beautiful 6c comes on the turn, and I have the straight-flushin-mother-humpin-stone-cold-lead-pipe-immortal nuts. Furthermore, I think it's likely that my opponent now has the ace-high flush on a non-paired board. I'm out of position, so I check and let him bet. I take a bit of time to Hollywood a little, make a little sigh, pretend like I've got top set and need to call this bet to try and boat up to catch the flush. After the appropriate time, I toss the chips in, praying that the board doesn't pair up. His flush needs to remain best.

A red four comes. No board pairing. I think the villain has the ace high flush, which I'm sure he can see is the third nuts (5c 8c also makes a straight flush), but I don't think he's going to check behind. If he does, he's a damn fine Omaha player. I check. He bets $15. I check my stack quickly, I've got $45 left, a great amount. I announce that I'm all in. He's got to call $30 to win like $90.

He lets out a groan and a little laugh. "Shoulda seen that coming" he bemoans. "Sooo sick, I've got the third nuts here, and I think I have to fold". I'm trying very hard not to give anything away, but it looks like he already knows what I've got. My only hope is a desperation/frustration call, or perhaps some notion in his head that I'm bluffing or am not a good enough Omaha player that I would checkraise a king-high flush all-in

He takes a good 90 seconds to make his decision, then throws a pile of red chips in as he turns his cards over. Ace and three of clubs as I suspected, along with a 7 and 9 for two pair on the flop. "You were never ahead, my friend", I tried to say nicely and not-condescendingly, as I turned over the bad news.

A brutal, brutal Omaha hand for him, ending in a 400 big blind pot for me.

2011-12-17T10:23:00.002-05:00

Looked like it was going to be one of those nights in my cash game - playing fine overall but unlucky. AQ became trip aces by the river, someone seemed really interested in building the pot, but I knew he would do so with any ace, so I paid off a pocket deuces underboat. It was the correct play. A limped pot with 89s in late position became trip eights, again stuck with someone with the other eight and a higher kicker. I probably paid one too many streets on that hand. A third hand became trip nines from the big blind with a silly 5 kicker, but the most transparent player at the table bet $10 into a $5 pot and I folded instantly.

So trips were not my friend this evening, and I was down and had to dig into my pocket to top up. The table got shorthanded after TW busted Tony on yet another trips-kicker battle. TW is a player who's all-consumed with whether he's "winning" or "losing" in his session, and his play changes drastically depending on which side of the ledger he's on. If he wins big early, he makes up some excuse to leave early. If he's down, he stays and tries to recoup his losses. On this night, taking Tony's money got him just above even. He very obviously had his stack of chips set up into two piles, his "break even" stack and his "profit" mini-stack. The large "break-even" stack was stashed off to the side, carefully, almost out of reach. He wanted to take that money home.

I raised up a medium ace to $4, a bit more than usual. He called to see a flop, as he will around 40% of the time. He missed and checked. So did I. I checked his stack - he had his entire "profit" stack in his hand, around $7 now after calling my raise.

"Eight bucks" I said, sliding one red and three whites out to the center.

He checked his chips. "Hmmm, that would break into my big stack over here", he said, unaware that I already knew this. I shrugged, pretending I wasn't sure what he was talking about. After another second, he folds his second pair or weak draw, something he normally wouldn't do.

A bit later in the evening, we got into a pot again. This time I had raised up a weak queen-eight suited from late position and again hit nothing. He had a bit larger profit stack this time, so I wasn't going to be able to cut it down with one bet. The flop missed me and we both got to check.

The turn brought a king but also a flush draw for me, and I caught a hint that TW might be interested in that card somehow, but he checked again. I could have taken the free card to hit my flush, especially with his apparent new interest in the pot, but it occurred to me that I had to bet here for two reasons - one to build up the pot if I hit the backdoor flush, and the other to build it up so a river bluff could push him back into his break even stack. I'm not a big river bluffer, but this was a pretty good time to do it. I decided he either had the same flush draw as I did (let's hope not the bigger one), or a king, but with that king could come literally any kicker down to a deuce. So I felt like I could make him fold at least half his kings with a big enough bet, should I miss my flush. I made my bet and he called.

The river card paired the bottom card on the board, a four. No flush for me. Now onto TW - even if he had a kings-up two-pair now, the board provided him no kicker protection. His flush draws missed. I wasn't sure if king-jack/king-queen type hands would fold, but lower ones might. Or maybe they all would, depending on how dead set he was in his need to take home a profit.

TW checked, telling me he didn't like his hand (trips 4s or improbable boats would have surely lead out). I bet $22, a big number that easily cut into his break-even stack. TW didn't look comfortable, but not ready to fold, either. He took an extra second to think it over. Finally, he asked if I would show my cards if he folded. "I normally wouldn't, but yeah, this time I'll show" I said, knowing he wasn't angle-shooting me into seeing how comfortable I was with my hand, he just desperately wanted to see my hand. He folded and I showed, saying "queen high" to rub it in a bit.

TW ended the game one hand later, and got to take home a small profit on the night.

Crazy Town

2011-12-10T10:53:00.001-05:00

We shifted up the weekly cash game a bit - moved to Friday night, and I removed the maximum buy-in to allow people to play a little deeper if they wanted to. Both moves worked - we got a full table of players, full of gamble. Flop raises with top pair/no kicker, preflop 3bets, the whole shmear.

I was a spectator for the most part - no cards. I was also ready to gamble it up some, but didn't find the opportunity. I did fire three barrels into a board where I knew the villain was drawing, and the turn and river didn't bring in the draws, and won a big pot with ace high. I begged for some action with bottom pair + flush draw, but got folds. I stayed above even, but only slightly so.

Towards the latter part of the evening, I caught myself limping into 2 pots in a row (following other limpers each time), and got mad at myself. "I should be raising this stuff and taking some pots down" I admonished myself silently, recognizing that the earlier action was cooling down if limps were being allowed to see flops. Time to re-adjust.

Next hand I was dealt king-ten offsuit, early-ish position. The book says fold, I raised it up. I got two callers and we saw an all-low board. I fired my c-bet and got folds. The hand after - kine-nine suited - I raised again and got one caller, who donked into the ten dollar pot with a weak bet - his classic "I need to see the next card" play. I denied that opportunity with a nice raise. "Am I going to allow myself to get bluffed off another hand?" he asked to nobody as he folded. I guess so. "That's how it's done", I said to myself, happy with adding 20 big blinds to my stack with king high. Then I went back to folding.

An 80 big blind win in the end - considering I don't think I had a hand as good as top pair all evening, I suppose that's just fine.

Head Rush

2011-12-06T22:13:00.001-05:00

For the first time since Black Friday, I played a Holdem cash game online.

I also played a 6max table, which is how I play Omaha. I fared very poorly in 6max Holdem pre-Black Friday - the full table game suited my style much better, but I wanted to challenge myself.

The tilt came fast. Stacking off with AK, 3betting 77, squeezing with air. Lots of moves, by my and against me. I fared pretty well overall - up a buy-in.

I hope to bring more and more of that game to my live play. It's hard because my home game has so many recreational players - moves and bluffs go nowhere. Like most calling stations, they insulate themselves to bluffs with their play. You've got to hit a hand a value bet it.

But there are moves to be made.

Omaha is...

2011-12-06T09:08:00.001-05:00

a never-ending carnival ride. Up/down/up/down. I was up a buy-in on my second last hand of the night, then lost it all. Played fine (I think), he just had the one hand that beat me.

The good news is that bad beats in Holdem seem trivial now.

Cookies

2011-12-02T09:31:00.001-05:00

The only major complaint I have about my Thursday night cash game is that it's too short. It's hard to set up an image and then take advantage later.

Last night I got myself caught bluffing into a monster. We were in a multiway limped pot - me on the button with nine-ten. Too many limpers to iso-raise, passive players in the blinds where I don't fear a squeeze, I feel like I can limp behind on the button with a pretty wide set of hands and try to hit something. Or make a move if I don't The board was nasty - ace-ten-four, all hearts. I hit middle pair and had no heart to back it up. The big blind opened with a small bet, and the table folded around to me. I felt like it was a good spot to make a move. I have position, and donk bets into big fields are often weak hands. I also knew there was a good chance I would have to fire three barrels here - if the big blind hand an an ace and a decent heart in his hand, we wasn't going anywhere. I was ready to give it a shot. I raised his $2 donk bet to $7. He called.

The turn brought nothing, he checked to me. I made it $11, and he instantaneously checkraised to $22. Ah-ha. I mentally thanked him for saving me my third barrel and quickly folded. He showed a flopped flush - 7h8h. Whoopsie.

My hand was caught in the cookie jar, but that was ok. I'm not only looking for the cookies in the jar - I want the cookies in the package under the counter, and the cookies that fill the aisle in the grocery store. I want all the cookies, and I knew that getting caught in a bluff now might help someone make a mistake against me later.

On this night, like others, though, players started to announce their intent to leave around midnight, and I felt like I wasn't going to get my chance. One player said he would play one more orbit, and two others agreed that was a good time to leave as well, which would knock our 7-handed table down to an unplayable 4. My time was short.

Soon after, I got dealt pocket 4s in early position. Usually a raise for me at a 7 handed table (maybe a fold at a nine or ten handed table) - but I didn't want to get reraised off this hand. My stack wasn't deep enough to flop sets against a 3bet. I put on my set-miner's hat and limped the $1, hoping to start a chain of limpers. We got to the button who decided he needed to make it $5 to go. The button is a semi-regular to my game - a competent player, fairly straightforward, didn't make huge mistakes postflop. When one of the blinds called the raise before me, I had what I wanted - a chance to see a flop. I flipped in the $4.

I didn't watch the flop as it was dealt - I watched the original raiser to see if I could pick up a reaction (I don't do this often enough, but did this time). I heard the dealer say "and the flop is a whole lotta junk", which I took to be a good sign, since I was holding junk myself.

four-five-six was the board. Two spades. I knew that the poker gods had helped me in every conceivable way with this board. Not only had I flopped my set, but there was virtually zero chance I was beat by the original raiser here. He wasn't the type to raise limpers with pocket fives or sixes - he would have followed the merry band. No way he had two-three (lol) or seven-eight for a straight, either. Most probably, he had an overpair to this junky board, or two high cards like ace-king or ace-queen that whiffed, and even then I could hope for an occasional flush draw in his hand to keep him in the pot.

I checked. The button made a sizable bet - one I read to be for value. Smelled like an overpair to me, or a total whiff taking one last shot at the crappy board.

Flopping my set on a board where I was sure I had the best hand was only part of the reason I felt like the poker gods had given me the perfect board at the perfect time. Part two was the fact that my opponent appeared to also have a good hand. And part three was the most important reason of all - this particular opponent was skilled enough to be watching my previous shenanigans - betting hard on scary boards, only to fold later to increased pressure. He was one of the few in my game that would remember that hand, and link that past hand to this one, if I were to play it the same way.

So I did. I checkraised his $5 flop bet to $17. Would he think I was messing around again? Would he step into the bucket? How many of his cookies would he give me?

The answer was fifty cookies as it turns out. He slid a stack of $5 chips into the pot without a word. There was some question whether he was raising to $50 or $50 on top of my $17, so I sat wordlessly as the dealer asked the question and they sorted it out. Once I was sure he had made his intended bet, I announced I was all in.

"Damn, I can't call that bet", he replied, even though it had pretty much tied him to the pot. He flipped over pocket tens - a nice fold by a decent player, knowing he was beat.

But the information cost him most of his cookies, and I was happy to have them.

Go Bigger or Go Home

2011-11-27T23:00:00.001-05:00

I had promised myself an adjustment in my recent tournament play - when I found a hand that I was willing to go with, I wanted to lean towards a bigger bet size than a smaller one. If they fold, fine - that's not a bad result in any tourney. But when they call, the benefits are enormous.

I didn't have much chance to use my adjustment in the past 2 live tourneys, but this month's Waterbury Open (31 runners with a $50 buy-in) finally afforded me the opportunity to test out my adjustment.

This tourney has been brutal to me this year - shoving into pocket aces twice, pocket kings, getting three bet preflop, getting aces cracked by Jack-Four. You know, the usual stuff. This month's tourney started much like the others - a cavalcade of folding garbage for three levels, down to about 15 big blinds.

My first real hand came on the button - a nice little king-queen suited following 2 limpers. I raised it up - knowing they would probably fold their garbage, but Walt checked his cards from the big blind, thought a good 10 seconds, and then called. I know Walt from my weekly cash game - he loves him some pocket pairs and tries to flop sets, even when the math says it's not profitable. I had him on all pocket pairs, ace-king, and ace-queen. He saw how tight I was playing and wouldn't defend with a connector or a queen-ten in my opinion, not this late in the tourney.

Fortune hit me hard with a flopped straight - an ace-jack-ten board. There were two diamonds, but most of Walt's cards couldn't be a flush draw. Plus, I didn't have enough chips to consider folding after flopping a straight. There was no question I was going with the hand. Walt checked to me and I remembered my adjustment. The pot was around 3000, I bet 2800. I thought it likely Walt couldn't find a fold with either ace-king or ace-queen - a top pair and gutshot to go with it. He might also have a set with pocket tens or jacks. None of the smaller pairs were calling any sized bet, so it didn't matter if I made it big or small. My opinion of his range fit well with my big bet size - he had either pretty strong holdings or nothing.

Walt thought long and hard, then decided to fold. He said he had ace-king, but felt like I flopped a set or a straight with my actual holding. Nice read by him, and maybe my big bet size helped give it away, but I had still won a nice pot and stayed above water for a bit.

Later, at the final table, I found another opportunity. One player had brought over a big stack but didn't know what to do with it. Instead of punishing the table, he felt like his extra chips gave him license to limp into lots of pots and try and hit straights and two-pairs. Those hands are hard to hit, of course, and he had begun leaking chips badly.

He limped into my big blind as the small, and I checked my cards to find an ace with an offsuit three. This was normally a raise, but I had raised legitimate hands twice this orbit and chose to check this one. The board came all three hearts, matching the ace of hearts in my hand. My opponent checked to me. He wasn't the checkraising type, so I didn't feel he was strong now. But he could have top pair and check-call a street or two, and I didn't have a deep enough stack to bet two streets and then lose the pot. I checked behind, giving myself the free card.

No help on the turn - a black low card. He checked again, and this time I decided to try a bet. This guy had checked twice and looked like he wanted to give me the pot. My opponent called, though, and I had to decide if I was going to try another barrel with a weak hand on the river if the flush didn't come.

But then the river brought the flush, and also paired the low turn card. My opponent appeared to think about betting, but checked. I felt like maybe he had hit running trips. He could have a full house now with the paired board, but once again I didn't have enough chips to bet and then fold. I was going with this hand. He had way more smaller flushes or the trips for me to try and coax a call out of than the sandbagged boats.

I counted the pot and it was about 5,000 chips by now. I chose a bet of 4,400. He looked at me for a second or two and then made the call - with a WAY weaker hand than I expected - a middle pair that became two pair with the running low cards on the board. I guess he decoded my big bet as a bluff, or maybe he wasn't experienced enough to try and decode the bet at all. His hand improved from one pair to two pair on the river, and he was calling.

Either way, the big pot made me the chip leader, where I remained until we made the money. At four handed, we went for an even 4-way $300 chop, and then left the last $50 of the prize pool back to continue the game and name a winner. I started the four-handed game with the fewest chips, but out-carded everyone and eventually took the thing down - my first cash in the monthly tourney this year. My bet-sizing adjustment was one reason for my success.

Final hand irritator

2011-11-18T21:44:00.001-05:00

Already checked off for the Omaha table to not post my blind next hand. I've got 2 pair and the nut flush on the turn, and the river improves me to a boat. My opponent bets pot. I'm not raising, I don't have the nuts, but I've gotta call. He's got a one card higher boat. He had 1 card to beat me, and that card gave me a full house on the river. Just another Omaha hand.

Still need much work in Omaha

2011-10-30T22:12:00.000-04:00

lost 2 buyins tonight never having a hand, and somehow inviting raises and checkraises when trying to stab at pots. It seems I'm the only one in Omaha who can be bluffed.

Out of practice

2011-10-30T09:47:00.001-04:00

Road trip to Detroit for a concert this weekend with high school buddies - didn't think I would have any time to play cards, though. I was wrong - both wanted to gamble on Saturday afternoon before the show, so I told them I would meet them for dinner in three hours and checked out the Greektown poker room.

Wasn't there long. In my first orbit, someone made it $6 (really small bet for a live 1-2 table), and I made it $20 with AK on the button. Table captain and all that. Original raiser calls and donks 17 on a Q-9-4 flop. He's got something. Is he capable of folding top pair? Dunno, I've been here 5 minutes. I fold and he shows AQ, which outflopped my AK. So much for domination.

3 hands later, I limp with a little ace-five soooted and we go multiway. I flop a gutshot, overcard, and backdoor flush draw on a 2-4-6 board. You know, the nuts. I call a small bet and so does another guy. Turn brings a jack of my flush suit. Equity improves, call again with the other guy. River brings the straight. Board is 234J6 and I have a one card straight. First better shoves all in ($40 into more than that, he was shortstacked), I call, then the other better shoves himself. Blah. I see 5-7 is the nuts, but somehow convince myself that 5-7 was a weak draw on the flop and this hand was unlikely. More likely is another 5 for a chop or even two pair from a bad player. I call the shove.

And I'm out in 5 hands. He's got 5-7o, a perfectly reasonable open-ended draw the whole way. Why didn't I decode that? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I only had one buy-in, since I was only playing for 3 hours anyway, so no reloading. I sit in the lobby for a few minutes going over the hand - why didn't I see that 57 had every reason to play the hand that way? I'm sure I would have folded to the shove had I seen that. (we might argue whether folding the second nuts here is correct or not, it turned out to be so this time). I have to conclude that my lack of recent live play did me in this time. Not a great result, but I can live with it. Play more poker and you'll stay sharp, knucklehead.

I go find my friend playing the 3 card poker table game. I watch for awhile, then join in with my last $100. Fortune is with me - I turn it into $280 and win back most of what I lost with my bad holdem play.

My Biggest Omaha hand ever

2011-10-26T22:04:00.000-04:00

A monster. That ten of spades on the turn was the best possible card in the deck. I have the nuts now and redraws to a nut flush and a second nut flush. I got all in with the guy on the left, who also had AJ but nothing to back it up. I was 100% to chop the pot and 33% to win outright with the double freeroll. We chopped.

keep the foot on the gas

2011-10-14T09:29:00.000-04:00

It's hard to stay aggressive in my Thursday game with the calling stations and non-believers. I raised up AJ last night, both the biggest stations called me, and the flop came a pretty dry king-nine-deuce. I don't always c-bet into two players, but this seemed like the board to do it. They both called. So I check-folded and let them duke it out and show down king-nine and pocket queens.

So bluffing the calling stations is out - as it has been since poker was invented. I had to find different spots to be aggressive. Jack-ten suited hits a draw on a king-queen flop. P.C bets $3.50 into a $12 dollar pot, and I know that means let's see if my second pair is good, or maybe I can hit my draw for cheap. I raise the daylights out of it - he folds his gutshot. I was roughly aware that my action on the hand didn't really correspond to any sort of logical holding, but I also knew that P.C. didn't really think on that level

Not many more spots for me on this night - pocket nines were my highest pair, I never saw AK or AQ in 4 hours. One guy is hitting big pocket pairs so often he's gotta find new ways to play them each time. Aggravating. (Especially when he usually messes them up). but I ended up 80 big blinds to the positive, with no cards.

Folding Kings

2011-10-08T09:56:00.001-04:00

Weekly Cash Game, moved to Friday night with double the stakes ($1/$2). A friendly, affable game. K.C. is sitting on my right and we're joking and enjoying the poker and the playoff baseball in the background.

He limps into a pot. My usually-awful hole cards have a surprise for me - two black "K"s waving hello. "Sorry boys, I gotta raise this one up" I say with a smile. I make it $8 to go.

K.C. would normally say something like "you mother-f-ing bully, raising me up every time I want to see a flop, ha ha ha". Then he would either fold or sometimes call, and off we would go.

No joke this time, though. K.C. looks more serious than normal. Then he raises up the pot to $24.

I briefly consider that he's tilting with pocket threes. Nah. No tilt. K.C. has been winning pots and in a good mood. I consider if he's getting the impression that I've been bullying him and has decided to play sheriff (exactly what you hope would be happening when you finally get dealt the monster). A solid No again - my fold machine has been in full operation all evening.

That leaves only the obvious conclusion. I fold face up. He's shocked along with the rest of the table. He in turn shows his hand, verifying to the rest the table what I already knew.

Amazing Feats of ESP

2011-09-30T14:19:00.001-04:00

Thursday night home game last night, I'm out of the hand. Tony limps into a pot that goes three or four way. Flop is something like 4d, 6c, 7d. FA leads out and gets called by both Tony and CB .

Turn is a black three, meaning that any five makes a straight. CB now leads out for $5. He has the straight, I can guarantee that. FA calls and so does Tony. A nice pot is brewing.

The river is a black nine. The final board is 3-4-6-7-9, with no flush possible. CB makes it five again. FA raises to $12. Tony re-raises to 30-something. It's back to CB, who I know is going to call, he's just counting out his chips. Both CB and FA are on the other side of the table (on my far right), Tony is on my immediate left, and we're out of earshot of those two if I keep my voice down.

While we're waiting, I turn my head to Tony, with my back to FA and CB. I whisper "Eight-Ten of Diamonds?".

Tony nods.

Both CB and FA call the big bet. Tony shows Eight-Ten of diamonds. FA also has eight-ten, they chop up CB's stack. (C.B. ain't folding no straight, no-way, no-how).

The Monster

2011-09-27T22:17:00.001-04:00

Jeff Hwang's "Big Play Strategy" teaches us to play hands in Omaha that we would be willing to back up with our stack should we flop just right. Nut draws with redraws to bigger hands.

In my experience, these hands don't come all that often. I've joked that Hwang wrote two books on something that happens less often than flopping top set in Holdem. The premium hands don't come that often, and when they come, they don't hit the monster flop that often.

I finally hit one tonight - a hand I was willing to back up with my stack. My opponent had flopped even harder - middle set with a king high flush draw. Despite waiting all that time for my monster, I was a 2:1 dog. Keep on smiling.

Omaha sucks when...

2011-09-25T22:03:00.004-04:00

... you've got a guy who raises too much, building pots with weak hands, and calls way too much postflop... and you can't hit a hand against him all night. God it's irritating. I watch this guy call with ten high flush draws and bottom two pair, and I never have a thing.

2011-09-23T08:55:00.000-04:00

All we have to do now, Is take these lies, and make them true somehow -George Michael, "Freedom"

Thursday night cash game takes off for once with 12 players. We play 2 tables for awhile until a couple bustos, then back to a big nine man table. I've been nitting it up for the most part, my usual M.O., until Mr. Pietzak limps under the gun and Tony raises to $4. I'm in late-ish position, and it feels like a good cold 3bet spot. It will look super-strong. Tony punishes pretty wide, Mr. Pietzak will definitely fold his 74o junk, and I can cbet lots of flops and take it down postflop with position, if we get that far.

Now for the simple matter of checking my cards to see if they feel like cooperating with my carefully thought-out plan. Seven-Deuce, both spades. Oh, well, you can't win'em all.

I re-raise to $13.

Angel cold-calls the $13 from a blind. Angel's kind of an aggro-donk - he plays way too many hands, and takes his pairs too far. He also shows calling-station tendencies postflop, but gets away with it because he bluffs more than average. Tony takes a second when it comes back to him to do the mental math, then throws in his extra $9. Medium pocket pair for him. He wouldn't get stuck with an AJ/KQ type hand here. He wouldn't trap with aces or kings - with me showing so much strength. He's been limping behind with his small pairs and connectors. I've got him firmly on 77-TT. Players with JJ or QQ don't worry about pot odds when they call a three bet in my experience - they simply call, feeling it's too strong a hand to fold. Lord knows what Angel has, but it doesn't matter too much. I tried my move and it didn't quite work out. That's cool. I will gladly check/fold most flops here, as I don't really like to bluff into two players with nothing.

The dealer runs it out. Ace of spades, Jack of spades, Deuce of clubs.

Bottom pair, Flush draw. Pretty good flop for a bluff. I've got 14 outs to beat a pair, and only one of the two players can have an ace in my mind, since I'm so sure of Tony's range.

They both check to me. Change of plans - I have enough equity to keep the foot on the gas. I bet $20 into $40.

Angel thinks for a bit, then announces "I'm all in". Whoops. Not quite what I expected. Tony quickly folds as Angel counts his remaining stack. He's got only $17 back, having started with a short-ish stack.

My seven deuce soooted has flopped too strong to fold now. The pot is $97 right now, I have to call $17. 5.7:1 odds, meaning I only have to win 15% of the time to make this a profitable call. If Angel flipped over pocket Aces or Jacks right now for a set, it would still be profitable long-term to call him and try to spike a flush on him. If he's got a single pair, my chances are even better because I can hit two pair or trips on him.

I let out a single "HA" at the absurdity of the situation and announce confidently that I call. Angel looks at my seven-deuce soooted as I flip them over and says "What the fuck?", and then looks back at the board. He sees the bushel-basket of turn and river he has to dodge as he reveals ace-king. 14 cards in all he has to avoid - 3 sevens, 2 deuces, or 9 spades. As the cards lie, I'm a 50.101% favorite to his 49.899%. A true coinflip, and getting an enormous overlay from the pot.

We run out the turn and river. I don't improve. I also don't care. I played this hand very well.

Live Thursday

2011-09-16T22:06:00.002-04:00

The poker gods tried like hell to get Tony and I into a cooler situation last night, but we didn't bite (at least for stacks, we didn't). JJ vs. QQ in a BTN vs. blind situation. Also AQ vs. QQ and AK vs. some overpair. We also played a straddled pot where I flopped trip tens and he flopped the boat. We traded paint back and forth in these medium sized pots and probably ended up even with one another. I made my money elsewhere.

Live Game Report

2011-09-02T13:53:00.001-04:00

Very pleased with my play last night at .50/$1 Holdem. I had the fish on my right and the tighter guys to my left - just where I would hand-place each player. I brought out my online game into live play and punished limpers, stole blinds, and pushed the action. I was also aware of players' changing moods. One of the fish went up big early and then decided he could splash around with his found money. He was playing a game where he would simply ignore his cards, call flop and turn bets, and then bomb the river. This worked the one time he caught trip 5s, but when you employ the same trick 5 times in 3 orbits, even non-observant players start to see the pattern. Anyone with a shred of handreading skill, forget it. The table adjusted and called the bombing rivers lighter and lighter, and the fish kept mucking and mucking without ever showing down. After these couple of failed river bluffs, his play got more and more desperate. I made it $7 to go preflop with AK, he flatted with J4. I won the hand. He flatted someone else's raise with K4 and then called a $25 river bet with a pair of fours. He thought everyone else was bluffing because he was. Soon his $230 profit became a $5 loss, at which point he quickly cashed out and exited the game. We played the last hour 4-handed and switched to Omaha. I folded the most out of the 4, and won a medium pot with flopped quad tens against top boat (gotta love Omaha). Most of all, I minimized damage by folding hands that get you in trouble like top two pair and bottom trips. My final were good - +85BB and definite table captain of the evening. It felt pretty good.

Various Variance

2011-08-31T22:14:00.003-04:00

The variance in Omaha is brutal, especially when coupled with poor play.

I'm losing huge pots and winning small ones. My monster draws aren't getting there. Or they get there and everyone insta-folds. Or I'm chopping. I either overplay aces or I flat and get caught. Or my bluffs are into strong hands. Or people float me with nothing and catch me. I cannot win a hand right now.

Every night is two or more buyins gone, and I'm aiming for busto pretty soon at this rate.

I would just love to stack someone just one time - that would be a big boost.

If not, I may just go busto and leave it there until real online poker comes back. Not sure I need it like I used to.

Dual purpose bet

2011-08-27T01:05:00.002-04:00

Playing 4-handed Omaha at a side table after the tourney. We were 8 strong at one point but people dropped out one at a time.

I very much like one bet I made, even though I lost the pot. On the river I had a king high flush, but there was a pair of nines on the board. I was in the pot with 2 players - one decent Omaha player and a donk who thought Omaha hand strengths were the same as Holdem hand strengths.

I had the good player on the ace-high flush. He had thought hard and called a flop bet, and I knew if he had a strong hand, he would have raised the donk.

I was first to act on the river when my flush hit. I knew that a big enough bet would serve as a bluff to the good player who would fold the nut flush on a paired board, but also act as a value bet to the donk, who would pay off with trip nines.

It worked beautifully, too, except that the 4 of hearts on the river that brought my flush also brought the donk the nines full of fours boat.

That's Omaha. I still like the bet.

Micro Decisions

2011-08-19T09:10:00.003-04:00

You don't have much time to win money in a 5 hour cash game. About 120-150 hands will be played, and you better pick your spots well.

I took my first shot after folding for two hours - I called a raise with ace-queen, but missed on a 7-8-8 flop. The original raiser bet 8 into 12, which was a big number for him. He wanted to end the hand. I made it 18 (not a big raise, but a big number, which many times is more important in our unsophisticated game). He called. I guess he didn't want to end the hand that badly.

The correct play was to probably bet big again on the blank turn, but I had very little equity in the pot, and was up against someone apt to make more calling mistakes than folding mistakes. This was more of a "one shot" bluff attempt, so I shut it down. So did he - we checked both turn and river. He showed pocket nines. I hate his call of the raise - absolutely hate it. All he could beat was a bluff, and was probably feeling pretty good about himself that he caught me in a bluff this one time.

I was down to half a stack later in the evening, when I got my opportunity to exact revenge on this same player. Pocket queens against his standard open. I three bet from 3 to 13. He called and we were heads up.

This villain doesn't like to fold preflop. His range in a 3bet pot (as the caller) is pretty much identical to his range in a raised pot. I immediately looked over stacks before seeing a flop - I had started with around half a stack $50 (shame on me for not reloading, but my opponent didn't have much more, so no big opportunity lost this time, thankfully). Preflop was $27 and I had $44 or so back. Stack-to-Pot ratio under 2. An easy go-broke moment as long as my queens avoid a king or ace, and maybe even still if one of those does appear, considering my opponent's wide range.

I didn't have to worry about flop texture this time, though, as I crushed the board with a queen-nine-four flop. The two bottom cards were hearts.

My opponent checked. There was no folding top set no matter how the board ran out now - all I had to do was figure out how to get my last 44 bucks into the middle, with his money in there after me. This was one of the few times I could have actually checked my monster - with so little money back, I could still be all in by the river. But I chose a different tack - I made a small, $10 bet - smaller than my 3bet preflop. Some players interpret this weak bet as tens or jacks that fear the overcard. My opponent didn't pounce on the bet, but he did the next best thing, he called. I put him on a pocket pair now - unconvinced I had anything, or jack-ten for an open-ended straight.

The turn brought an 8, now putting 2 diamonds out there with the 2 hearts. Jack-Ten just got there. My opponent checked and there was no change in his demeanor. If he had just caught me, he was hiding it well (not that I'm great in picking up tells, or even looking for them often enough). I had $34 back - the pot was $47. An easy turn shove. But I didn't want to say "I'm all in" - this was an obvious trigger to the strength of my hand. Instead, I announced a bet of 24 dollars, leaving myself ten behind. We were arranged on the table in such a way that I was in the way of my own chip stack to him, and he seemed uninterested in how much money I had started the hand with, so he was currently unaware that I only left myself $10 back. He started to consider out loud, as he often does, my hand strength. He was thinking about aces or ace-queen. He never said kings, which lead me at first to believe maybe he had kings himself.

After alternately looking like he both wanted to call and then fold, he said "I'll just go all in". He only had 10 bucks back himself, and of course I called. He showed king-jack soooooted, now with a gutshot, a diamond draw, and an overcard. I had to dodge 12 cards, and did so with a black ace hitting the river.

Once more, I hated his play. He called a three bet out of position from a tight (bordering on nitty) player with king-jack, then floated a half pottish flop bet with basically nothing at all. The turn gave him a decent-ish draw, but it's too late from an equity standpoint to bank on 24% equity and no fold equity by that time. He was worse than a 2:1 the entire hand, and a 3:1 dog when the rest of his money went in. This time his bad play cost him, unlike the pocket nines before. My double up brought me back to even on the right, and the final cash out ended me with the exact dead amount I had bought in for, to the penny.

another new Omaha low

2011-08-14T22:12:00.002-04:00

real bad session tonight - 4.5 buyins down. The Hwang books don't seem to apply to me - I never have the types of hands he spent 4 books talking about. 17 card wraps, top set with nut flush draw - sure, these are monsters that you're willing to take to the wall. You never get them! you play JT98 double suited and the flop comes A22. You get AAKJ and the board comes 567 all spades (you have one spade). You get the bottom gap rundown and whiff again. Meanwhile, people are taking bottom set and top and bottom 2 pair to the wall like Holdem players.

The bluffs don't work because people chase jack high flush draws. They play sucker side gutshots with 8 eight flush draw backups. Unbelievable stuff.

I got stacked with AA against a guy who decided 3456 with three spades was enough hand to get all in preflop with.

Finally, when I have a monster, like quads, nobody has a thing. I win a tiny pot.

Time to get more serious about my game. HUD, forum reading, here we go. This game has officially pissed me off.

Break Even bullet-dodging

2011-08-05T10:31:00.002-04:00

One big pot win (bottom set vs. top 2 in holdem, one big pot lost (big-ish Omaha draw, but should have folded turn), and the rest was dodging bullets. There were 2 3bets all night at the table preflop - both against me raising with non-strong hands. Tony flats with aces out of the blinds vs. my AK then comes out blasting - fortunately I don't hit a pair and fold the turn after floating the flop.

Watching our table play Omaha is high comedy- two players raising and reraising on the river - both with weak full houses. Players calling river bets with 2 pair or bottom trips on boards containing straights and flushes. Someday I'll actually hit a hand vs. these guys and smoke them. Not this night, though.

+$5 on the night felt like a victory.