I’m working on rearranging my studio basement for a new project, and, not surprisingly, it is proving to be a daunting task. If you saw the space, you’d understand. It’s a bit of a cluttered mess and sorely in need of organizing. The plan is to work on it over the next couple days, but for now, I am pretty much just staring at the room, trying to visualize how best to go about the change to make the space more efficient.
Last night I worked (and stared) for a few hours, until poker called and I picked up. I decided to continue my foray into PLO and start out small with a $5.00 buy-in in a .01/.02 game. It didn’t take long for me to lose $2.00 when my tens full ran into quads. Queens full and quads were the only two hands that could beat me. I got off cheap.
When I first looked into this room, it was off the hook, Pots had been huge, upwards of $7 to $12, but it had calmed down and, after the maniac perp had left, become quite tight. People started to leave, so I started to search out a good .05/.10 game. I found one.
The guy to my left was raising or calling every pot… and hitting. I watched him triple up in a short period of time while I slogged along. It can be frustrating, you know? However, I stuck to my game and played a solid range of hands. I think I managed to make $3.00, which would have made me up for the night, so, out of position on the table boss, I decided to go back to working on my studio.
I had put together a new CD tower/shelf earlier in the evening, so I pulled my CDs off of the shelves they were on, arranged them into boxes labeled “Country”, “Classical”, “Rock” and “Jazz”. These are loose categories, as my musical tastes are all over the board and genres tend to overlap as well. This task completed, I once again heard the siren call.
The table captain now had five times his original buy-in, so I opted for another table. It went well.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $9.35 | Rake $0.45
Board [4d 4h 5h 4c 8c]
Seat 1: gellissystem folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: johan glans folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dagster1209 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: ShichiFuku folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: bastinptc (button) showed [Ac Kc 8d 4s] and won ($8.90) with four of a kind,
Fours
Seat 6: marietta m (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: greghammer88 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: imlast2act mucked [6h 5c 8h 8s]
Seat 9: Jaahan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
This was a perfect storm, the kind of hand one prays for in all poker games, but one that occurs with some regularity in Omaha. One has to dodge a lot of bullets, Baby. I led the betting on this hand postflop, and was somewhat surprised that I was raised. When the 4 came on the turn, having established that this player was eager to take the lead, I did a little Hollywood and let the time run down a bit. As one can clearly see, all of the other player’s money was going to be in the middle on the river.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1.85 | Rake $0.05
Board [8d 7c 8h Ts 9s]
Seat 1: gellissystem folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: johan glans folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dagster1209 (button) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: ShichiFuku (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: bastinptc (big blind) showed [8s Js 7s 9h] and won ($1.80) with a full house,
Eights full of Nines
Seat 6: marietta m folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: greghammer88 folded on the River
Seat 8: imlast2act folded on the Turn
Seat 9: Jaahan mucked [7h 9d 6h Ad]
Feigning weakness helped on this hand, although I must say I wasn’t thrilled with either the turn or river. A pair of either card in the opponent’s hole spells doom. I find that I am quite content keeping the pot small on such hands, although this may be a leak. However, I had determined that this player had a fairly good grasp of the game, was a moderately cautious player himself, and if I did have the winning hand, I wasn’t going to get much more from him. (Plus, I had taken a sizable pot from him earlier with a stronger set of Aces, assuring both his caution, and to my mind, a desire to retrieve his losses. He would stay with me if the price was right.)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bastinptc [Kh 7h 9s 3h]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1.25 | Rake $0.05
Board [7c 7s 7d Ts 5h]
Seat 1: gellissystem folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: johan glans folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dagster1209 (button) folded on the River
Seat 4: ShichiFuku (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: bastinptc (big blind) collected ($1.20)
Seat 6: marietta m folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: greghammer88 folded on the Flop
Seat 8: imlast2act folded on the Flop
Dagster1209 was a fairly active player, meaning that he limped a lot and called a lot of preflop raises and flop bets. I checked the flop and made a small stab on the turn, which he called. Although he tanked for a bit on the river, I could not get him to go any further. Quads twice in the same session… I’ll take it!
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bastinptc [Kd Kc 9d 2h]
*** FLOP *** [Ad 4h Kh]
dagster1209: bets $0.30
ShichiFuku: folds
bastinptc: raises $0.50 to $0.80
marietta m: calls $0.80
johan glans: folds
dagster1209: folds
*** TURN *** [Ad 4h Kh] [9s]
bastinptc: bets $1.90
marietta m: calls $1.90
*** RIVER *** [Ad 4h Kh 9s] [3d]
Aqwertz joins the table at seat #9
bastinptc: bets $3.60
marietta m: folds
Uncalled bet ($3.60) returned to bastinptc
bastinptc collected $5.90 from pot
Marietta was an interesting player. Quite the calling station, actually. Earlier in the session I had watched with jaw-dropping amazement as she got it all in 4-way preflop with 2h2sAcJc and took down a huge pot with trip Jacks. The most amusing thing about her was her listed location: Speculator.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $20.30 | Rake $1
Board [6c 4s Kh Ah Qh]
Seat 1: gellissystem folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: johan glans (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dagster1209 (small blind) showed [Kc 9d Kd 4d] and lost with three of a kind,
Kings
Seat 4: ShichiFuku (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: bastinptc showed [Ad 8s As 2s] and won ($19.30) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: marietta m folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: greghammer88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Aqwertz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
My own heart about fell out of my chest when I saw the Queent hit on the river. And in that this is Omaha, it would have to be the Royal Queen to-boot. I have really grown to dislike sets in this game. And with this hand, having tripled up, I quit for the night. I have sat too long in these games before, only to watch such hands as the last go down in smoke, and with it, all of my work.
I must admit that I get a little self-conscious posting wins and neglecting the sessions in which I lose. However, I must also say that there is a certain excitement about winning that I wish to share with someone else who might give a shit, namely a reader or two of this blog. I have been on the short end for long enough in this little obsession that is poker, and it is with some relief that I can say I have doubled my bankroll in the last month. If the trend continues, I will be back to my original investment in fairly short order.
Still, I feel an obligation to write about more than outcomes, for I know that a few of my readers are interested in discussing strategy. And, as those readers know, strategy is paramount to winning. I hope I am successful in this aspect of the blog as well.
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5 comments:
I read your Omaha posts, even though I don't know how to play and I'm happy when you win. I keep saying I'm going to learn the game and I'm hoping a little of it will rub off.
The hands would be easier to follow, though, if you would use one of those free hand converters. There are several and they work great.
go right ahead and post your brags - this is the place to do it. (note the subtitle of my own blog).
The only Omaha I've played is in my Friday night, more-social-than-strategic, game, and we play it limit-style (not pot-limit, just $1/$2 limit), and this variation is the ultimate no-fold-em poker game. We might as well just all put $5 in the middle and flip our cards over, deal the board and see who wins.
I am intrigued by the game, but I still make enough mistakes reading the board (and can barely read opponents) with 2 cards in the hands - 4 would crush my beginner skills at this point
@Mojo- Yes, I know that the hands are not as easy to read in the current format. I have tried one converter and in my typical luddite fashion, could not get it to work. I will try again.
@Matt- Reading the board is easy. If you don't have the nuts or a nut draw, fold. Of course this is an over-simplification made in jest.
I played again last night, maybe 150 hands, and gave back 1/5 of what I won the night before. Maybe my two pair were good or my second nut straight would have held up, but I never wanted to find out at showdown. And I don't know how many times the board paired on the river... a lot.
Why dont you turn the hand history into a narrative, it will reduce the number of hands you post but increase the meaningfulness of each hand.
Meaning, instead of copy pasting, you replace the lines with narrative.
yeah, you know who talks like this.
Yeah, I know who. Maybe a combination of words and pictures...
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