Posted by Johnnymac 11:05 AM
I owe you guys a post about the Omaha game last week, so here goes.

First, it was fun.

Second, I want to address the blinds. Just as in our NLHE games, my standard $40 buy-in is not particularly indicative of 0.50/1.00 blinds in PL Omaha Hi/Lo, but the reason I do that is to keep the game relatively tame for at least the first 1-2 orbits and this was accomplished - it's not that much fun to get busted out in the first 30 minutes of the game and despite the stakes, smaller stacks induce a little bit more restrained play from the guys, at least at first. It didn't take long for us to start playing for $50-100 pots, though, once the first couple of players busted out. And as always, the $40 limit is only to start the game, once the game has started anyone can buy in for whatever the largest stack on the table may be. I like it and I think it accomplishes what I want it to, so I think I will stick with it. I know we could all just pull out $100 right away, but this is indeed intended to be a friendly game and I think the small opening amount encourages that.

Third, my experience - I myself lost money - I got busted out, even, mainly because the cards were very cold for me all night and I didn't play many hands: I saw LOTS of cards between 5 and Jack and in Hi/Lo split those cards generally are worthless. I think my best starting hand all night was AA45 rainbow, which isn't really that great, and when I did play a few other hands like suited Ace-crap or rainbow face cards I usually missed the flop and got pushed out by big bets. No sense in throwing more money away. I think I won one small pot all night when I flopped the wheel from the big blind with Q953; maybe it's possible that I won two pots and not one, but I seriously think that was the only one pushed my way for the whole time we played. Canonico admonished me the next day for playing too tightly preflop (I think the words "pussy" and "grandmother" were used) and in retrospect I think he was right that I needed to pay a little more heed to the implied odds that the PL structure was offering me, but even then on the few marginal hands that I saw I was generally out of position to call the preflop raises that came almost every time. In Omaha you either want a lot of high cards or a lot of low cards but you never want just a little of each or a lot of anything in between and that's all I was dealt on Thursday. It was just one of those nights.

Incidentally, the most "impressive" starting hand I saw on Thursday was AAAK, which, while certainly pretty, is crap in Omaha because it's nothing more than a pair of Aces that is a huge dog to improve to anything else (like any dealt trips is), so I folded. The flop subsequently came A-K-blank with another K on the turn. Well. I mentioned my folded hand when it was done and one player, who doesn't read this blog and shall remain nameless, said I was "crazy" and that he always plays those kinds of hands. He is a nice guy but you can probably tell I didn't invite him to the game solely for his company.

Fourth, everyone else. I think everyone had fun. Planck was the big winner, Canonico and Morris and Padilla also won a little bit, and I think everyone else lost. The game was VERY aggressive, even moreso than I was expecting, but I guess that is to be expected with Morris and Planck and Canonico all sitting together at one end of the table and jabbering at each other all night long.

So I think that's it. Like I said, I plan on making the Omaha game a monthly occurrence, so we'll do it again in March.

5 Comment(s):

Posted by  Dr Fro, at 1:46 PM, February 07, 2006  

although I toss hands with "3-of-a-kind", I will play AAAx if it is cheap to see the flop. My rational is that it might win unimproved. Also, if I do get the unlikely boat, I won't lose to a bigger boat.

Maybe it is the incorrect play, but it comes up so infrequently, I just go ahead and do it.

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Posted by  Johnnymac, at 2:37 PM, February 07, 2006  

Two points:

1.) I don't remember that hand exactly except that I threw it away preflop. More than likely this was because there was a preflop raise (just like every hand that night) so I couldn't have seen it cheaply, anyway.

2.) He wasn't talking about AAAK specifically. If you know this guy like I do, I am pretty sure he was talking about every trips-dealt hand.

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Posted by  Padilla, at 4:33 PM, February 07, 2006  

Sorry Doc, you weren't going to get away with AA winning "unimproved" that night. If you did, you'd be calling some pretty big bets to get there.

Even if you hit an ace, nobody was going anywhere that had a broadway or flush draw. It was THAT fun...

...except on the last hand of the night.

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Posted by  Junelli, at 5:08 PM, February 07, 2006  

I've never seen Morris jabber, but I did see him sashay once. It wasn't pretty.

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Posted by  Johnnymac, at 8:27 PM, February 07, 2006  

Whatever you want to call it, those three were dancing cheek to cheek all night. It was actually kind of fun to watch, especially after I was busted out and didn't have to worry about playing my own cards:

"I don't remember asking your advice on that one."

"Well, maybe you might start winning if you did."

"No, no, I think _______ sucked out on him, he's right."

"Yeah, like you were paying attention."

"Maybe next time you might get brave enough to call and we'll see who's paying attention."

"I'll keep that in mind."


And on and on and on. Of course, that's one of the reasons I like poker!

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