40 Years is A Long Time

In the summer of 1966, before the World Cup, I went on a school journey holiday to the Isle of Wight. This was in the days before the fear of being sued led to most school journeys being abandoned. On the Saturday of that school journey Everton beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in the FA Cup Final. But it's the Wednesday before that that I recall (or, at least, I think I recall. Perhaps it was another school trip, perhaps it was another year). Chelsea went to Barcelona for an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final tie and got stomped 5-1. It seriously hurt.

So, revenge was sweet last night. No matter that none of the players were born and that the managers were either not born or too young to remember.No matter that neither team was managed by a native to that team's country. No matter that the winning goal quite clearly involved a foul on the goalkeeper (mysteriously missed by both commentators at the time, but thankfully spotted by Terry Venables). No matter to all these things. WE GOT THE BASTARDS BACK.

That I was spunking away $140 online at the time was a minor irritant, I must admit. I played the mini-blind game on UB. The weird thing is -- I have played this game before (the Flamingo used to run it), so you would think that I would do well. But it took me a while to get a feel for the game. I turned an initial loss of $120 into a loss of just $40. Not bad for what is effectively $4-$8. And near the end I got the feeling that I knew how the game differed from a standard blind structure, whereas most of my opponents didn't.

No time to go into all the details, but clearly there is a minor shift towards pot limit style pre-flop, with implied odds for a call being greater if there is no raise. Position becomes more important and "steals" offer a lower reward to risk ratio. A frequent scenario was where three people limped and the board was checked on the flop. This gave a $10 pot (less rake). The turn bet is now $8 - effectively a pot-size bet. Clearly this is a great position to be in front if there are chasers in the house.

I then had a look at the "beat the Mob" game, but had no interest when I saw something like 250 runners. So I returned to Ultimate and lost another $90 at $2-$4. And I didn't play particularly badly. Typical occurrences were my QJ on a board of JT53 (call from button, call on flop, raise on turn, called by one loose opponent) being beaten on the river by J2. Aces promptly got cracked by a Josh Arieh soundalike on a board of J83 (he had JJ). And so it went on. These nights happen. Down to £30 up on the month. Irritating.

All about PLO (not the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Jonathan)

Well, one thing you can guarantee about Pot Limit Omaha that you cannot about limit hold 'em; you will usually have several hands to talk about! Played for another hour and a half tonight. Two "exciting" hands appeared and one "interesting" one. First, the exciting ones:




Birks is at seat 3 with $45.25.
Punter 1 is at seat 4 with $52.20.
Fish 1 is at seat 8 with $13.05.
The button is at seat 8.

Birks: 6h Jc 6s Jd

Pre-flop:

Birks calls. Punter 1 O calls. Punter 2 calls.
Fish 1 calls. Punter 3 (SB) calls. Big Blind checks.

Flop (board: 8c Js Kc):

So, here we are again. Middle set. Let's play it the BDD way!

SB checks. BB checks. Birks checks. Punter 1 bets $3. Punter 2 folds. Fish 1 calls. SB folds. BB folds. Birks raises to $15. Punter 1 calls. Fish 1 goes all-in for $12.55.

Turn (board: 8c Js Kc Qs):

Well, if T9 or AT is out there I am now an outsider, but I'm willing to bet here in case they aren't. Actually, looking at this, I wasn't aware that I was only getting just over 5 to 2 for my money if there IS a hand beating me out there. I thought that I had less in my back pocket and that there was more in the pot already. Lesson 1 here. Pause before going all in! Then again, I probably would still have done it.

Birks goes all-in for $29.75. Punter 1 calls.

River (board: 8c Js Kc Qs 9d):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

Birks shows 6h Jc 6s Jd for three jacks
Punter 1 shows 3c Ac Ts 4c for a straight, ace high.
Fish 1 shows 9s Td 2h Kd for a straight, king high.


Punter 1 wins the main pot $38.65 with straight, ace high.
Punter 1 wins the side pot $63.40 with straight, ace high.

Clearly the only debatable plays here are whether I should call pre-flop (it had been a very passive game, so I wasn't as uncomfortable about this as I would be in an aggressive game, and what I should do on the turn. Pokercalc shows me as being 53.7% on the flop. As BDD said, one player drastically overrated his nut-flush draw, while the other called all-in with top pair and a 4-card straight that was half-drawing dead. On the turn I am a 25% shot, so a bet of $29 to win $111 is only marginally negative EV even as the cards lie. Since there's a good chance that I am still in front, I don't see how I can do anything but go all-in.

So, even though I ended up rebuying after this hand, I wasn't unhappy about it. I think that I played the hand far less badly than my opponents!

This table broke soon after and I found myself at a new table that was equally passive. My view is that as long as I am against passive opponents pre-flop (and I am willing to raise) I must have a long-term positive EV unless I play like a total twat post-flop (eminently possible, of course). But at least I have a non self-weighting strategy.

The next hand could be something out of Ciaffone. In fact, it's almost poetic, and not just because I win!







Fool 1 is at seat 3 with $20.65.
Fool 2 is at seat 4 with $40.10.
Birks is at seat 7 with $54.55.
The button is at seat 1.

Fool 1 posts the small blind of $.25.
Fool 2 posts the big blind of $.50.

Birks: 5h 6s 7s 7h

I like this hand already - the kind that Americans dislike and the English don't

Pre-flop:

Shrewd Player 1 raises to $1. Birks
calls. Punter 1 calls. Fool 1 (SB) calls.
Fool 2 (BB) calls.

Flop (board: 3s 4c 2s):

This is about as good as it gets. I have the nuts. I have protection against a 5 or a six falling, and I have a 4-flush. But I think that I can get these guys all-in when I am an even bigger favourite. So after the small blind bets, I decide to just call.

Fool 1 bets $5. Fool 2 calls. Shrewd player folds.
Birks calls. Punter 1 folds

Turn (board: 3s 4c 2s Jc):

This is just the card that I want to see. I am last to bet and I think I know already what is going to happen. And, sure enough, it does.


Fool 1 goes all-in for $14.65. Fool 2 calls. Birks goes all-in for $48.55. Fool 2 goes
all-in for $34.10. Birks is returned $14.45

River (board: 3s 4c 2s Jc Ks):

Showdown:

Birks shows 5h 6s 7s 7h for a flush, king high.
Fool 1 shows Qd 5c 6c 8d for a straight, six high.
Fool 2 shows Kh 6d 5d 4s for a straight, six high.

Birks wins the main pot $60.95 with flush, king high.
Birks wins the side pot $38.90 with flush, king high.

This is a classic example of players overrating a straight with no redraws. Fool 1 actually picks up a flush draw on the turn. Fool 2 has no right to be in the same country. But by not raising the flop I make it look like I might have 2-pair or a low set looking to pair up. The bet from Fool 1 on the turn (actually not that bad) lulls Fool 2 in (after all, he still has the nuts!) when his equity is so bad that it is unspeakable. As Iain wrote, it's a game when bad players often don't realize what trouble they are in.

God bless pokercalc. Here's the actual equity on the flop and on the turn:

On flop: Birks 60.36%, Fool 1 22.22%, Fool 2 17.42% My chance of not at least tying is a mere 10%, by the way, while Fool 2 has only a 2% chance of winning outright.

On turn: Birks 41.67%, Fool 1 41.67%, Fool 2 16.67%.

This understates Fool 2's dire position. He has absolutely no winning outs. A tie is his best hope (50% chance of 33% of the pot). Since Fool 1 is already all in, my raise on the turn is against a player who is drawing dead.

Of course, the hands between the two might be the other way round, but then it is just a 50:50 bet for the side pot and the main pot.

I'll be honest, I loved this hand. It showed so many things about Omaha. My only worry is that Fool 2 might learn from it!

The last hand was much smaller. I got AAJ8 single-suited under the gun. I raised pot and got one caller - a conservative player. By this time my stake is at about $124 against his $30. The flop came 833 rainbow. I bet 2/3rds of the pot. He raised me the pot. Could he have a three? I decided that he was more likely to have a big pair. Since I was by now playing quite fast and had been seen to raise with stuff like QJT5 double-suited, I liked my Aces in this situation (not least because I suspect that he would have flat-called me with a three). I reraised him the pot and he thought for about three seconds before folding.

Was this the right play? Well, it worked. The risk-to-reward ratio is such that I guess I have to be right here 75% of the time for me to win (unless the guy calls me with an overpair).