The PLO saga continued

(Continued)

This bad run went on, with good old rawayne smacking me again.

raywayne is at seat 0 with $10.80.
henry cassady is at seat 1 with $5.35.
Birks is at seat 3 with $49.25.
iamjah is at seat 7 with $33.30.
The button is at seat 3.

noclue2 posts the small blind of $.25.
Going Uptown posts the big blind of $.50.

Birks: Td Jc Ks 9c

Pre-flop:

iamjah raises to $1.75. trrt folds. Akilees folds. raywayne calls. henry cassady calls. LFS1 folds. Birks calls. noclue2 folds. Going Uptown folds.

Iamjah (cool name, by the way!) was raising about half the pots. It meant nothing.

Flop 9d 3d Th


iamjah bets $3.75. raywayne goes all-in for $9.05. henry cassady folds.

OK, I have top two pair and a gutshot straight draw to the Queen. I don’t think rawayne has a set. More likely a ropier two-pair than me or anopen-ended straight draw. Iamjah’s initial pot bet remained meaningless, he’d been doing that for many hands. Although I wouldn’t dream of punting this hand the way I did against even one rocky rock-like opponent, against these two I am willing to punt it.

Birks re-raises to $38.65. iamjah folds. Birks is returned $29.60 (uncalled).

Turn 9d 3d Th 3s
(no action in this round)
River 9d 3d Th 3s 7c
(no action in this round)
Showdown:

Birks shows Td Jc Ks 9c.
Birks has Td 9c 9d Th 7c: two pair, tens and nines.
raywayne shows As Kd 8d Jd.
raywayne has 8d Jd 9d Th 7c: straight, jack high.


$1.45 is raked from a pot of $29.60.
raywayne wins $28.15 with straight, jack high.

So it goes. I am 54% on the flop, by the way. Nice read, wrong result.


Fortunately, the tide would turn. Indeed I would go from $40 down to $40 up in the sapce of a couple of hands (and this is 25c-50c blinds, so you can imagine what games 20 times bigger than this can be like).



44WOO is at seat 0 with $79.05.
Scotty O is at seat 1 with $39.40.
LFS1 is at seat 2 with $54.20.
Birks is at seat 3 with $92.20.
Joseph Storm is at seat 6 with $84.95.
ezeke is at seat 7 with $38.40.
grindallday is at seat 9 with $19.70.
The button is at seat 9.

44WOO posts the small blind of $.25.
Scotty O posts the big blind of $.50.

Birks: Ah 5h Qd 6d

Pre-flop:

LFS1 calls. Birks calls. txbassman folds. mistro folds. Joseph Storm calls. ezeke calls. bigred1937 folds. grindallday calls. 44WOO calls. Scotty O checks.

Flop Qh 7d 4c

44WOO bets $3.50. Scotty O folds. LFS1 folds. Birks calls. Joseph Storm folds. ezeke folds. grindallday folds.

I don’t really like my call here (top pair and open-ender on a rainbow flop), but I think the implied odds are just about worth it.

Turn Qh 7d 4c 8h

Woohoo, I make my 8-outer and I also have a flush redraw. Can it get any better?

44WOO bets $10.50.

Yes, it obviously can.

Birks raises to $42. 44WOO calls.

River Qh 7d 4c 8h 8s

Oh god. He must have hit his boat. I’m just about to type “well done” when..

44WOO checks. Birks checks.

Showdown:

44WOO shows 9c 7s Td 4h.
44WOO has 7s Td 7d 8h 8s: two pair, eights and sevens.
Birks shows Ah 5h Qd 6d.
Birks has 5h 6d 7d 4c 8h: straight, eight high.

$3 is raked from a pot of $94.50.
Birks wins $91.50 with straight, eight high.

I Am 77% On the turn here. The guy’s looking for a jack or a six, a few other cards to tie. I mean, his hand his horrible, horrible. The bet on the turn is ghastly and the call is ghastlier. Clearly the man is about as bad as you get when it comes to PLO.

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So, when this hand came along a couple of minutes later, what do you think I should do?


44WOO is at seat 0 with $31.55.
Scotty O is at seat 1 with $38.65.
LFS1 is at seat 2 with $53.20.
Birks is at seat 3 with $136.20.
txbassman is at seat 4 with $30.55.
mistro is at seat 5 with $53.35.
Joseph Storm is at seat 6 with $83.95.
ezeke is at seat 7 with $37.40.
bigred1937 is at seat 8 with $32.70.
grindallday is at seat 9 with $26.05.
The button is at seat 1.

LFS1 posts the small blind of $.25.
Birks posts the big blind of $.50.

Birks: 9d Qd 7d 8c

Pre-flop:

txbassman calls. mistro calls. Joseph Storm calls. ezeke calls. bigred1937 calls. grindallday calls. 44WOO calls. Scotty O calls. LFS1 calls.
Birks checks.

Woohoo, family pot. If I’d been doublesuited I might even have thought about raising.

Flop 8d Qh 6c.

Giving me top two pair and a straight draw in a family pot. Not sure how to play this.

LFS1 checks. Birks checks. txbassman checks. mistro checks. Joseph Storm bets $1. ezeke folds. bigred1937 folds. grindallday folds. 44WOO raises to $8. Scotty O folds. LFS1 folds. Birks calls. txbassman folds. mistro calls. Joseph Storm folds.

Well, I COULD have reraised. In fact, I suspect that it’s the right play, so 44WOO is the only worry. And he’s a maniac. (See previous hand).

Turn 8d Qh 6c 2h

Birks checks. mistro checks. 44WOO goes all-in for $23.05. Birks folds. mistro calls.

I don’t really like my two-pair any more, not for an all-in bet, even from a maniac. When mistro calls, I feel justified.

River 8d Qh 6c 2h As
(no action in this round)

44WOO shows Td 5d 7h Ad.
44WOO has Td Ad 8d Qh As: a pair of aces.
mistro shows 6h Ts Ah Jc.
mistro has 6h Ah Qh 6c As: two pair, aces and sixes.

mistro wins $73.10 with two pair, aces and sixes.

Well, good decision (in that I would have lost) but wrong decision (in that I had a 55% equity when I folded). But can you really call with a hand like that, even against a maniac and a loose caller behind you?

A Spate Of Omaha Hands

Non Omaha fans tuneout. I'll come back with something else later. THis post is two posts-long, if you see what I mean:

Never say never in poker is a good principle. Last night’s PLO at Ultimate was a bit of a roller-coaster ride, and early on I fell into a trap which I sort of half-knew was there, but I jumped head first into it anyway. One can see why PLO is a tilty game.

The kernel of the hand is this.

I have QJ83 (the suits in my case are irrelevant).

Flop comes AKT two diamonds. A loose (Iamjah) player bets out $4.25. Another loose player (rawayne) raises to $8.50. I have the dry nuts – a hand that I don’t like to raise with on the flop. I flat call. Iamjah flat calls. $29 pot

Turn brings the queen of spades, making a board of AKQT two diamonds two spades.

Iamjah checks. Rawayne goes all in for $15. I have $33 in front of me and I still have the dry nuts. What do I do?

Well, I reckon Rawayne definitely has the top straight. The only problem is, he might have redraws that I don’t have. Should I call? Should I raise?

I decide that if I am going to call, I might as well raise, which at least makes Iamjah pay a full price if HE is on a drawing hand. I go all-in and Iamjah folds.

River brings a 10, putting a pair of 10s on board. Rawayne shows KKAJ (no flush draw) for a house, Kings over 10s.

So, I was calling for half the pot, with a possibility of losing it all. So I should fold, right?

Well, not necessarily. The two important factors to consider are the chances that opponent will win the pot outright, and the size of the pot compared to his bet.

In this case opponent wins 20% of the time and we split 80% of the time.

Suppose he put in a pot-sized bet of $29.

If I call, my expected return is plus $14.50 80% of time, and minus $29 20% of the time — a positive EV of $5.80 per hand. Opponent needs to be more than 33% likely to take the whole pot for it to be wrong for me to call.

In this particular case the bet isn’t even the size of the pot (the disadvantages of a small stack!) so that if I call I am +$14.50 80-% of the time, and minus just $15 the other 20%, a positive EV of more than $8.

Change opponents Jack of diamonds for the jack of spades (giving him the flush draw as well) and I should fold to a pot size bet, but would still be correct calling his much smaller all-in bet.

Anyway, I lost it, putting me $40 down. Nothing going right at Ultimate, I decided.

The room emptieth

"Emptieth". What a great word. One feels like it should be numeric in nature, when you fail to finish in the money.
"So, where did you finish?"
"I came emptieth".

But in this case, it's a verb. The office has been emptied of all bar computers and two lots of shelving, which the builders can bloody put dust sheets over.

----

I was guilty of manufacturing a win earlier today, and I was so mad at myself that I left the table before I went on tilt.

Why I decided to play some $5-$10 on betfair I don't know, but there were a couple of crap players there and — unheard of on Party — some free rides in the big blind. Notwithstanding that, I was $65 up after half an hour and quite ready to leave (I had some emptying to do) when I picked up 64s on the button. UTG went all-in for $7, called by three others. Now, I know that I am getting pot equity here, but it's marginal, and it's also one of those hands that I could be drawn into. I'm not worried about a raise from the SB or BB, both of whom are passive.

But, in the end, I decided to fold. For $5, I would have called, but for $7, I fold.

Flop came A-7-5 with the 7-5 of my suit, giving me a draw to a straight flush. Phew, I said to myself, now I would really be drawn into this hand. I would probably raise the flop for the free card... etc etc.

Next thing I know, the three of my suit appears on the turn, and I've just got rid of a straight flush in cold blood.

As it happens, the best hand out there was a pair of Aces, so my fold probably cost me "only" about $100. And I knew damn well that early on I would call with that hand, or if I was a long long way ahead, I would call with that hand, or if I was a long long way behind, I would call with that hand. But I rocked up and folded because I was getting ready to leave. A classic manufacture of a win, and terrible play.

But at least I then did the sensible thing, which was to get up and leave.

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I've now set up the DVD recorder in the other room, in a complex combination of machines which, it seems to me, allows me to watch one channel, record from a digital channel, tape from Video to DVD, dub from the DVD's HDD to a DVD, and generally do just about anything I like. The cool thing is being able to tape from a non-digital channel while the freeview machine is still turned on. I couldn't manage that before. It makes timed recordings easier.

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Oh well, another weekend fades into the distance. An e-mail from a complete stranger today saying that he enjoyed my blog, particularly the omaha. I wonder how many of these "silent viewers" are out there. Perhaps I should wait for one of live-journal's occasional "Buy permanent membership for $150" deals, which seem to crop up occasionally. That allows you to have hit counters, set up votes and lots of other fun things.

Oh, and I reckon I've cracked the uploading of pictures. Well, sort of. I uploaded the "crack" picture (sorry, no drugs or obscure sexual practices entailed) to tinypic.com. And it came out fine, except that it was anything but tiny! Clearly I will have to reformat the size of the pictures before uploading them. You can see the picture on the entry for June 8.

I have also mastered the "lj-cut" command, which should speed up the loading of pages for you lot, if I start producing more pictures. An example of how "lj-cut" works can also be seen on the June 8th entry.

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I must say that I enjoyed "House" immensely. Although the bit where the woman is given a tracheotomy should be contrasted with the excellent TV series recently shown on BC2 ("Bodies"?) where a patient dies while an inexperienced registrar messes up the same operation.

In "House" we get a clinical cut, just a bit of blood, and voila! In Bodies, we got a slithering mess that ended up with nurses, doctor and (dying) patient covered in purple-red goo as the registrar desperately attempts to clear the patients air-passage.