Where Aces go belly-up

[peterbirks]

A brief Omaha hand. Not much of interest, but it illustrates a general Omaha point.


(blinds $0.25/$0.50) Pot Limit Omaha Hi
Table "Makaroa" (real money) -- Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: Birks ($47.50 in chips)
Seat 2: ScootsNYC ($60.25 in chips)
Seat 4: Tatianna7777 ($19.25 in chips)
Seat 5: muddiver ($44.25 in chips)
Seat 6: myhand ($38.75 in chips)
Seat 7: D-man ($48.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Droop ($28.00 in chips)
Seat 9: golpin ($93.25 in chips)
Seat 10: ItHappens... ($46.00 in chips)

D-man : Post Small Blind ($0.25)
Droop : Post Big Blind ($0.50)

Dealing...
Birks [ 7c ] [ Ad ] [ Kc ] [ Ah ]

golpin : Fold
ItHappens...: Call ($0.50)
Birks : Call ($0.50)

Aces is not a powerful hand out of position with many opponents. I'm happy to see a cheap flop.

ScootsNYC: Fold
Tatianna7777: Fold
muddiver: Call ($0.50)
myhand : Call ($0.50)
D-man : Call ($0.25)

Although I said that I was happy to see a cheap flop, I also happned to know that there was a serial raiser in the house and, sure enough....

Droop : Raise ($3)
ItHappens...: Call ($3)
Birks : Raise ($15)

I either want to take this hand down pre-flop, or to get a large proportion of the participants' stacks into the pot pre-flop. Unfortunately, AA in Omaha is a bit like a middle pair in Holdem. You either want one opponent or five. I vaguely hoped that Droop would call and that ItHappens would drop. But in retrospect I should have guessed that this was unlikely. I feel in hindsight that I should have folded this hand pre-flop.


muddiver: Fold
myhand : Fold
D-man : Fold
Droop : Call ($12)
ItHappens...: Call ($12)


*** FLOP *** : [ 9c Qs 4s ]
Droop : Bet ($12.50)
ItHappens...: Call ($12.50)
Birks : Fold

I only got ItHappens in for $12 of his $42 in remaining chips, so although my raise gets Droop in for a large majority of his stack, ItHappens is still getting implied odds, particularly after Droop calls the flop, because he is probably fairly sure that Droop is going to bet out. This is actually of a slight advantage to me, because if ItHappens folds, I can call with bare Aces and be getting the right odds (since Droop can only bet $12.50 all in). But, as soon as ItHappens calls the $12.50, I am gone.

*** TURN *** : [ 9c Qs 4s ] [ 6d ]
*** RIVER *** : [ 9c Qs 4s 6d ] [ 9s ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $70 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 9c Qs 4s 6d 9s ]
Birks lost $15.50 (folded) [ 7c Ad Kc Ah ] (two pair, aces and nines)
Droop lost $28 (showed hand) [ Kh Js Ts 3h ] (a flush, queen high)
ItHappens... bet $28, collected $70, net +$42 (showed hand) [ Jd 9h 7h Qh ] (a full house, nines full of queens)

Like I say, not a particularly fascinating hand, but one which illustrated a good general principle.

Comments

PLO Hand

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Peter,

In that hand I would have acted as you did. However, in the situation in which only the LAG bet in front of you and the other player folded, I would probably just grit my teeth and reraise allin even though that type of flop is very dangerous for your hand. The LAG knows that you have AA, and he is going to bet any reasonable and many unreasonable hands in order to get you to fold it in the hope your side cards did not hit. I want LAGs to know that when they play against me headsup that it will often be for all their chips. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but it it also means they give you extra action when you do have them crushed and sometimes makes them more timid in trying to always put moves on you.

Regarding your other post about not wanting to give away too much of your 5/10 limit game, I think you are giving your regular opponents too much credit. At most they read 2+2, and even if they play full-time at that limit, I would be extremely surprised if even one of them surfs the net blogs for insights on that low of a limit (I would apply the same comments to 15/30 though not much above that). I actually think it more likely for big bet players at any level to be looking for insights into their opponents' play since they constantly risk their entire stacks and any edge that can be gained often means doubling or not losing your stack rather than gaining an extra bet.

BluffTHIS!

Re: PLO Hand

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

The LAG (Droop) has already gone all in with his $12.50. The other player (ItHappens) was not that incompetent. So if Droop bets and ItHappens folds, all I can do is call, because Droop is all-in.

You are probably right on the matter of $5-$10 opponents not surfing blogs. But it's still a bit of a lopsided deal :-)