“Hey Steve, you remember those games I was telling you about?”
“Right yea mate, are you going tonight?”
“Yea, did you want to go?”
“Nah, I’m mackered. Did you still need the cash for it then?”
“Yea definitely. I’ll swing by and pick it up and kick your ass in Madden while I’m there.”
“Sure you will.”

Stevo was used to my asking for money whenever I needed a large amount of AUD at this point. I’m constantly cash broke in Australia, since previous to my signing up for Moneybookers a couple weeks ago I had no real means of transferring money to and from online to anywhere within the continent. The first time he loaned me we met in front of a bank wearing dark sunglasses where he handed me $12,000 in an envelope, we exchanged a few words, then I turned straight back around and walked off. Now I know why drug dealers think their so cool.
I drive over to Stevo’s, count out the money, then barely beat him in Madden using a vastly superior team. A wins still a win bitch. I jam the $8,000 Stevo has given me into my jeans pocket and keep the other three in my wallet. The wallet is busting at the seams attempting to contain the money from pouring out, and I begin debating other places to hide the cash on my person. Sure, I’m driving to the game in a safe neighborhood, but after what happened to JP you can only be too careful (for those who don’t know, JP was a guy down for the Aussie Millions who got mugged outside of Crown while carrying $30,000 on him.) I’m already a fairly paranoid person, and waltzing around at night with $11,000 in cash on me isn’t helping.

Prior to tonight the largest game I’ve played in a live setting is 2/5 NL, and I’ve played PLO perhaps a dozen times. Tonight’s 10/20 NLH/PLO mixed game would be a welcome change from the constant grind that is waking up every morning for the tournaments while still having the potential to make real money. I’d sold half my action to Stevo to reduce the variance but considering the way the game is rumored to play there was still the potential for huge swings. I haven’t done any serious live play since the Joe Hachem deep stack series in February, but I figure if I’m going to go play 3 months of live tournaments I ought to get some practice.

The live poker scene in Melbourne is fairly robust but also requires a high level of discretion. I normally prefer to tell and say all in my writing, but due to the circumstances it would be very inappropriate for me to say where I play and who with. More accurately, I would likely get my ass kicked for putting it in writing, or at the least, get banned from all the games. Those in Melbourne who are looking for the games don’t really have to look that hard, but neither can we walk up and down the halls of Crown casino screaming “IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A 10/20 PLO GAME SHOW UP AT SO AND SO’S PLACE AT NINE!”

I realize when I get to the building that I’ve forgot to ask which number it is. I don’t have anyone at the games number in my phone, so I have to call Bondgirl and ask her to call someone there to give me the number so I can ring up. A guy I know comes on to the balcony then calls down for me to ring up to number X. When I get into the room I realize I’m on a first name basis with almost everyone in the game, which is pretty much what I was expecting. It takes about half an hour for me to get a seat at the full table.

Let’s be honest here, I’m a pretty bad Omaha player. I’ve played PLO perhaps a dozen times, and almost all of those were at 1/2 home games that were just for fun. I’d played a few more times recently leading up to this and was starting to get some feel for the game. Considering the home games play loose, aggressive, and wild I felt like just using poker knowledge, common sense, and the little experience I had would be enough to give me an edge. I once heard an analogy that hold’em is like learning to ride a skateboard and Omaha learning to drive a car. With a skateboard anyone can get on and coast along at a functional level, but learning all the tricks, balance, and intricacies takes years. Meanwhile you can’t just stick someone in a car and say ‘Drive fucker! DRIVE!’ but once they get the hang of it it’s fairly automatic. I’m sure this kind of analogy wouldn’t apply at the highest levels, but in the Omaha games I’m playing I feel like it does. Don’t draw to flushes/straights on paired boards, don’t pay much to draw to anything but a nut flush, don’t overplay small sets, two pair ain’t shit, don’t play bad hands pre, bet as hard as possible when you have and there’s draws out. Seems fairly basic right? Except plenty of guys in the game completely avoid these and in fact do the total opposite.

I sit down and buy in with $3000 to start. It’s not long before I find myself in my first major hand. In a limped pot I’ve seen the flop on the button with TT97 in late position, with seven players to the flop.

Flop: T 7 3 two diamonds
It checks to a loose player in MP1 who bets pot of 140, it folds back to me and I repot to 560. It folds back to MP1 and he calls.

Turn: Jc
Not my favorite card. MP1 doesn’t seem thrilled by it either and checks. MP1 is loose enough that I think I can value bet pretty easily here and he’s never going to check shove without the nuts. I fire out 1100, and he thinks for a long time before calling.

River: 9d
Fuck. That. Card. MP1 thinks it over for quite a while, then checks. I quickly check back and table my set with zero hope.
“It’s good” he says he lifts his cards for the players next to him to see.
One of them sees the confusion in my face “He had two pair.”

I continue finding big hands and flopping very well. I’m up a few thousand by the time my next major hand arrives:
I hold As3sQcJh in the SB. There’s a couple limps, then a raise in MP and numerous calls when it comes around to me, and I call as well. The BB plus limpers call and we see the flop with a pot of 960.

Flop: Ks Ts 9h
Boo yah! Nuts + redraw to more nuts + spewy aggro game = check. It checks to an EP player who bets pot and the player I tangled with before calls him. It folds around to me and I raise it the pot to 4800 with about 2000 more back in my stack. It folds to the player who launched out the bet and he sticks the remains of his stack in, about 1600 more. Now it’s up to MP who has a stack the same size as me. He tanks for a while. And then he tanks some more. And then he keeps tanking. A few players in the game try and call the clock but it’s declared only someone in the hand can call the clock. I decide not to say anything since I don’t want to rush him into a fold, but most importantly I don’t want to do anything considered rude the first time I’m at a game. Home games don’t mind banning cocky young assholes who are obviously no value, and I sure as hell didn’t want to open the door to that. MP1 tanks for about five minutes in total before folding middle set. He shows the all in player his hand before he folds, which causes the all in player to announce “I’m totally fucked” as he tables his KTxx.
Turn: 8
River: 7
I drag a massive pot and begin wondering to myself if calling the clock would have got MP to put his 6500 in.

I run smooth the rest of the night and upon calling it a night around 4 or 5 find I’m up $6,330. Fuck me for selling half my action to Stevo. The man who runs the game counts out the money and gives me a Crown 5k chip. I put the chip in my pocket and jam the wad in my sock because you know, they’d never check there.

The next night I go into Crown where they hold a similar game of PLO that plays as a 5/10 with a forced 20 straddle. Unfortunately my hands are dull and uneventful all night and I finish down about $300 with almost zero drama. However, there was one non PLO interesting facet of the night; two tables over was a table full of an unusual amount of people enjoying themselves. Every now and then the table would explode in raucous laughter and the guys on my table would get annoyed at the noise. A few hours into the night I look over at Stevo and ask "What the hell is going on over there that they're having such a good time?"
"George from Seinfeld is over there, that's why."
"NO. FUCKING. WAY. Jason Alexander! THE SUMMER OF GEORGE!!!"
"Seriously, he's in seat 5 with his back turned to us."
I turn around and watch him intently waiting for him to turn to the side so I can tell whether it's really him. At one point he stands up and turns around and I get full view. It's really him, Costanza himself. It's tempting to go over and bother him with something stupid like "I hear your mother caught you" or "Bring me a calzone Costanza!" but I'm sure he gets enough of that shit for a life time.

The night after I meet up with some friends for dinner, including the first Australian to ever win the Sunday Million, Max (see people, appeal to my ego and say you like my blog and you get mentioned in it, that’s how the process works.) While I’ve written several times that if I ever won a major tournament I would walk up and down the streets in a $ suit and cane slapping people with a wad of 100 dollar bills, Max is one of those people completely unchanged and unfazed by such sudden money, entirely devoid of materialistic pretention or the desire to beat people with a large wad of money. Creepy huh?

After dinner the group splits off and I head over to another home game. The line up is pretty similar to the other game since there are only so many guys willing to play for those stakes in the city. I buy in for $2500 but it’s not long until I have to top up my stack from losing small and medium pots. When I’m down $1500 I decide to buy in for everything I brought with me, giving me about $4000 on the table. The game is playing pretty loose and I have a good tight image when the following hand comes up:

I hold KKT8 double suited, spades and hearts, in the SB. UTG limps, EP raises pot as he often does, there’s a couple calls to me and I repot to 390 total. I get two callers including the original raiser and one other player who has me covered. Both players involved in the hand consider me a tight and thinking player.

Flop: K 5 2 all clubs. The pot is about 1200 and I have about 3500 back. What the hell do I do now?

For those of you who play Omaha, let me know what the move is here. Keep in mind that both of these players will likely fold a J high flush to me given my image. They’ll obviously quickly repot the nut flush, and both will regrettably repot with the second nuts. This is the kind of Omaha situation I have no clue about, so what now?

DogofWar says

Stick it in and scream,"Pair the board"! What happened in the last hand? Great post, Bond.

04/25/08

s0stndrd says

Omaha: has EP raiser been one to lead pots with air/betting draws/check-raising with monsters? depends on the kind of player you are, but if i can count on players betting for me, i check and plan to get it all on the flop by check-raising EP when he bets at pot and be happy to get it in versus a flush draw or AAxx. But pal, i am never going to be in the same league as you poker-wise, so take my advice with a grain of salt!

Dinner: thanks for having us along and picking us up! Was great meeting you and Celina and we had a great night, hope we can return the favour (including a lift!) if ever you come to Perth! When I get a chance I'll blog our two days in Melbourne (we're sitting in Tullamarine airport waiting for our flight to Hobart) but I doubt it'll even be 0.01per cent as baller as your blog!

Good luck with your world tour and looking forward to reading about your adventures!

04/26/08

SirWatts says

I kinda suck at PLO with >20xBB but if he really is going to give you that much respect I don't see how betting the pot until he folds or you are all-in as a semi-bluff can ever be that bad. Actually betting 900 with the intention of shipping any turn may even be better to give him the chance to call once and fold turn and have max FE on your 2nd barrel.

04/26/08

SirWatts says

Oh there's two of them but same thing applies I guess.

04/26/08

Anonymous says

Your top set has about 26% equity against a made flush. You know what to do from there.

04/28/08

mstram says

So what happened with the hand?

I have no idea what the correct play is here, as I'm a rank beginner with Omaha.

Don't keep us in suspense, (next week "same Bat Time ... same Bat channel" ;)

04/28/08

Bond18 says

Last Hand:

I decided to semi bluff and just bet like I had it since I think I get enough respect in that spot that those guys would fold weaker flushes. I fired pot and the next to act immediately said "I put you all in." The other guy folded and I called and started praying.

The raiser tabled A988 with the A9 of clubs and the board bricked twice, leaving me down $5,500 for the night. So overall in my PLO adventures I won like 500 bucks.

04/28/08

mstram says

"Don’t draw to flushes/straights on paired boards, don’t pay much to draw to anything but a nut flush, don’t overplay small sets, two pair ain’t shit, don’t play bad hands pre, bet as hard as possible when you have and there’s draws out. Seems fairly basic right?"

From my limited experience, that is a pretty good cliff notes on how to get started with Omaha. Although "don't play bad hands pre" could use some expansion on what "bad" means :)

I guess you can now add :

1) Forget about your set when the flop is three-to-a-suit
(although I assume you were looking to draw to a full house , given the almost certainty? .. of someone having a flush there ?)

As for "two pair ...", like almost everything in poker, the answer to that seems to be "it depends", i.e. flop with three different suits, no straight draw, two-pair is often good ... but I know you knew that.

How many players were in the game? I'm sure you'd know better than me about the probabilities and odds, but it seems like someone always has at least an Axxx ... at least the players who are betting anyway.

I missed that the flop was all clubs, when I first read your blog, and my thoughts are now undoubtedly influenced by the results, easy now to say "you should have ...".

If you're interested, Jeff Hwang's book, "Pot Limit Omaha Poker", seems like a decent read.

Mike

05/02/08

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