Play a Night of Poker With Me - Part II

In part I of this column last issue, I shared with you somehands I played and some decisions I made in my regular pot-limit Omaha game ($500 buy-in, $10-$10 blinds). Playing a short-stack/move-in strategy to take advantage of the somewhat overly aggressive players on my left, I lost six buy-ins in less than three hours of play and was down $3,000. Not only had I gotten several hands that hadn't held up, I also had made one or two decisions with which I wasn't very pleased. Perhaps just as important, it was clear that my opponents feared me a lot less than they normally do (seeing me lose more pots in one night than I usually do in an entire week), and that my lucky image had been torn to shreds – at least on this day.



In fact, a friend of mine came over to me with some genuine friendly advice. He said, "Rolf, when it's not your night and you just cannot win no matter what you do, it may be better to simply give it up. I have never seen you lose so many pots, so if I were you, I would simply go home and come back another day."



At the same time, I knew that my opponents could smell my blood. They know that I am hardly ever down six buy-ins. But, as it was, lady luck had some plans for me the rest of the night – and fortunately for me, her intentions were good.



LUCKY BREAK FOR THE ACE

I am in early position with A-8-6-4 double-suited, a decent but far from great hand, and I again make my standard raise to $20. Two players call and then the button make it $100 to go. I don't really like this, but because I probably have a pretty good hand against some of his likely hands (K-K-X-X, Q-Q-X-X, A-Q-J-9 or something similar), and also because I am getting pretty good odds to see the flop, I decide to follow the small blind's example and call the raise. But then the player behind me reraises pot, and within seconds, three or four players have their entire stacks in. With all of this money in the middle staring me in the face, being in for $100 already and having to call "only" $380 more, and because I am probably not in terrible shape in a multiway pot against my opponents' most likely hands, there is no way back for me now, and I put my money in, even though I don't really like it. But when I make the nut flush, I do like it, and suddenly with about $2,400 in chips again, things look quite a bit better now than a few moments ago.



Then, on the very next hand, I get two red aces double-suited. Because I now have deeper money, I make it $40 to go instead of my usual $20, and three people call me. The flop is A-J-8 all spades, giving me top set with my three aces, but anyone with just two spades would have me beat already. I check, and the person on my immediate left bets $120.



Now, since this player lost a significant portion of his stack in the previous pot, I know him well enough to realize that he will become a lot more liberal with both his calling and his betting requirements. So, I do not automatically give him credit for the nuts now – which I might have done just a few minutes ago. Everybody folds, and it is now up to me. If I decide to call, it will not be hard for my opponent to see that I've got three aces, meaning that it will be very easy for him to make the correct decisions on the turn and river. But because I believe that he doesn't have the nut flush, and because he knows that I might well hold the nut flush (after all, a raise with something like K-Q-J-9 double-suited would be common), I decide to put him to the test. I check-raise the maximum, and after a few seconds, he announces: "Well then, this is probably no good," and folds his 9-high flush. I have semibluffed my experienced opponent off his hand and have won my second pot of the night, not just because of the my cards but because of the way I played them – even though with my opponent's current state of mind, it was a very dangerous move for me to make.



Some 45 minutes later, I manage to win another pot. With J-8-8-7, the J-7 suited in diamonds, I have flat called from the button and then paid off a large raise by the person on my immediate left – whom I put on 100 percent aces this time. (I have a pretty good read on this player, and I almost always know whether he has a real quality hand or is just trying to represent one.) Because he has lost one or two other pots since our last encounter, he is now relatively short-stacked, and bets all in on the flop of J-6-5 rainbow for about $300. When one player in the middle calls, I decide that I want this player out in order to play heads up against the all-in player to see the turn and river card for free, so I raise the maximum. I don't succeed immediately, as the caller now calls my large raise, too, but when an off suit 4 comes on the turn, he does surrender, and with my nut straight, I win yet another pot. Suddenly, I am ahead, with more money in front of me than the $3,500 I bought in for, which is something I only could have wished for an hour ago, when I was completely down and out. So, as proud as I am that I have been able to make this kind of turnaround without really pushing things – albeit by getting lucky with two relatively marginal hands – I begin to think that I might be able to start my holiday in a more pleasant state of mind after all.



PREPARING FOR THE FINAL BATTLE

Little do I know that the climax of this night is yet to come! In the big blind, I pick up K-K-8-4 single-suited, and decide to flat-call an early-position player's $40 raise. The player on my immediate left, who obviously has been affected by all the pots he has lost, and who has called my $10 blind without looking at his cards, now reraises the maximum, trying to act very strong.



Because I have played with him on so many occasions, I know that he would raise in this situation simply to build a big multiway pot, not necessarily because he holds a big hand – much less aces. When four people call his big raise but no one raises all in, I know that it is highly unlikely that any player is in there with aces. I decide that calling is no option and come over the top once more for a total of $1,600. Because no one has more than $2,200 in chips, and because it is clear that everybody is pot-committed anyway, we all simply put all of our chips in the middle, knowing that at least one of us is going to be very happy at the end of the hand. I ask the person who made it $2,200 if he has aces, and am relieved when he answers, "No, queens." I tell the dealer to put a lot of kings on the board, and indeed, the first card off the deck is a king. When the board pairs on the turn and none of my opponents holds aces, I've got them all drawing dead and manage to win a massive pot with a hand that is certainly no monster. But it is a monster pot! With a total of well over $7,500 (of which I have invested $2,200 myself), this is one of the biggest pots I have ever won at this limit, and it completes what is probably the biggest turnaround I have ever made.



Having busted four players on one single hand, the game is over immediately, and I have succeeded in coming back from very deep to book a massive win. (Well, it's a massive win for me, that is, because I hardly ever win or lose big. Whenever I buy in for the minimum, a win of more than five or six buy-ins would be truly exceptional, and now I have won no less than 12 buy-ins after having been down six.) It needs to be said that I got lucky when it mattered most, but you also have to position yourself to get lucky – which is exactly what I did.



SOME FINAL WORDS

I hope you liked this insight into a night of pot-limit Omaha, one of the biggest gambling games in poker. Even though on one single night it may seem that there's not much skill to this game, the very best players in the world make lots of money playing it. Yes, it is a rollercoaster ride and one single pot can make quite a bit of difference in your weekly, monthly, and sometimes even yearly results, but in the long run, the very best players always come out on top.



Fortunately for me, I managed to come out on top on this particular night. Let's hope that after my holiday, once I get back to my usual playing routine again, I will be as fortunate as I was on this memorable evening.

And if I am, I guess I will probably share it with you again. ♠



Part I of this series can be found at www.CardPlayer.com.