pot limit omaha.

Hello. So today was the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament at the World Series. It was the first event that Andrew, Wes and I played together. I'm happy to say that Andrew did very well and unfortunately just missed the money by a few spots. Wes and I had earlier exits than we both would have liked but it was an extremely fast structure and if you weren't hitting hands early, than you needed to prepare to gamble soon. I eventually got it in bad with double suited JJ vs. KKxx. It was a great field with a punch of dead money but the speed of the tournament forced your hand early. In my opinion, tournament structure is everything. With short term luck being such a big factor in live tournament poker, the structure either exacerbates that fact or minimizes it. Sadly, the world series of poker may have the worst structures of any tournaments I've seen but theres a mystique to these events, the prize pools are large and there is a HUGE overlay caused by the generally weak players. Anyways, so far I am 0-4, I don't think I updated the results for the day 2 of the Omaha Hi Lo split event but I tripled up in the first few orbits and then got it all in with AA27 vs. JJxx, a GREAT spot but he spiked a jack and my hopes of chipping back into contention were over with.

So, the next event on the schedule is the $3000 H.O.R.S.E. event at 5pm tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to this event and I hope I run hot. The way I am has me constantly trying to figure out strategies and improve on old ones so I'm doing my best to figure out what I'm doing either wrong or right in these events. It all comes down to getting all the chips. You some how have to collect all the chips in the tournament to win it. Now, in no limit structures and to a lesser extent, pot limit, you have room to artistically maneuver your chips with or without a hand. In the limit events (the ones I've played mostly), you'll have to show down a lot of hands, especially against weaker players because they just call all day long, hoping they win on showdowns. So unless you're running super hot and making a ton of winners or you're crazy aggressive and spewing and getting to 1. hit hands, 2. force bad players to fold 3. hope your opponents miss. So as good as I've been trying to play, good play needs to be thrown out the window in an attempt to accumulate chips. Who cares if you're looked down upon by the players at your table, get the chips whatever means necessary. It's a sad truth that the players who win these major tournaments, probably aren't the best cash game players and probably don't understand or have the discipline to be winning players under normal circumstances. Anyways, bottom line, have to accumulate somehow, playing winning poker isn't enough so far.

The good news is, I've had a lot of success in the side games. There has been a 20-40 mixed game at the rio the past few days (badugi, 2-7triple draw, omaha8 and stud8) that I've take a whole lot of bets out of, beat the 30-60 omaha8 at the bellagio, the no limit game at the rio and I'm up a few thousand online since I've been here but as I'm writing this blog I've just lost a few flips for stacks in a very aggressive 6max game. I'm looking to play a bit higher but there's a real gap in the limits here, the next largest mix game is the 80-160 game in the bellagio which I'm sure is a might tougher than the 20-40 at the rio and will play huge. It'd be the biggest limit structure game I would have ever played if I decide to sit. If there is a lot of stud and omaha in the mix I'd be more incline. The draw games, badugi and deuce are very swingy in that often times you'll have to see the draws to the end and can't/shouldn't give up like you can in stud8 vs. an opponent's board.

Anyways, I hope cash continues to go well, I hope the tournaments go better for all three of us and mostly I hope to continue to learn. I have made a few higher playing friends here that have offered me a sweat (watching them play and seeing their cards). One of them plays in just about the highest game going so I hope I get that opportunity.

Lastly, the starting table contained Rafi Amit, a two time omaha bracelet winner at the world series of poker and Simpson's co-creator Sam Simon. We all had a pretty good time and Sam drew a picture of bart simpson and signed it (out of his own volition!!). Pretty interesting. Rafi is an avid basketball fan and we argued NBA 'what-if's' for a while before I busted out.

Anyways, cross your fingers! I need the chips!

Event 16: Omaha Hi-Lo 8/better Split.

Today's 1k (5ok Horse) satellite didn't go well. I came in ~22/80. I accumulated enough chips to be 5/45 at one point but lost a few limit hold 'em hands vs. short stacks, got 3/4 scooped in an Omaha8 hand and that was all she wrote. Would've been nice to get that 52k package (um, obviously). The good news was that I was knocked out early enough to make the 5:00pm 2k buy in event at the World Series; Omaha 8/better.

Here's the thing. I can say it over and over again but you've got to run like god in these things. I made it to day 2 but I have almost 0 chips and we're still no where near the money. I think there's something like 178/583 left, money starts at 60 probably and I have about 1 big bet left. The good news is I have 8 hands to ship it in there as I'm on the button to start day 2. I'm not trying to play like a nit, or short stack my way into the money, I'm just sickly card dead and realize that unless I just want to spew away 2k, I want to look for a good spot to shove it in. I was up above average after level 5 with about 9k but it's been a steady decline since then. No real bad beats just level after level of napkins. I'll tell you this though. It's disgusting watching some of these pros accumulate chips. I don't want to disrespect anyone but it's silly the hands some of these guys throw over but they HIT !!!, they hit and they accumulate and they get praise for taking the grossest long shots into a showdown.
example 1:
Q866 (pro) vs. A2Kx (chump amateur)
flop: KT4 (check by chump, bet by pro, check raise by chump, pro just calls)
turn: 6 (2 outter, sure....... bet by chump, raise by pro, raise by chump, 4bet by pro, call)
river J (bet, raise, call)... pro's set wins.
JJT3 (pro) vs. A2xx (another chump)
flop 22Q (check by pro, bet by chump, call by pro)
turn, 8, river 9.... sure, straight wins the pot.

I mean... I worked my ass off to be patient and play good but there's no way I've had a +ev spot to gamble. I know how long a shot these hands are to hit so I want to find a good spot. You know the flip side to this argument is you should be in there firing your ass off with any 4 cards and hoping your opponent A. folds or B. you donk your way into winning hands.

I don't want to lament my luck or talk about how 'hot' everyone else runs but I'm supremely frustrated watching these guys bad beat their way into huge chip leads with the biggest donkey plays ever. Sooooo, game plan tomorrow... find a nice spot in the first 8 hands and shove it in hoping to scoop. I'll have to gamble a lot tomorrow if I want to make the money but the late Jack Strauss won the main event in 1982 with literally 1 chip and I have 1 whole big bet left so I guess it could be worse.

Cross your fingers. lol, i might start playing worse and firing, perhaps that's what I'm doing wrong.

a few updates.

Andrew scoops! There was a 2k buy-in deep stack event at the Bellagio today that Andrew took down 30k for a 6-way final table chop. If they had played it out, it was 65k for first. I think Andrew was a big favourite being 2nd in chips with 6 left as he's mercilessly aggressive and those guys wanted to nit their ways up the ladder. Wes and I played a 20-40 stud game at the Bellagio when all of this was going on. I dumped $100 in what may have been the easiest stud game I've ever seen. It was disgraceful to lose in that game, a monkey could have beat it. Kick up the limits and lock the doors, lol.
The night before Andrew and I chop a ~$1600 win in 5-10PLO at the Rio. It was again, a great game. I had a massive $3k hold up with AAKdTd in a 3 way all-in. The offer was out to run it once or twice but I decided it would have been hard to win it twice without double suited aces so I opted once as a 50% favourite vs. the two hands. I think running it twice is a fine idea once two hands have seen a flop and got it all in there but I feel I lose a lot of equity if I allow two hands to run the turn and river twice against me. I know it decreases variance but I gain a lot of value preflop and allow myself to loose it when we do the multiway turn and river re-runs when all in. If it were heads up I would have felt differently. I'll have to look into it.
A really interesting hand came up before I left. Long story short, I folded a full house. I had 889T double suited on a AA8 board. It was straddled 5 ways preflop, pot was $200. Guy 3rd to act bets pot with $1400 behind. It comes to me with one guy left behind me who looked interested and the bettor had declined running it twice before. Now the math here is simple. I could be drawing stone dead to A8 or, if he has Axxx with three live cards, I'm a 58% favourite at best (if my case 8 was live, if his side cards didn't duplicate mine). Anyways. I folded after a long consideration. I was out of position, I had a guy behind me who looked interested (ended up folding), I had a player who may not run it twice if he saw my hand (thinking incorrectly he was favoured) and if I flatted out of position, I would be invested not knowing where I stood had he bet the river. The most important reason I mucked was that the game was so good. If you look for slightly good situation, 55%'s in PLO, you can find them all day long. These guys played poorly enough I felt my money could easily find it's way in there as a 75% favourite instead of a slight one. I am seeking opinions on this as I really don't know whether or not it's a good argument, a terrible fold or a slight mistake.

Played a lot online yesterday and qualified for a 1k HORSE satellite (for the 50k event here at the wsop). It just started, 88 people, two 52k packages so a nice overlay of 16k). Not sure whether or not I'll just take the money if I can get there. That's a considerable amount for me but I'm sure Andrew will want the money in action. Anyways... life is good. Perhaps play the 2k omaha8/better tournament tonight if this horse satellite gets over with in time. Oh, one little story. I guess Phil Ivey has to play all the tournaments for FullTilt, it's part of his deal or something. My friend Mark played the $1500 limit hold em event and was at his table and Phil was cheering for hands to beat his so he could get out of there. One hand he had KT on a KsTs4s board and him and some other guy got 8 bets in on the turn and river to put Phil all-in. Phil announces 'top-two' and the other guy says 'i have the nut flush', phil responds; 'yeah, you better have the nut flush'.
Moral of the story. If you play an event for the first time and see one of the best players in the world, don't be intimidated. They may be the one who dumps there chips off to you because they'd rather be golfing, shooting craps, playing cash games or just otherwise uninterested. Lucky for them this was the case for mr. Ivey in the $1500 LHE event.

mixed omaha/stud hi-lo 8/better

I won't hold the outcome until the end of the story, I was knocked out around 60 from the money at the end of the 8th level, AGAIN!!!, lol. I guess I need to avoid the 8th hour of tournaments here. Interesting tournament though, my starting table of 8 contained Chris Reslock, Joe Cassidy, some high stakes internet player and Daniel Negreanu. It was interesting in that my biggest question mark regarding players like Daniel/Phil Ivey/Hellmuth, is how many hands do they play under these structures? How hard are they pushing in marginal spots? Hand ranges and all strategic adjustments they make in tournaments. Unfortunately Daniel got very unlucky in a few key stud8 hands and was out early in level 5. If you can picture taking draw out after beat after card out and then having to take pictures and sign autographs in between. Anyways, like you can imagine, he plays well, is enjoyable to be at the table at and generally seems to be as kind as he is portrayed. The class of the table last night, in my opinion, was Joe Cassidy. He plays very, very well. I never saw him out of line and he never called a bet without a positive expectation to do so.

I lost a few very key pots last night that determined the outcome of my tournament. The first hand I lost was in Omaha8/better for a 6k pot. I had 90% equity on the flop with As2s6s6h vs. QhQs9s4s on a 6h8h9s. I have bottom set and nut low draw vs. an overpair+flush draw with no low possibilities. Bloop a Q on the turn then an Ace on the river to counterfeit me.
The second crucial pot I lost came in Stud8/better. I start KhKs As (52%) vs. 7d8d9d (48%) at the 600-1200 level. Anyways, it's not a mathematically bad beat as our two hands run fairly close in equity when heads up. I bet every street with buried KK, board of A552 on 6th street. His reads 9Q56. He raised my board on 6th. I looked at him and based on his play up to that point, just knew he started 789 and had made a straight that had me drawing to a K or 5 just to win a high (he's still drawing to a live low for at least a low split). Anyways I mucked and lost around 5k on the hand. I then start A234 after fourth street in another stud 8 pot vs. AA74. I end up making a 7smooth low with no high and the AA pulls a 2 and 3 to 3/4 chop me in another pot. So these three pots crippled me. I ended up busting with KKA vs. 567. Our boards ran out KKATTQ9 vs. 5679K28. His 9 high straight on the river knocked me out of my 2nd tournament.

I know these mixed games are complicated to write about but you have to run super hot in these tournaments if you expect to go deep. Losing the 55% favourite hands HU in large levels just can't happen with a shallow stack and I definitely can't be losing these 90% favourites. Anyways... onwards and upwards. I think I'll take today and tomorrow off tournaments. There is another Omaha8/better 2k buy in tournament on Sunday I'll wait for. The overlay (money put in by bad players) is large in these mixed tournaments and Omaha8 especially. It's a grind and I miss no limit but I think my expected value is larger in these. I didn't feel out-classed yesterday despite having those 4 big name players at my table. Maybe it's over-confidence but I mean it's just poker. I've played 500k hands this year online in all the games and that's probably more than Daniel, Reslock and Cassidy have played live between the three of them in the last 2.5 years. Anyways. I'm going to try and qualify for the 50k horse online. It'd be a blast to play in that event. Outcome's irregardless.

Stay Low.. talk to you all soon.

live action!

So today, moved out of the gold coast, watched a fellow Canadian Pat Pezzin make the 5k mixed hold'em event final table, met up with andrew and scooped some live pots playing no limit hold'em at the wynn.

so usually, not too many interesting things crop up at 2-5 nlhe games but today was different.
i started the game in the 1 seat with $500 and in walks some action. Some high stakes pro with his girlfriend sit in the 9 and 10 seat with around $1000 and $15,000 respectively. That's right, this guy sits with $15000 in a 2-5 nlhe game, what's better, I have position on him. So, I make a full house, get up to around $650, then with QT on a 9T499 board, the hero with 15k sets me all in on the river... i mucked my hand (he told me later he had the last 9, whether we believe that is another thing). So, under the gun, when i have $550 in front, he makes it $1000 to go without looking at his cards. I have QQ and call. They hold. Up to $1100. Then, I make a small flush vs. his girlfriend for a $400 pot and that's the session. So thanks to my fortunate holdings and table position on these two spots, I make ~$900 (a good portion of tomorrow's $2500 Omaha8/better and Stud8/better event at 5).

The most interesting part of this table came in two hands I wasn't a part of. He layed the table 6-5 for anyone that wanted to go all in blind with him. He did with one kid for a $2k pot and lost. Then he made it $5k to go utg blind, some kid called off a $800 in the small blind with AToffsuit. So by the river the board read 56788. The kid only had $125 actually 'in' the pot (but was declared all in with his AT faceup - no pair Ace high) and the hero offer's the kid out of the pot for the $125, effectively saving the guy $675... the kid gambled, said no, and lost to 52offsuit.
Anyways, hope this recap made sense as it was a very interesting experience. I spoke with this guy afterwards, apparently he'll be on poker after dark's cash game coming up with Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, etc. He loses 125k in that game so I imagine losing $4500 in the 2-4nlhe game didn't really dent this fellow.

Okay, cross your fingers, up to bat with Omaha8/Stud8 tomorrow.

no day 2 for this guy.

Well I did what i could. I lasted until 15 minutes to go in the final level (level 8: 500-1000) of day 1. 830 people started and I went out somewhere in the neighborhood of 205 (80 paid). I have no really bad hands to post, nor good ones, it came down to being really card dead for the final 3 levels as I went into dinner with an above average stack of 5200. I couldn't have asked for a better table draw as 7/9 were spewing chips all over the place, just few landed in my stack. Omaha8/better isn't really a game where you can snow through a lot of hands, especially not vs. the type of players I had the good fortune of playing with today.
I ended up chopping a hand with the nut low and 20 outs for the high as well vs. dry aces but missed in level 5, that may have been the beginning of the end for me. The final all-in came with 900 chips mid-table with Ad3s4s9h ( I didn't even have enough to raise the full amount!) and ended up getting scooped by two others. I figure I had about 20% equity vs. both their hands combined but it really did look like AA23 after what I suffered through in levels 5,6+7.
No complaints mind you, this is limit tournament poker. I thought I played as well as I could I just came up short when the limits rose. Such a juicy table draw though, I'm still wishing they locked the doors and made it a limit cash game instead.

I'm not sure what's next on the list, I move out of the hotel and into the house with everyone tomorrow at some time. Looking forward to seeing Andrew and Derek. Anyways...I'm going to get some sleep. Strike 1

gearing up for event #6: limit omaha8/better

Life is good.
The first event on the schedule starts in 2 hours, limit omaha 8/better hi-lo split. It's event #6 on the calendar, $1500 buy-in.
I'm staying at the gold coast (right across the street from the Rio, where the events are played) until tomorrow. Andrew, Derek, Wes and Christina get here tomorrow and we'll move into the house then. I've spent a bunch of time with my friends Caroline and Hector who live here... they've been great.
So, played a bunch of cash games so far... here's the quick run down.
1. Sunday night, $4-8 limit mixed game at the Wynn (2-7 triple draw, badugi, stud8/better, A-5 triple draw and Crazy Pineapple). Without trying to explain this mix as it's kind of obscure, it was a game that Caroline tried to organize for me but that's the highest we could fill a table. I ended up +$37 or something.
2. Monday, $2-5PLO at the Rio. +$100
$20-40 mixed game at the Rio (stud8,Omaha8,2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi) +$200
$20-40 Omaha 8/better with a Half Kill (30-60) +$200 (wynn)
$10-20 Omaha 8/better with a Half Kill (15-30) +$150 (wynn)
$5-5 PLO +$200 (wynn)
$2-5 NLHE -$800 (wynn)
So I played a ton of hours yesterday and tried to keep moving to good games but to be honest, except for a few marks in the PLO games, all the games were tough and I'm not sure there was much value to playing in them despite the wins. The NLHE session was full of marks but I got barbecued. As I've mentioned to everyone who's asked how this trip will go, I've got to make sure I adjust my hand ranges to live play. Online is way different than these live NLHE games. The hand that stacked me for $500 was silly and it'll sound silly when i re-tell it but I'm not entirely sure I hate my play (obviously I hated the outcome).
1. $2-5 NLHE at the wynn. (I have $500). Everyone folds to the mid-late table, one guy limps, this college kid with the earphones and card protector limps, I have 55 on the button. I make it $20 to go, (take control of the hand, build a pot and disguise my holdings... pretty standard). The blinds fold and the first limper calls, the kid now makes it $95 to go.
Now I have a couple of things I'm thinking about.
1. He CAN'T have a big hand here. He was fine limping in 2nd in late position with AA or KK or QQ? Very doubtful for a NLHE player but even more so from a young player.... We tend to be more aggressive, understanding ranges and knowing that playing a hand this way IMO is -EV. So i put him somewhere in the AQ, 99-JJ range even this is probably a tight estimate.
2. He knows that my range is huge here.... not a defining raise and I'm on the puck... it could be 34s here... looked like more of a pot sweetener than anything.
3. He's out of position and making it 4+x my raise, he's looking to end things now.
4. I have no information on him so he might be able to get away with this unorthodox/fishy line.

So, i think about this for 30 seconds and decide that i can pick up the pot here, so I shove in $500 to win $140, he snap calls with KK and he wins the hand. Now he's a massive favorite in this spot and on the surface my play looks terrible, I'm not sure it's not either, lol. BUT. I would say my play forces a ton of better hands to fold than 55 and he probably shows up with a hand that can call there (AKs, AA, KK, QQ) maybe 5% of the time. So I'm eager to here from NLHE players how atrocious my play there way or how unlucky it was for him to play his hand that ass backwards vs. someone who'll take rags and jam with them. Who knows, educational hand though. Live players do play funny I'll tell you that.

Second hand for a $300 loss or so was my top two vs. and overpair got counterfeited on the river and he made a better two-pair. Unlucky river, good spot/bad outcome. No problems here. Probably shouldn't have been in the hand OOP vs. an overpair anyways. He did spew a lot of chips when we got the money in though.

So that was that, played fine all day, beat every game but the last (unfortunately) and I think I wound up somewhere in the -$200 range for the day.

Looking back, here are a few observations. PLO is going to be hit or miss for me live. The games are either really good or they're populated by good players. Either way, the 2-5$ and 5-5$ games have no cap on the buy ins so they play HUGE. I don't have enough money here to sit down deep (with having to worry about tournament buy-ins) with these guys so I'll be buying in for 100x BB mostly. Unfortunately I'll have to grind up before I can really tangle with the big stacks. So far out of the say 25 players I've played PLO against, there has only been 5 or so that are real live ones. I will say that everyone overestimates the value of their made hands vs. draws and people will fold in +ev spots too easily. I made a kamikaze play yesterday with two pair vs. two players because I was short stacked and there was enough in there already. Original bettor folds and the last to act shows me 9JKA on a QT43 board and mucks it to my all in bet. He was getting like 2.7-1 to make the call and with 16 outs with one card to come.. he's taking slightly the worst of it folding.

Live players are so much more worried about the outcome of a pot then they are about the expected value their plays have. It's a strange thing but I guess when you play maybe 20 hands an hour (in PLO) it will lead to demonized beliefs. Anyways... enough bellyaching. Life is good. Saw my favorite pro Berry Johnson yesterday... 80 years young, came right up, remembered my name, shook my hand (we played a few events together last year) and wished me well. He's pretty unknown but a really top notch player in all the games. Oh and Justin, saw Amnon yesterday, they're running 3x a week so get down here, we need to make some basketball prop bets.

On a really different note. Buffet's are bad for society, Micheal Johnson giving those medals back is crazy-respectable but if you've seen him in his prime you've got to scratch your head at what he needed to look like that. Guiney, what the *&^* happened to your wings last night and Lakers in 6.