They say good things come in threes. As you remember from parts 1 and 2, I have now sunk £1,200 into the game (I like to think the chips were on loan ...)
The fact is, being up or down £1,000 is pretty easy in this game. It's Omaha for a start, and the £1/2 blinds don't really tell the size of the game. Most pots are straddled for £5 and quite a few are super-straddled (£18). Those that are not are rarely unraised.
Most of the players are action-type players and some are in need of some momentum.
Where we left off, I have reduced myself to £300 by unwisely bluffing into the 2nd nuts. This cunning strategy leaves me with just the right stack size to get it all-in preflop :)
I manage this in the following manner - I limp with KK63dd. After a few calls, "Mr Bond" raises, and Jude re-raises. Three people call this re-raise and so do I. Siddiq now moves all-in for £116 which is called in 2 spots. As far as I am concerned, this action means no one except Siddiq (short stack) can have Aces so I now move in for £300 and THIS is called by Jude and Chinese Tim.
Now that's what I call a pot !
I quite like the flop - Q66. Of course I am concerned someone started with QQxx but there's nothing I can do about it anyway. There are also two hearts out. An offsuit Jack on the turn is followed by a 3 on the river, making me 6s full. I scoop, although the house-up was undoubtedly unnecessary. The reactions at the table make me think trip 6s or even Kings-up was good.
Now we're off. I have a grand to work with.
Things start to go right ... On a board of 7Tx9 with 2 hearts, I bet out £150 with QQ87hh and get called. The river blanks, but one pair of Queens is good.
Then when I flop a set of 7s on a 7-8-3-2-5 board, I check-call flop, turn and river for a total of about £300, and my set is good.
Then, I particularly enjoyed this one: I see a flop for one re-raise with Ac2cJ8 (3 runners).
The flop is 9high all-clubs ! Tony & I check to the raiser who bets £60. Before I can decide whether I will flat call or push, Tony moves all in for £150 or so. NOW I move all-in as well and Jude calls all-in.
The turn and river blanked - Tony had 3clubs Queen high. Jude had a set. Nice.
The action wasn't all with me. There was a fascinating pot where after some early pre-flop action, Maq moved all-in for £120, which was called once and then with 2 active players behind "Mr Bond" folded Aces instead of re-potting to £700 or so because he didn't think anyone would fold for "only" a few hundred and he didn't want to play a £2,000+pot with just Aces.
Not the right action imo, but as it happens, after the flop was seen 4way with 1 player all-in, a further £800 went in on the 833 board, with KJT3 making 3s full on the turn.
By now, I am sitting on about £1,600 so I'm up overall. It's also a lot of fun (it does tend to be more enjoyable when you're winning obviously !)
Now, remember, we said good things come in threes.
Well, not all things-in-threes are good. In Omaha, one of the worst features of a starting hand is to have three of a kind in your hole cards. Because at showdown you can only use two cards, one of your hole cards is redundant and what's more it is much harder to hit a set now.
So, when I picked up KKK5, my normal course is to fold pre-flop even for £2.
I was on the button, and indeed it was still just £2 when it came to me. Because of some table talk at the time, I decide to make a bit of a joke-raise to £6. My plan is basically to fold to the likely re-raise and otherwise almost certainly fold on the flop. I doubt I am putting any more money in and in fact I see the bet as basically a donation of £6.
What actually happens is that 3 or 4 people call this £6 before it was raised to only £12.
By the time it came back to me I was getting an enormous price to call so I had to call with any 4 cards (even trips).
£86 in pre-flop. And what a flop ! K86 with 2 diamonds. I have hit a miracle top-set.
Well, I'll take that. It is checked all the way to me and I bet the full pot. I expect that to end matters, but Siddiq now check-raises to £344. OK, ideally he has a set of 8s.
I contemplate flat-calling but I don't fancy calling £250 more and not knowing how to deal with a diamond or a straight card on the turn. Nothing for it but to re-raise all-in (it will put Siddiq all-in, not me). He calls without hesitation and it turns out that we have each put in £1,089 on this flop.
I always like to turn up my cards in these all-in situations, and he does the same: we can see why he likes the flop ... Ad9d7dJh for the nut flush draw and open-ended straight draw.
Both those draws are live although I can still counterfeit them. So, after all my work at getting out of a big deficit, I now have nearly £1,100 invested with one of the worst starting hands going ! It does make me feel a little bit uneasy !
Still, I am in front, and I am a clear favourite (about 60/40). When the turn is a brick (2h) I am 3/1 favourite and just need to dodge the remaining 5s, Ts and diamonds.
The river is a diamond ! Siddiq thinks for a moment he has won, but it is the TWO of diamonds giving me Kings-full.
BOOM! This is the biggest pot I have ever won in poker - about £2,250. I have a new favourite hand !
The game carried on and on until it broke up around 10am and I held onto a big gain (it would have been tough for me to go broke at this stage, easily covering the whole table, but never say never ...)
2 comments:
Very nice result - persistance pays off.
BTW Even against his big draw you're a 60% fav.
Yes. Everyone at the table seemed convinced it was a 50/50 but you are right that it's a 60/40 and of course he has about the worst hand for me that is possible so I might have been in even better shape. Still, I wonder if there was any merit in flat-calling the re-raise and pushing on a blank turn. Is that a stylistic thing or is always right to get the money in when I must be a favourite (and perhaps an even bigger favourite than I actually was).
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