Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Played a $5 PLO H/L MTT on Stars last night. I’ve never played one of these before, and thought it might be a fun change of pace from the NLHE blogger tournies.

It was, but not knowing a strategy to take severely hampered me. I played very passively throughout and got lucky shooting for Low’s on the river. I wasn’t very happy with my play, and really should have been able to pick my spots better. I ended up ‘bubbling’ at 54 out of about 450 players, top 45 got paid. I had an extremely short stack due to my passivity, and ended up pushing with JJ54 into A346. I was in the small blind and probably should have just passed. The antes still hadn’t appeared, so I might have been able to creep my way into the money… but I was pretty ashamed of my play thus far in the tourney and really just wanted to double up or go home. So go home I went!

Took a little break and fumed for a bit about my bad play, then fired up a $5.50 STT.

[Enter maniac]

This guy talked the whole tournament and made some nice 40xBB raises. Got to give it to him though, he basically owned the table. Nobody stole his blinds throughout the entire tourney. Because he was getting hit in the face with the deck, but also playing very recklessly, he ended up slow-playing his rolled up aces and let me turn a broadway straight and double-up. I usually steal with abandon in these STT’s, but the maniac just wouldn’t let that happen, so I sat back and waited for him to get tricky with a slowplay, or for me to hit a hand.

I was really the only one at the table who had his number. A few guys tried to bluff him off pots and of course he’d flip up top trips, or a flopped flush, or whatever other nut hand you can think of. I just waited.

It got down to four, and I had a slight chip lead when I got KK. I raised UTG 3xBB, maniac called and the BB went all-in for about 1k less than I had. I went all-in and the maniac folded (getting pretty nice odds though).

The BB flipped up AA and I flopped a K.

Funny how that is sometimes. I try to play the best poker that I can, and have my fair share of bad beats, but it comes full circle.

Shortly thereafter it gets down to me and the maniac heads up, about even in chips. He’s started to slow down, and it becomes fairly obvious that he is card dead. I get up to about 9k to his 4.5k when this beauty happens.

Maniac min-raises from the button, I call with K-3o.

Flop comes 7-6-4 rainbow. We both check.

Turn comes a 3c. I bet ¾’s the pot, thinking I am ahead. He raises all-in. He *could* have a five, or a higher pair, but I just don’t think he does. If he had a five, my read told me that he would min-raise (Hoy?) to induce me into the rest of the pot. I called and he showed A-2d. River came a 5 for the board-straight and we chopped.

A few hands later he flops a J-high heart flush. I have a Kh and an open-ended straight draw (which didn’t do me much good). I bet, he min-raises, I go all-in. True to my read, he had a “monster” and no other hearts came on the turn and river.

I go out a few hands later with Ax vs. K7.

This STT was such a striking example of how results based thinking just isn’t where it is at in poker. I’ve read blogs where people think “hey, I *DESERVE* to be at this final table!” After showing us how they caught a 3-outter on the river to jump to the chip-lead. You don’t deserve to be there, buddy.

When the STT got to heads up, I felt like I was just as likely as any of the other players to be there, but I definitely didn’t deserve to be there. The guy whose Ace’s I cracked was playing great—he just got unlucky. The maniac didn’t deserve to win, but he chopped a pot on the river, flopped a flush, dodged outs and hit his 40% preflop hand.

He had little-to-no control over any of those things.

I guess what I am getting at is that control in poker is a big thing. What you can control and what you can’t control (in STT’s and MTT’s) has a lot to do with the size of your stack in relation to others. You can afford to suckout if you have 95% of the chips. If you play weak-passive poker and continually complain about your aces getting cracked, you might fail to realize that they were calling off 3% of their stack to call your all-in.

I spent late last-night watching high-level limit and no limit holdem on Stars. Luck seems to factor in *very* little there. And when it does, it is in the form of player A flopping trips and player B flopping a full-house, then all the money going in. I would get decimated at those levels, but it is fun to watch the battles without showdowns—it is a very skillful game.

I’m debating between cash games and tournies right now. I think my tourney game is a lot better than my cash game, and I like getting a lot of play for my money. I’m leaning towards tournies right now, but don’t think I will stop dabbling in fun stud h/l cash games J