Jumped on Full Tilt tonight and put in a little time at one of my more neglected games, limit Omaha Hi/Lo.
O8 is an interesting game, because it really is all about drawing to the nuts or close to it. And even if you flop the nuts, you can't always be too happy about it if you can't back that up with re-draws. Consider the following:
You come into a 4- or 5-way pot, typical in low limit O8, with a junk hand like 6h 7d Qh 2h. Since you're a solid Omaha player who wouldn't normally play that kind of a crap hand, let's say you were in the big blind and got a free flop of
5c 8s 9c
You've just flopped the nuts, but do you see the danger here? First of all, you have no re-draw. Yes, you have a made hand, but there is no card on the turn or river that is going to improve your hand from what you have now - a straight to the nine. Now, consider all that hands that are drawing against you: any club, and your straight is most likely busted; any six, seven, ten, jack or queen, and you very well may not have the best straight anymore; and what if the board pairs? This doesn't even consider that if any low card comes, you're losing half the pot. You can bet people with A-2-x-x and A-3-x-x are sticking around for at least one more card (and if it's a typical low-limit O8 game, you're not losing them until the river).
In short, there are very, very few "safe" cards for you. Depending on the number of players that stay in the pot and how heavy the betting is, it may very well be correct to fold on the flop!
[It is possible to replicate this situation in holdem, but because players start with only two cards, it is very rare that the draws that make playing this hand past the flop -EV are all out there, and in any event would require absolutely perfect knowledge of the cards your opponents are holding. In Omaha, on the other hand, where players start with 4 cards each, this type of situation is much more common.]
Anyway, as part of my response to the Bill Rini challenge, I wanted to play one of the $24+2 holdem SNG satellites for Full Tilt's weekly $200+16 Borgata Open super-sat. Problem is, it seems that they're tied to specific tournaments, rather than just giving the winner a $216 freeroll that's good for any $216 tournament. I think this is bad policy on the part of Full Tilt, because it requires the player to know, days in advance, that he will be available to play that week's super sat if he wins the SNG. And frankly, even if the player is sure he'll be free, things have a way of coming up.
My point - I am not going to be free to play a super sat this Sunday, so I passed on the $26 satellites.
Next stop was razz, where Howard Lederer was seated at a $2/$4 table. Of course, the waiting list was 8 people deep, and the $3/$6 table also had a somewhat deep (for Full Tilt) list. Holdem? Meh, didn't really feel like playing holdem.
That's when I clicked on the O8 tab, and lo and behold found a $3/$6 table with one open seat. Perfect. Now, I know O8 is not my strongest game, but I've put at least a token amount of study into it. Enough to know a few basics (draw to the nuts, try to scoop, try to avoid starting hands with "danglers", etc.). I caught a bunch of marginally decent starting hands, connected with the board well, and 30 hands later I was up $100. Hooray for crappy O8 players that don't know how to lay down a hand! Here's a good example. 5-handed flop of
4c Kh 8c
and there's a bet, and then a raise from a player holding
9c 5c Ah Jc
Not surprisingly, he got neither half of the pot, but was in it all the way to the river.
Back to my own play - what I thought was most interesting was that in those 30 hands, I saw the river card 9 times. 3 times I scooped, 5 times I split evenly, and the only time I missed was when I had a monster draw on the turn, only to brick up on the river.
My hand (SB): Js Ac 9c 2d
According to Ed Hutchison's Omaha Hi/Lo point count system, this hand is worth 26 points, making it solidly playable. Plus, I got in for half a small bet. Certainly no reason to fold preflop.
Board on the turn: 7s Qc Th 4c
Count with me: 6 clubs to either the nut-nut or the nut hi with no low possible; 1 to the nut hi, 2 to the nut flush (7c and Tc pair the board). 3 non-club kings to the nut hi with no low possible, 3 non-club 8s to the nut-nut. Then, of course, there are the 3 non-clubs 6s, 5s and 3s to make the nut lo. That's 22 outs to some form of the nuts, and another 2 to a non-nut, but given the betting probably a winning, hand. Understandably, I was pumping the pot on the turn, but "alas", as Dr. Pauly might say, I didn't get there.
Still, if the O8 tables are really as fishy as they seem, I may cast a few more lines into the water to see what I can reel in.
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