The Grump Helped Me Play a Pot Optimally

Yesterday I mentioned that CK and I were in a 4-8 HK omaha hi/lo game the other night at Red Rock. CK got in the game first; I joined about fifteen minutes later. Lemon - the vacant seat was the 1-seat, my least favorite seat. Cherry - one of the other players at the table wanted the seat. Double cherry - it was the player on CK's right.

CK and I chatted throughout the course of the evening about our tablemates. To the left of us were all of the rockish dinosaurs; to the right we had a couple of young donks. We were in a pretty good position.

About an hour into my time at the table, action folded to me in late position. I squeezed out the As, the Ac, the 3c and... the Ad. That fourth card was disappointing but given an unopened pot in late position my hand was plenty strong enough to raise. CK folded the button and the small blind folded. The big blind, a grizzled Italian looking type with lots of wispy white chest hair and a few heavy gold chains around his neck, was the only caller. He definitely fit the model of rock-dinosaur.

The flop was decent: Qc-Td-5c. I had an overpair and the nut flush draw, with a low only possible if it came running cards. Then the rock-dinosaur surprised me by betting into me. And this is where Poker Grump comes into play.

The Grump seems to read more than his fair share of poker literature. When he comes across something he thinks is particularly noteworthy, he reproduces it in a series of posts called "Poker Gems". On December 16, he posted Poker Gems #197, part of which I'll quote here:

Lee Jones, in Bluff magazine, September, 2008, p. 96: I think that it may be profitable, if boring, to play PLO in such a way that all you do is wait to suck out on aces. Some PLO players, bless their hearts, never reraise pre-flop unless they have aces. So you call and then if you're beating aces on the flop, you get all the money in.

Of course Jones was talking about pot-limit omaha but that passage flashed through my mind when Mr. Italian bet into me. There was very little preflop raising at this Omaha table; I realized it was natural for him to put me on aces. His bet suggested he could beat aces. That left me drawing at the nut flush. Rather than raise, I called.

The turn, unbelievably, was the Ah. My opponent checked to me and I happily bet. He called, then check-called a blank on the river. I showed my set of aces; he showed Q-Q-8-8 for a set of queens.

Thanks, Poker Grump! Or maybe I should thank Lee Jones?