Suckout!

More last hand of the night drama at Indian Matt's casino*.

We've lost players and are playing 4 handed for the last hour of the night, alternating orbits of Hold'em and Omaha on my deal. I'm getting pushed around, and I'm not liking it much. A 30BB profit has turned into a 30BB loss in 90 minutes, and I'm always guessing wrong - trying to pick off a bluff with a weak hand or running a bluff myself against a monster, isolation raises failing, etc. My stack is going down, down, down, with no cards to boost it up.

So I'm set up perfectly to play General Custer here and die with my boots on, given the correct hand. Obviously, the poker gods aren't going to let that opportunity slip by.

We're in the pre-announced last orbit of the night, Omaha, and I limp in with AKJd6d. The board is A9x, two diamonds. I bet out and get raised right away. Top pair and a non-nut flush draw isn't a great hand and a fold is in order, but Custer says otherwise. I call the raise, looking to see another card.

And it's a beaut - at least on the surface - the king of diamonds. Second nut flush (instead of third), and top two pair to boot. My opponent leads out for $25. Since I've got only $40 left, it's a Degree all-in or fold moment. I'm feeling bullied, we're 4 handed, there's no guarantee that he's got the one flush that beats me, it's late, and there's no reason at all not to stick my chips in now. I stick them in, and get called just a little too quickly for my liking.

He's got the nut. Queen-Nine of diamonds, along with another nine for middle set.

And that's how you step into the bucket in Omaha.

The dealer (not in the hand) asks if we want to run the river more than once. I'm always willing to do this, whether on the good or bad end of things, but I defer to my villain who's ahead on this one to offer a multi-run river, to which I will enthusiastically agree. He looks at the cards and says in a strangely-joking way "I think I just want to run it once". That's fine with me - no ill-will - he's played the hand much better than I and deserves to maximize his winnings if that's what he wants to do.

I say "Once is fine..." and the dealer burns and turns the river, a black king. I continue my sentence "....except that I just sucked out on you".

Kings over aces beats nines over kings. My opponent hears my words but doesn't understand them - it hasn't clicked. He looks over the board again, then at my hand, (now sitting on the table), and the emotion drains from his face. He didn't see my (albeit weak) redraw, and is very upset at himself for failing to see it. He stands up and paces, then gets down on his knees (literally down to the floor on his knees), insulting himself in various ways. He claims he would have easily offered to run it twice had he been aware of any type of redraw I had to beat him, but the ace-king in my hand never registered to him - he was so focused on the jack-high flush cards. He decided to run it once simply because he thought I was drawing dead.

(An aside, I don't see it as much of a big deal either way - not all that much to worry about when up against a 4 out draw in Omaha, even though I caught up this time).

My opponent was too emotional to play the last 2 hands after that - he asked to cash out and ended our game. I was left to ponder the nature of my last hand decision, and getting my money in so badly. Tilt-induced? Or somewhat rational reasoning based on being so short-handed? Maybe a bit of both?

*This has become the nickname of my cash game.