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The variance in Omaha is brutal, especially when coupled with poor play.
I'm losing huge pots and winning small ones. My monster draws aren't getting there. Or they get there and everyone insta-folds. Or I'm chopping. I either overplay aces or I flat and get caught. Or my bluffs are into strong hands. Or people float me with nothing and catch me. I cannot win a hand right now.
Every night is two or more buyins gone, and I'm aiming for busto pretty soon at this rate.
I would just love to stack someone just one time - that would be a big boost.
If not, I may just go busto and leave it there until real online poker comes back. Not sure I need it like I used to.
Playing 4-handed Omaha at a side table after the tourney. We were 8 strong at one point but people dropped out one at a time.
I very much like one bet I made, even though I lost the pot. On the river I had a king high flush, but there was a pair of nines on the board. I was in the pot with 2 players - one decent Omaha player and a donk who thought Omaha hand strengths were the same as Holdem hand strengths.
I had the good player on the ace-high flush. He had thought hard and called a flop bet, and I knew if he had a strong hand, he would have raised the donk.
I was first to act on the river when my flush hit. I knew that a big enough bet would serve as a bluff to the good player who would fold the nut flush on a paired board, but also act as a value bet to the donk, who would pay off with trip nines.
It worked beautifully, too, except that the 4 of hearts on the river that brought my flush also brought the donk the nines full of fours boat.
That's Omaha. I still like the bet.
You don't have much time to win money in a 5 hour cash game. About 120-150 hands will be played, and you better pick your spots well.
I took my first shot after folding for two hours - I called a raise with ace-queen, but missed on a 7-8-8 flop. The original raiser bet 8 into 12, which was a big number for him. He wanted to end the hand. I made it 18 (not a big raise, but a big number, which many times is more important in our unsophisticated game). He called. I guess he didn't want to end the hand that badly.
The correct play was to probably bet big again on the blank turn, but I had very little equity in the pot, and was up against someone apt to make more calling mistakes than folding mistakes. This was more of a "one shot" bluff attempt, so I shut it down. So did he - we checked both turn and river. He showed pocket nines. I hate his call of the raise - absolutely hate it. All he could beat was a bluff, and was probably feeling pretty good about himself that he caught me in a bluff this one time.
I was down to half a stack later in the evening, when I got my opportunity to exact revenge on this same player. Pocket queens against his standard open. I three bet from 3 to 13. He called and we were heads up.
This villain doesn't like to fold preflop. His range in a 3bet pot (as the caller) is pretty much identical to his range in a raised pot. I immediately looked over stacks before seeing a flop - I had started with around half a stack $50 (shame on me for not reloading, but my opponent didn't have much more, so no big opportunity lost this time, thankfully). Preflop was $27 and I had $44 or so back. Stack-to-Pot ratio under 2. An easy go-broke moment as long as my queens avoid a king or ace, and maybe even still if one of those does appear, considering my opponent's wide range.
I didn't have to worry about flop texture this time, though, as I crushed the board with a queen-nine-four flop. The two bottom cards were hearts.
My opponent checked. There was no folding top set no matter how the board ran out now - all I had to do was figure out how to get my last 44 bucks into the middle, with his money in there after me. This was one of the few times I could have actually checked my monster - with so little money back, I could still be all in by the river. But I chose a different tack - I made a small, $10 bet - smaller than my 3bet preflop. Some players interpret this weak bet as tens or jacks that fear the overcard. My opponent didn't pounce on the bet, but he did the next best thing, he called. I put him on a pocket pair now - unconvinced I had anything, or jack-ten for an open-ended straight.
The turn brought an 8, now putting 2 diamonds out there with the 2 hearts. Jack-Ten just got there. My opponent checked and there was no change in his demeanor. If he had just caught me, he was hiding it well (not that I'm great in picking up tells, or even looking for them often enough). I had $34 back - the pot was $47. An easy turn shove. But I didn't want to say "I'm all in" - this was an obvious trigger to the strength of my hand. Instead, I announced a bet of 24 dollars, leaving myself ten behind. We were arranged on the table in such a way that I was in the way of my own chip stack to him, and he seemed uninterested in how much money I had started the hand with, so he was currently unaware that I only left myself $10 back. He started to consider out loud, as he often does, my hand strength. He was thinking about aces or ace-queen. He never said kings, which lead me at first to believe maybe he had kings himself.
After alternately looking like he both wanted to call and then fold, he said "I'll just go all in". He only had 10 bucks back himself, and of course I called. He showed king-jack soooooted, now with a gutshot, a diamond draw, and an overcard. I had to dodge 12 cards, and did so with a black ace hitting the river.
Once more, I hated his play. He called a three bet out of position from a tight (bordering on nitty) player with king-jack, then floated a half pottish flop bet with basically nothing at all. The turn gave him a decent-ish draw, but it's too late from an equity standpoint to bank on 24% equity and no fold equity by that time. He was worse than a 2:1 the entire hand, and a 3:1 dog when the rest of his money went in. This time his bad play cost him, unlike the pocket nines before. My double up brought me back to even on the right, and the final cash out ended me with the exact dead amount I had bought in for, to the penny.
real bad session tonight - 4.5 buyins down. The Hwang books don't seem to apply to me - I never have the types of hands he spent 4 books talking about. 17 card wraps, top set with nut flush draw - sure, these are monsters that you're willing to take to the wall. You never get them! you play JT98 double suited and the flop comes A22. You get AAKJ and the board comes 567 all spades (you have one spade). You get the bottom gap rundown and whiff again. Meanwhile, people are taking bottom set and top and bottom 2 pair to the wall like Holdem players.
The bluffs don't work because people chase jack high flush draws. They play sucker side gutshots with 8 eight flush draw backups. Unbelievable stuff.
I got stacked with AA against a guy who decided 3456 with three spades was enough hand to get all in preflop with.
Finally, when I have a monster, like quads, nobody has a thing. I win a tiny pot.
Time to get more serious about my game. HUD, forum reading, here we go. This game has officially pissed me off.
One big pot win (bottom set vs. top 2 in holdem, one big pot lost (big-ish Omaha draw, but should have folded turn), and the rest was dodging bullets. There were 2 3bets all night at the table preflop - both against me raising with non-strong hands. Tony flats with aces out of the blinds vs. my AK then comes out blasting - fortunately I don't hit a pair and fold the turn after floating the flop.
Watching our table play Omaha is high comedy- two players raising and reraising on the river - both with weak full houses. Players calling river bets with 2 pair or bottom trips on boards containing straights and flushes. Someday I'll actually hit a hand vs. these guys and smoke them. Not this night, though.
+$5 on the night felt like a victory.
