Campfire Stories

Venetian $300+40 event 5, Omaha 8... But Actually 5-10 NL

I have no clue how I busted today. No, really. I have no clue.

Rolled into the Venetian on the motorcycle at about 1:45pm today, ready and pretty excited to play in the Omaha8 event, just cause those are always fun. I bought in, took my seat, and checked out the structure. 40 minute levels, 6k in starting chips.

Blinds/Limits

25-25/25-50
25-50/50-100
50-100/100-200
Break
75-150/150-300
100-200/200-400
200-400/400-800
Break

Boy. The first three levels sure sound like a waste of time. Right about that moment I heard, "Seats open, 5-10 no-limit." I looked at the table and said, "See y'all in a couple of hours!" First time I have ever intentionally missed levels of a tournament.

I sat in the 5-10 game, and within ten minutes I had discovered a gold mine. 9 handed and litereally nobody knew how to play well, with several playing exceptionally bad. An hour later I had yet to raise, nor had I seen a turn card. Two hours later I was stuck $500, even after winning an $800 pot with jack high, and I didn't want to play Omaha. I decided to sit out of the 5-10 game and go try and build a huge stack in the Omaha event while keeping the 5-10 seat locked up.

I played 25 minutes of level 4, worked my stack from 5500 to 1250, and said, "Whelp. See y'all later." Rumor has it that I was still around after the second break with 300 in chips, but I could care less. I was in the best seat in the world, immediately to the left of a very nice guy who was in for $4k at that point but somehow had $4600 in front of him and really made the game.

I could write a book on all the hands that happened during tonight, but I'll save the entire blog for this one special hand.

The game was playing really big. The effective stacks were about $3k. I was one of the larger ones fluctuating between 4k and 5k. One player who was decent was running especially good and had over 8k in front of him, and few players had 3k in front of them. The average pot was about $1k, with more pots over $2k being won with two pair than I had ever thought possible. We were averaging about 5 players per flop for $40 each. ON AVERAGE. We once saw a flop seven ways for $120 each.

On this particular hand, really bad player limped UTG, I limped UTG+1 with 6 6 , many other players limped behind including three from the table in front of us, two from the table behind us, and six via satellite. It finally limped to the big blind who was Mr. Don Key. He never told me his real name but used Don Key several times. I asked him if that's how he wanted me to write about this as, and he gave me "the artistic right to do what [I] needed to do." Mr. Key made it $100 to go from the big blind. Really bad player called, I called.

Now, my pre-flop call was called into question. Here's the reasoning behind this call. Even if everybody was going to fold behind me, I'm still calling. I'm getting 2.5-1 on my money at that point for a 7.5-1 shot at flopping a set, but my implied odds are astronomical. Mr. Key had over $3k in front of him, and I'm pretty sure I get a ton of them if I flop a set, especially on any non-threatening board. Secondly, I know exactly where he is at and can outplay him on many boards, and thirdly, the really bad player who had a propensity to make very loose post-flop calls was also in the hand. Why wouldn't I call here?!? But, I knew that with me and the really bad player calling it would be like dominoes falling behind me and I expected several more to call behind me, thus making my pre-flop call the correct play.

Three other players called behind, and we saw a flop six ways with a little over $600 in the pot. I was in fourth position, which is pretty dang good considering that I was UTG+1. It came 5 7 8 . Huh. Good news bad news I suppose. SB checked, BB, Mr. Key, who clearly has AA, KK, or maybe QQ, bets $400. Really bad player folds. My turn.

Now what? I do have an open ender, but I don't love it. There's plenty of ways for the three players behind to have huge hands, but they also don't necessairly have to have a huge hand. I could fold, but I don't think that's any good. I could raise, but what if one of the three behind me did flop a huge hand? I don't want to play for all of my chips just yet. If I call, then what?

Well, this is what. I decided to call for two reasons. I was half calling to float and half calling for straight-draw value. As defined by Brandon Adams in an upcoming article, "...'floating' refers to continuing in a poker hand (almost always after the flop) with no hand and no draw. Obviously, you would only do this if you have intentions of taking your opponent off his hand." This is a float here because even though I have a pair and a draw, I know the pair is no good and the draw isn't very good. The straight draw value would come into play if players called behind me, because then I would be getting at least 2-1 odds on the flop to draw to my straight, and I would strongly suspect that I would get a free look at the river due to the scary board.

OK... so. Plan A: BB bets, I call, everybody fold. Turn x, BB bets, I shove, he folds because he can't possibly call on that scary ass board, and I drag a nice pot.

Y'all are probably wondering how I can deduce all this. Here's how: I have a very tight image. Mr. Key is a thinking player. Mr. Key is scared of that board. Mr. Key only has one pair and knows that playing huge pots with one pair is always bad. Mr. Key respects my game. My call on the flop is very strong - I either have a HUGE hand, most likely a flopped straight but possibly a set, or I have a big draw - big clubs or clubs and a 6. By shoving the turn I would narrow my range to the huge hand side, and he would be forced to lay it down. Really, he has to. Any thinking player has to lay down there because they know that they can find better spots to get all their money in the middle. Side note: I would not even think of attempting plan A against a non thinking player, or if I was out of position against any player.

Still with me here? Plan B: BB bets, I call, and 1-3 players call behind. Well, at that point I would be playing almost stricly on the straight draw value, but I could still see what developed with the hand.

So I call. 7 seat who was also decent and had a huge stack went into the tank. Eventually my Jedi mind tricks worked and he folded. The 1 seat, who had $280 left, stuffs it all in the middle and says something to the extent of "let's gamble", so I know that he most likely has nothing but is weak regardless. His presence is an issue though because if I do bluff the BB off the hand, I still have to beat whatever the hell he has at showdown to win the main pot. Then, plan A goes completely to the trash when the SB calls. SB was a bad player but had a little over $2k in front of him.

3 players for $400 on the flop, one for $280. $360 on the side, amost $1800 in the main pot, and I know that nobody has anything better than one pair. Pretty sick for a 5-10 game, eh? I also love that I'm almost 1400 words into this blog about one hand and we haven't even hit the turn yet.

Turn: T . Bummer. Anybody got an eraser for one dot? That sure would have made things easier. SB checked. I really have no clue what this guy has, clubs smells the most likely, possibly a six. BB checks. He was in a really tough spot. If he bets the turn I think really hard about shoving and probably eventually pull the trigger. If he checks, he still has no idea where is at and releases control of the hand. I probably would have checked in that spot too, cause the pot is huge and the board is scary, but I really have no idea what the "right" play is there.

My turn now. Do I bluff or do I take the free card? I really think the free card is the better play, cause I think the BB was planning on check-calling. I check.

River: 2 . Oh well. I'm done. SB wins everything. Sure would have been sweet to win that pot. But wait... SB checks?!? What on God's green Earth did he have? Either way, I know he's done with the hand too. BB checks and really wants to get the hand over with. My turn. I count to three in my head and fire $1k.

So dirty.

I know SB is folding, I know BB is folding, I know I am winning $360 from the side pot, and I think I have a reasonable chance of winning the main pot since the all-in player could have anything. However, I also know that BB has the best hand right now period (unless the all-in player has something really goofy that caught up), and by bluffing him out of the pot I could be taking the main pot away from him and handing it to the all-in player. It was a chance that I was willing to take selfishly because I knew I was winning the $360 immediately and had probably a 50/50 chance at winning the $1800 main pot. Sorry homie... nothing personal, but the play had the best positive expectation to me.

As expected the SB folded, the BB thought forever and folded QQ face up, I tried to close my ear to the berating that was sure to come as I rolled over my 66, and the all-in player was pretty shocked to see that his 89o was good for an $1800 main pot. He was instantly my friend, and Mr. Key had a bullseye on my forehead. He was pretty frustrated and rightfully so - I would be too if I got bluffed out of a $2100 pot by a player who only won $360 of that pot with a measly pair of sixes. But, it is poker, and there was a reasonable chance that I had a better hand than the all-in player, and this is not tournament poker - there's nothing strategically wrong with bluffing a dry or semi-dry side pot in a cash game - it can just really be a mean thing to do. I didn't do it to be mean - I did it to try and win the most money.

I hope y'all enjoyed that hand. I want you to pay particular attention to the thought process going on during each street - that is how I want you to be thinking when you play this week. Not on levels of, "Should I call, or raise?" But on levels of, "Why???"

Also tonight I ran into my friend Todd, whom I wrote about in this blog. Immediately as he sat down at my table, said he needed to talk to me about a piece of journalism, referring to the blog. Basically in the blog I said that he made a bad play that worked out well in the situation, and a couple of his friends who read this blog told him that I said he played bad or something to that extent. Couple of things here... Yeah, I think it was a bad play - but the play obviously worked out in that situation and the play has merits of it's own. Just cause I think it was a bad play doesn't make it a bad play - it makes it my opinion. That's the beautiful thing about this game is that so many decisions, especailly in no-limit, are so very fluid. When I write about a hand or a play or a player, I never have any mal-intent with anything I write. I never write anything that I would not talk with that individual about. I never name names unless I know that the person doesn't mind or I know the person and would talk with them about it in the same manner. I talk about my own mistakes also - not just other's players mistakes. This forum is a blog, an open discourse of thought, and I would love it to be a communal discussion. It is by no means authoratative, nor do I think I am always right. It's just a free-flow of thought.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

posted by Devo @ 2:14 AM |