I'll take you through each street. Comments welcome. This was a loose aggressive $100 PLO table at Ritz Club London.
I am sitting semi-short stacked as Crypto does not allow a rebuy until you have 80% of the max buyin or less; I usually rebuy at around 90-95% of a full stack.
------HAND 1------
Game #414954353: Omaha High Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/03/08 - 23:05:31 (GMT)
Table "Bramble" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: branko ($119.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Trrtrtr ($101.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Cluedup ($126.47 in chips)
Seat 4: 2231 ($91.65 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO ($92 in chips)
Seat 6: mcmanus8 ($90.50 in chips)
Seat 7: Morph3us ($98.75 in chips)
Seat 8: Granger ($114 in chips)
Seat 9: jm24 ($29.50 in chips)
Seat 10: 2bginger sits out
Cluedup: posts small blind $0.50
2231: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO T[d] K[d] K[h] Q[s]
HERO: raises to $3.50
So here I am dealt a very decent hand UTG. I make the obvious raise.
mcmanus8: folds
Morph3us: folds
Granger: folds
jm24: raises to $8
This player was loose and seemed fairly mediocre. Hadn't seen him raise much, and this is for less than the pot. He was short stacked and I have a hand good enough to take him on for my stack if it comes to it.
2bginger sits back
branko: folds
Trrtrtr: folds
Cluedup: calls $7.50
This player was loose-aggressive and made a lot of small bets. He was fairly poor but got very lucky in this session and eventually ran up $700-odd before I beat him out of a $350 pot.
2231: calls $7
Had no read on this guy; he was a short stack. Think he was quiet-ish and so not especially loose.
HERO: raises to $12.50
This needs a bit of explanantion; the pot is 4-handed and so my hand is realistically not going past the flop without significant help (a big draw with KK overpair and/or a set of kings) with this much opposition.
However, my hand figures to be a money favourite against 3 other players (it is very difficult for me to be much below 25% pot equity 4-handed with this holding, though as you'll see that actually was the case!). My bet is merely increasing the size of the pot so if the flop brings a big draw there's money to be chased, and if I hit a K I can get all in with the nuts.
The other alternative is that the original re-raiser with the short stack has AA; this would of course be a bad thing for me BUT if he does he is nigh on certain to go all in here. This means that the betting is re-opened and I can get the other two players (who by this point are nearly pot-committed) all in with hands which I am liable to be well ahead of. Because we all likely have high-orientated hands, I figured that most or all of the aces would be accounted for, and thus that my KK will win the sidepot if the short stack goes all in with AA in the event that neither large stack hits the board very hard. If they have holdings including the likes of QQ, TT or medium-high wrap type things (QJJT etc) then I actually have them dominated. If any of them hold an ace with AA in the hand of the short stack, then that is practically a dead card in their hand. This pot could easily by won by not very much. I made the raise small enough to be inconsequential if they all call, but crucially reopen the pot for the small stack to get all in; it's even possible that the small stack player has a weaker hand than mine and will raise me back; and even against dry aces I still hold easily enough pot equity to make it +ve EV to play against him with some dead money in the pot with the other two players.
jm24: raises to $29.50 and is all-in
Cluedup: calls $21.50
2231: calls $21.50
Well, looks like he took the bait and bumped it all in. If I raise and force out the other two limpers, well It's cost me a lot to play against a likely better hand (AA) heads up, but the dead money in the pot will have made up for it. However, if jm24 DOES have aces (which it appears he must) then my hand has to be a money favourite in the sidepot, which will be approaching $190. I could actually be dominating against two other hands with mid-high cards, and all I need is 50% equity in the sidepot to get my money back from the start of the hand, in EV terms, if both players call.
So I take a deep breath and push.
HERO: raises to $92 and is all-in
Cluedup: calls $62.50
2231: is all-in $62.15
----- FLOP ----- 3[d] 3[h] T[h]
----- TURN ----- 3[d] 3[h] T[h] J[c]
----- RIVER ----- 3[d] 3[h] T[h] J[c] 4[d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
HERO: shows T[d] K[d] K[h] Q[s] (Two Pairs, Kings and Threes, Jack high)
jm24: shows A[c] Q[d] A[d] 7[s] (Two Pairs, Aces and Threes, Jack high)
Cluedup: shows J[d] 9[d] 8[c] J[h] (A Full House, Jacks full of Threes)
2231: shows 8[h] K[c] 9[c] 9[s] (Two Pairs, Nines and Threes, Jack high)
Cluedup collected $0.70 from Side pot #2
Cluedup collected $186.45 from Side pot #1
Cluedup collected $115 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $305.15 Main pot $115 Side pot #1 $186.45 | Side pot #2 $0.70 | Rake $3
Board [3d 3h Th Jc 4d]
Seat 1: branko folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Trrtrtr (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Cluedup (small blind) showed [Jd 9d 8c Jh] and won ($302.15) with A Full House, Jacks full of Threes
Seat 4: 2231 (big blind) lost
Seat 5: HERO lost
Seat 6: mcmanus8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Morph3us folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Granger folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: jm24 lost
Well there's the result. I lost a big pot. How's my play though? Well... The fact that my flush draw was trumped by the AA player plus all the Q's, K's J's and 9's out meant my equity in the main pot was horrendously low (15% or so) BUT I was 100% correct about my estimation of the larger sidepot - here I have nearly 60% of the three-handed equity.
Overall my EV for the main pot was $17, for the sidepot was $108. My total EV was therefore $125, from an original input of $92; that's a $33 EV profit on the hand.
Of course, if i'd merely called the re-raise (which to be honest I usually would) I would have lost much less on this hand. What my expected profit on the hand was by calling the $4 I don't really know. My play was certainly unusual (reopening the betting so I could get two large stacks in) and it's a play I very occasionally make with hands like this when the conditions are right. Usually I like short stacks in the game because when you have a spot like this (or when you have AA), you can often make a re-raise of their raise to put them nearly all in on the flop; when they reopen the betting by moving in, you can force out opponents or get most of your stack in with the best hand. This was a very marginal spot to apply that play, however, but with a very large BR I can absorb the variance. Next time hopefully I'll win!
The rather fortunate player who hit his jack to win this big pot went on a run of huge hands, though I eventually took a biggie off him as I picked up a beautiful turn and was able to put in with a quality re-draw with the nut straight and only real redraw... one of my ten outs hit, and I won a $350-odd pot. He was spliiting and had no redraw outs; he actually called a raise preflop with an awful hand and got himself in trouble as a result.
Anyways, any questions/thoughts on the play in this hand? I think it's an arguable and quite interesting one, I use this technique preflop on occasions, usually in more clear-cut positions (i.e. with AAxx), but here I felt it was quite a fun little play.
Watch out for short stacks in your games, who can reopen the betting for you! Remember also that some sites (and all B&Ms) won't allow this play because raising an "incomplete" bet is usually not allowed.
Monk
xxxxx
