After a couple of relatively smooth weeks of winning play I yesterday suffered my biggest loss so far: 3.5 buyins in about one hour of play. As Monk mentioned the other day, when you have a very unlucky session you usually aggrevate the loss by making at least one stupid play. So, part of this post is just a bad beat whine (I'm sure the moderator won't object) but it is also a sanity check. Any comments welcome.

$100 PLO on UB. Not often is there a juicy $100 game on UB, so most of my time I spend multitabling the $50's. But now there was a 5 handed game with great action. The player to my right is a calling station; I've seen him at games from $25 to $200 but don't have many notes on him except that he makes loose calls. The player two to my right is very LAG; he plays regularly in the 2/4 games. He sometimes sits in the smaller games to blow off steam. The one time I played with him he sat for about an hour and left up 3 buyins. The others are typical weak tight UB players, but play no role in the hands.

Against the LAG I decided to call his raises with hands that could hit low flops (following Monks advice) and, of course, with strong high card and high pair holdings when I have position.

Hand 1) I'm in the BB and LAG raises from the button. He does this every other hand, and mainly with suited high cards or high pairs. SB calls, I call with 689T. Flop looks good: T84 rainbow. SB checks, I check, LAG bets pot (standard continuation). I think the flop missed him, so after the SB folds I checkraise the max. LAG thinks, thinks, thinks and moves in. I call for the rest of my money (had a full stack there). The board pairs the 4 on the river and his overpair (AKKQ) is good.

Too greedy to try to double up with a shaky hand like top two?

Hand 2) I have 79TJ with 7,9 in diamonds in the BB. LAG raises, SB calls, I call. Flop is a nice 568, with 5, 8 of diamonds. Now SB bets out the pot. I'm afraid to be up against the same straight but with a better redraw, so I decide to call here and wait for a good turn card. LAG folds. Turn is an offsuit Q. SB bets pot again, and I raise the max. He flat calls. River pairs the board, SB checks, I decide not to push in the remaining $25 and check behind. SB shows 88QQ for the boat and drags the pot.

Anyone raise the flop here or try to play a smaller pot?

Hand 3) I have 9TJQ, suited to the Q in clubs on the button. Both the LAG and the station limp, and I raise the pot. Flop comes 89cKc, giving me the second flush draw and a lot of straight possibilities. It is checked to me and I bet the pot. LAG calls and station folds. Turn is an offsuit 4. LAG bets out 1/2 pot. I calls. River is an offsuit 6. LAG checks. I missed everything, and I bluff $35 into the $65 pot. LAG calls with 84 and wins the pot.

I think I misplayed this one. Obviously he cannot call an allin on the turn or a full pot bet on the river.

Hand 4) I have JJTT, limp in, and both me and the station in the BB call LAG's raise. Flop is T62, two clubs. Pot is $20. I think about a checkraise again, but the LAG is slowing down a bit and my previous checkraise failed. Therefore I bet pot; LAG folds, station calls. Turn is an offsuit Q. I bet pot again, putting him virtually allin, and he flat calls. River is a club. Station does not bet his remaining $1.50, and we check it down. He shows the king high flush with absolutely nothing else....

I count two unlucky beats and two dubious plays. Time to leave the table for a while...

Pieter

Hand 1 looks like a good, gutsy play here. It's even better if you're up against a non-moron who'll drop a crappy overpair (overpair actually wins enough to call here for a reasonable bet but there's obviously no way he can know that, and obviously moving all-in is abysmal).

Hand 2 I think you've got enough on the flop to make a big raise on the flop, but calling along is OK too. I am not keen on potentially letting in some draws. Sounds like the money was pretty deep so that perhaps makes keeping the pot small a decent idea, but I don't like letting in the LAG behind you with something like a Q-high flush draw that he will likely fold to a re-raise, and with the three cards over the top end of the straight, you have a really nice wrap redraw to go with your mediocre flush redraw. Other than that, played fine. 100% right to fire in hard on that turn.

Hand 3 I think you played fine. His weak bet on the turn is often with something like 2 weak pair plus a sketchy draw where he's caught in two minds how to play it, but against this guy I don't think he's folding a lot of hands to a raise, and so just calling is fine. On the river I don't mind a bluff, he could have something like a missed draw with a pair, which he'd dump for 20 or 30 bucks but win with if you check down. Wouldn't beat yourself up about it, unless he's SO loose he calls just about anything there.

Hand 4 I definitely go for the CR on the flop if there's someone aggressive behind, that's just the sort of "uncoordinated" flop a LAG likes to steal on. However, leading out is OK if you thought he was gonna check, which you obviously did. Turn plays itself again.

So, you didn't do much wrong really.

I've dropped the best part of $1.5k in the last few days, and have been playing OK. These things happen, I guess, frustrating but you have to keep perspective. As you've probably noticed, I blow off steam with a bit of a rant then calm down and only play again when my mind is back on the job, I think that's the best way to deal with these things. These stuffings are the reason we have bankrolls !

Another point to make about bluffs - in general, in omaha, river bluffs are made when you have absolutely NO hand at all and would like to remove someone with something like one pair (or a crappy two pair) or a missed draw, and thus a small river bet is often good for this. You may want to bet pot on a bluff if you (for instance) had your opponent on a set, the river hit a flush (which you don't have) and you wish to bluff the scare card. Small bluffs often work well though if you want to only restrict access to weak hands/draws.

A few useful examples:

1) You're drawing to a straight. You bet pot on flop, and turn, and your opponent calls both. River pairs the board. Nothing wrong with a small bluff here - if he had a draw (maybe with a pair) that's winning he'll fold, but if he had 2 pair or a weak set and just boated, you save yourself a good chunk of bet by making a smaller bluff.

2) You bet two pair on the flop with a straight and flush draw possible, and get one check-caller. Turn puts out a flush, and he checks to you. If you know he's not the type to check-raise a flush here, you could try a small bet to remove straight draws which HAVE outs against you but which won't call with a flush on board. Only good in specific situations, though!

I often make small bets on the river with a big made hand anyhow, so it makes this behaviour harder to read - if I've had a set in the case of situation 1), I'll often make that small river bet anyhow to try to extract a call from a weaker hand.

Every time you make a bet you just need to be sure there's a specific REASON not to bet the pot. If there isn't, then bet the pot every time.

Remember - you need a REASON, but if you have one there's no reason why you need to ALWAYS bet the same amount.

Monk
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