Posts Tagged ‘PLO8’

Villain is Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham. He’s got a bracelet from the 2008 WSOP PLO $10K, but I don’t know how his PLO8 game is.

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t5430)
BB (t4450)
UTG (t2960)
UTG+1 (t2520)
MP1 (t5635)
Hero (MP2) (t3005)
CO (t2945)
Button (t3055)

Hero’s M: 66.78

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 2, 4, K, 3
3 folds, Hero bets t90, 1 fold, Button calls t90, 2 folds

Flop: (t225) 3, K, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t155, Button calls t155

Turn: (t535) K (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (t535) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t295, Hero raises to t1060, Button calls t765

Total pot: t2655

Results:
Button mucked A, Q, 10, A (Hi: two pair, Aces and Kings).
Hero had 2, 4, K, 3 (Hi: full house, Kings over threes).
Outcome: Hero won t2655

Yes, I’m aware that this a pretty crappy hand and a questionable pre-flop raise. Let’s just focus on the river sexiness.  Read the complete post...

I always look forward to the PLO8 events, but I couldn’t get anything going. The opposition was beyond awful:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12159019788: FTOPS Event #11 (84242375), Table 41 – 20/40 – Pot Limit Omaha H/L – 14:20:39 ET – 2009/05/11
Seat 1: babbelz (1,028)
Seat 2: Sensor (8,220)
Seat 3: dav713 (4,859)
Seat 4: ayyaahh91 (4,755)
Seat 5: nrock23 (7,886)
Seat 6: thegrizz1111 (3,986)
Seat 7: Greengoz (5,000)
Seat 8: TPackage1 (4,531)
Seat 9: Foucault (4,735)
nrock23 posts the small blind of 20
thegrizz1111 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Foucault [9s Ad 2d Ts]
TPackage1 folds
Foucault raises to 80
babbelz calls 80
Sensor folds
dav713 calls 80
ayyaahh91 folds
nrock23 folds
thegrizz1111 calls 40
*** FLOP *** [6d 6c 8d]
thegrizz1111 checks
Foucault checks
babbelz bets 170
dav713 has 15 seconds left to act
dav713 raises to 400
thegrizz1111 folds
Foucault has 15 seconds left to act
Foucault calls 400
babbelz raises to 948, and is all in
dav713 calls 548
Foucault calls 548
*** TURN *** [6d 6c 8d] [9h]
Foucault checks
dav713 bets 600
Foucault calls 600
*** RIVER *** [6d 6c 8d 9h] [3h]
Foucault checks
dav713 checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dav713 shows [Jc 6h Qc Jh] three of a kind, Sixes, for high
Foucault shows [9s Ad 2d Ts] two pair, Nines and Sixes, for high and 8,6,3,2,A, for low
dav713 wins the high side pot (600) with three of a kind, Sixes
Foucault wins the low side pot (600) with 8,6,3,2,A
babbelz shows [2s 3c 8c Ac] two pair, Eights and Sixes, for high and 8,6,3,2,A, for low
dav713 wins the high main pot (1,592) with three of a kind, Sixes
Foucault ties for the low main pot (796) with 8,6,3,2,A
babbelz ties for the low main pot (796) with 8,6,3,2,A
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,384 Main pot 3,184. Side pot 1,200. | Rake 0
Board: [6d 6c 8d 9h 3h]
Seat 1: babbelz showed [2s 3c 8c Ac] and won (796) with HI: two pair, Eights and Sixes; LO: 8,6,3,2,A
Seat 2: Sensor didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: dav713 showed [Jc 6h Qc Jh] and won (2,192) with HI: three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 4: ayyaahh91 (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: nrock23 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: thegrizz1111 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Greengoz is sitting out
Seat 8: TPackage1 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 9: Foucault showed [9s Ad 2d Ts] and won (1,396) with HI: two pair, Nines and Sixes; LO: 8,6,3,2,A  Read the complete post...

I think this has been out for a few days, but I just noticed that Poker Stars has posted a tentative schedule for a yet-to-be-named tournament series in April. I love the format of offering a low-, medium-, and high-stakes option for every tournament and am frankly staggered that they think they will get sufficient interest in some of these events, especially the $2000 Triple Draw.

The 2+2 MTT community is mostly salivating over this, though some are a little concerned that the smaller events will actually discourage people from trying satellite into the bigger events. I don’t think they’re wrong, but I still expect the big events to be plenty soft thanks to tourney donks playing with relatively deep stacks for fairly big money.

The only issue for me is how to get enough money on Stars by April to enable me to play the ones I want without busting the bankroll. I may suck it up and make a wire transfer, which I’ve so far refused to do on principle since Stars makes the depositor pay the wire fees. It’s really preposterous- I pay enough rake in 10 minutes to cover the fees, and it’s clearly in their interest for me to have money on their site.

Anyway, the schedule:  Read the complete post...

I took an early exit from this tournament on a coin flip:

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (8 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP1) (t4925)
MP2 (t5142)
CO (t5938)
Button (t4775)
SB (t8994)
BB (t5025)
UTG (t5146)
UTG+1 (t5070)

Hero’s M: 82.08

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 10, A, 9, 2
2 folds, Hero raises to t120, 3 folds, SB raises to t400, 1 fold, Hero calls t280

Flop: (t840) 9, 10, 7 (2 players)
SB bets t840, Hero raises to t3360, SB raises to t5880, Hero calls t1165 (All-In)

Turn: (t9890) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t9890) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t9890

Results:
SB had J, A, A, 7 (Hi: flush, Ace high).
Hero had 10, A, 9, 2 (Hi: two pair, Aces and tens).
Outcome: SB won t9890

I was pretty sure the guy had AA, just because that’s about all you’ll see most people re-raise with in a spot like this. Truthfully, he ought to have AA2, preferably with a suit, to be re-raising. AA with a poor low draw isn’t that strong a hand in PLO8, especially with stacks as deep as these. That doesn’t mean I put him on AA2, because I’m not about to give a random that kind of credit, but that’s what he ought to have.  Read the complete post...

At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. Yesterday, I posted about my resolution to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold ‘Em Cash Games.

Resolution 2: Keep Getting Better at Other Games

I played a fair bit of PLO and watched some instructional videos, but I don’t feel I’m much better at it than I was this time last year. Actually, I’m sure I am better, but the opposition has improved more than I have. It’s quickly becoming a much more well-understood game, and I’m getting left behind. I’d like to get better at it, but I have only so much time to play, and the opportunity cost of playing break-even PLO at 2/4 rather than winning at 5/10 and 10/20 NLHE is pretty high.

As for other games, I played some HORSE occasionally and probably got a bit better at Stud/8, I final tabled a PLO8 tournament, but mostly I didn’t do anything of significance.

Goal 4: Play some WSOP preliminary events in other games (PLHE doesn’t count).
(Failed)  Read the complete post...

This was a great idea for a tournament format, with half the hands playing as O/8 and half as PLO8. Many people are going to be good at one game but not the other. Personally, I’m pretty strong in PLO8 but not so good at O/8. Naturally, plenty of people suck at both as well.

I got off to a nice start, playing well in PLO8 and running well at O/8. There was an awful player on my left who was giving me a lot of chips, but eventually he monkeyed his way into winning a huge pot:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament
Blinds: t25/t50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t6903
UTG+1: t2857
CO: t2540
Button: t3590
Hero: t12500
BB: t6035

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is SB with :ah :ks :6h :3h
4 folds, Hero raises to t150, BB calls t100 (pot was t200).

Flop: :2d :qh :7h (t300, 2 players)
Hero bets t250, BB raises to t1050, Hero raises to t3450, BB raises to t5850, Hero raises to t8250, BB calls all-in t35.
Uncalled bets: t2365 returned to Hero.

Turn: :tc (t12070, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t12070)

River: :3d (t12070, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t12070)

Results:
Final pot: t12070  Read the complete post...

PLO8 is one of my favorite poker games, and it’s also one of the toughest to find played for meaningful stakes, so I was pretty stoked for this event. I did in fact have a good time, even though it ended in disappointment. Early on I was pretty tight passive, limping into pots when I got involved at all. PLO8 is a tough game to play out of position, so i didn’t want to bloat pots, and I also felt people were going to make their biggest mistakes post-flop. I chipped up a bit like this, then went up and down for a while in the second and third hours.

One key hand gave me some chips to work with:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t75/t150
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t5250
UTG+1: t3825
MP1: t8670
MP2: t14616
CO: t2525
Button: t9246
SB: t4035
Hero: t4745

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is BB with :2c :9c :kh :ah
UTG raises to t450, 2 folds, MP2 calls t450 (pot was t675), 3 folds, Hero calls t300 (pot was t1125).

Flop: :5h :5d :4h (t1425, 3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t1100, MP2 calls t1100 (pot was t2525), Hero raises all-in t4295, 2 folds.
Uncalled bets: t3195 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: t4725  Read the complete post...

Here are two pretty interesting hands from a small PLO8 tournament that I final tabled on Saturday ($100 buy-in, like 135 players, I finished 8th, not a big deal). It’s pretty rare that you would slowplay in PLO8 because a single card can easily make even huge hands an underdog. Moreover, when one induces bluffs, it’s usually from hands with a lot of equity, such that you don’t pick up value from snapping them off. Just in general even with big hands you gain a lot from folding people out and picking them up right away. But these I played differently:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t18739
UTG+1: t19416
Hero: t7646
MP2: t31489
CO: t9845
Button: t5398
SB: t11072
BB: t1246

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is MP1 with :kc :7d :9c :ad
2 folds, Hero raises to t1111, MP2 calls t1111 (pot was t1711), 4 folds.

Flop: :kd :td :ah (t2822, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.

Turn: :jc (t2822, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t1600, Hero calls t1600 (pot was t4422).

River: :8d (t6022, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.

Results:
Final pot: t6022
Villain shows [As 2c 3s 5h]

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t400/t800
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t15439
Hero: t27260
MP1: t21723
MP2: t7032
CO: t7895
Button: t7827
SB: t7222
BB: t9610  Read the complete post...