Pulling a Negreanu at the home - Priceless

So last night's edition of the Falstaff home game was unremarkable on the whole, except for the fact that Big Nick actually finished the night with a profit in a cash game, which never happens. Pretty much all his profits came from one hand of Omaha, where I think I made the right move, but am interested in other people's opinions.

 I held J-10-Q-x on a flop of 7-8-9. There had been a raise preflop. but everyone called. That's kinda what happens in this game. Everyone calls preflop. So ignore the fact that I was in a raised pot postflop with a hand that zero low potential in O8. That piece of poor play is actually irrelevant given the nature of the table. New Guy Don fired out a bet of $2 in a pot of $12 or so, and Special K called. I flat-called, hoping that one of the three players behind me had A-2 and would pop it. Big Nick went all in for $30, and Don got out of the way. Special K called the $28 raise, and I pushed all in over the top with the nuts. I held the nuts at the time, with a redraw to a better straight if something came down to counterfeit my J-10. Special K folded, and Big Nick said, "I need a lot of help," and he tabled top two pair.

He got it on the turn in the form of a second 9, giving him the full house and a pot of around $100. So, my question is this - did I misplay this hand? I flat-called hoping to check-raise my nuts, and when Special K put in $30 of what I considered correctly to be dead equity, I pulled the trigger assuming that Nick was behind and drawing to a low. I didn't really consider the possibility of being quartered on the high, because I also had a redraw to the Queen-high straight. Nick had outs to the low, but not the nut low, as well as outs to a boat. So I can't really fault his shove there, since that was his only way to thin the field and maybe pick up the dead money. But should I have let go of the nuts there? I know a straight isn't a terribly strong hand in O8, and with no draw to a low, should I fold? The board was relatively uncoordinated, suit-wise, so someone would have had to go runner-runner flush or pair the board for a boat. So I held the nuts against 6 outs, and I don't think I can lay that down. But I'm interested in hearing from people that play a lot of Omaha.

My one shining moment came against New Guy Don when I pulled a Negreanu on him. I smooth-called a raise from him in position with pocket sevens, to see a flop of 9-9-J with two spades. My read on NGD was that his style was pretty straightforward TAG, so I didn't put him on a Jack. He checked the flop, and I stuck out a good-sized bet. He thought for a minute and said "good flop for A-9."

I responded "especially A-9 of spades."

He reminded me that I couldn't have the A-9 of spades, since the 9s was on the board, and I feigned shock. I then said "Yeah, but it's a terrible flop for Ace-Queen."

He looked at me, muttered "motherfucker" under his breath and folded his A-Q face up. I giggled a little as I raked his chips. I think he'll make a good addition to the game when he can make it, he's willing to buy in a few times and he has a good time with us in our friendly game. Got up early this morning to recap Day 2 of Event #1 for PokerNews, and had to feel sympathetic for Mean Gene, since the tournament wasn't over yet after 15 hours of play.  I went back to bed for a little while, then got up to do my work after the folks in Vegas were done for the day.   

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