Returning the Favor and other Slices of Life

Returning the Favor
Returning the Favor
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Sunday, June 01, 2008

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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1 comment:

DrChako said...

Let me caveat this with the following truism - I suck at poker, especially Omaha.

Here is my take: You should have folded pre-flop. You've mentioned that. I'm not adding any new info here. If your game is meant as just a chance to have fun and push around money, you should be calling with any hand. Why not 5-8-10-Q? There's all kinds of straight possibilities there, and you have an actual low draw!

So, if you truly meant to play donkey poker, why analyze the hand? You had the nuts. Sometimes you can fold that in a tournament (since you have NO idea where you're at when the money goes in, AND you had no draw to the low), but if you are questioning your decision to get all your chips in when you are ahead, then you are ALWAYS welcome at the Chako household for our home games.

Feel free to fold the nuts anytime!

v/r,

-DrC

PS. Vegas in T-minus 4 days!