Back in action
I'm back from the dead.
Having been relegated to horizontal status for most of the weekend, it feels good to be sitting upright at my computer once more. And even though today's workday promised the extreme pain in the buttocks we face on a monthly basis, I still arrived this morning ready to go.
While I spent most of the weekend feeling poor, I did recover enough each night to play some online with my newfound $16. At my last writing, I mentioned that I had eased it up to $22. Well, Saturday afternoon, I did attempt to play a few hands intermittently, even though I didn't really feel like it. I know, I know ... last week I was preaching about not playing while sick. And, I paid a small price for my hypocrisy, easing the stack back down to $17. But that evening, hopped up on cold medicine, I felt good enough to sit down and play, and I managed to double that $17 to $34. Sunday night, I was feeling pretty much recovered and played a lengthy session, running the stack up to $55.
All of this came while playing pot limit Omaha 8/b. Oh, how I love that game! Actually, what I love is the fact that the lowest limits of PLO8 seem to be entirely populated by holdem players trying out a different game. OK, I admit, I'm not too far removed from that category myself. I've been playing Omaha seriously for less than two months. But I've learned from my time at the tables, and what I've learned has been profitable thus far.
For instance, aggressively raising the low hand. Bad idea. Sure, for the holdem player who is just coming to the Omaha table, it seems like a good idea at first. Build that pot as high as possible so that the split will be favorable. But it doesn't take very many times of doing that, only to split the low hand two, maybe three, ways and losing money on the hand to realize it's not that smart. Sure, you've got that low nutted with your A2, but so does the high hand winner, and he's going to take all of the high and half of the low, leaving you with just a quarter of the pot and a smaller stack than before you "won." Plus, any chance of making money on the hand was lost because of your aggressive raises and reraises, which chased everyone else out of the pot.
It gave me a lot of satisfaction to drive that point home, brutally, against one idiot over the weekend. With an A23 in my hand and two low cards on the flop, me and the idiot called another guy's pot-sized bet. The pot wasn't very large, and I figured I could see one more card at the price for the guaranteed nut low if another low card came. An 8 falls on the turn, and the original bettor tosses in another pot-sized bet. I'm going to be happy to just call so I don't scare the idiot off and take half of a three-way pot, but the idiot makes a pot-size raise. Thank goodness the kids were in bed, because I immediately start spewing a string of curses at this guy. I suddenly know, KNOW, he also has an A2, but I feel locked into calling. (That's still one thing I haven't figured out. When faced with this situation, is it better to call, knowing you're going to ultimately lose money by splitting the low two ways, or should you fold and just lose what little you already have in the pot?) Anyway, I'm not certain it was the right move, but I called, thinking to myself, "But you are screwed if the river brings an A or 2." Sure enough, the river brought a glorious, magnificent A. Bettor bets, idiot raises, I move all in and both call. Of course, the original raiser had the high hand, and unfortunately, the idiot did manage to pull back a little bit by grabbing the high side pot. I, on the other hand, grabbed both low pots and ended up making a good score on that hand, while the idiot lost money.
You would think that would have taught him a valuable lesson. But while the lesson was taught, the student was asleep, and he kept up the same tactic the rest of the night.
Granted, there are times to raise with the low. I'll do it myself if I sense major weakness at the table, knowing I have insurance for half the pot if another player stays with a weak high hand. But in doing that, my hope is to get everyone to fold and hope that I can take the entire pot with just a low hand. This guy, though, didn't seem to realize he wasn't going to have any luck bluffing out a guy who was already trying to build the pot as much as possible, just as he was oblivious to the possibility that someone else could also be holding an A2, or even two low cards that rendered his 8-high useless.
Anyway, it was a pretty good weekend, intestinal flu and all. I just hope I can be wise enough to not get stupid and squander my new free bankroll.
Having been relegated to horizontal status for most of the weekend, it feels good to be sitting upright at my computer once more. And even though today's workday promised the extreme pain in the buttocks we face on a monthly basis, I still arrived this morning ready to go.
While I spent most of the weekend feeling poor, I did recover enough each night to play some online with my newfound $16. At my last writing, I mentioned that I had eased it up to $22. Well, Saturday afternoon, I did attempt to play a few hands intermittently, even though I didn't really feel like it. I know, I know ... last week I was preaching about not playing while sick. And, I paid a small price for my hypocrisy, easing the stack back down to $17. But that evening, hopped up on cold medicine, I felt good enough to sit down and play, and I managed to double that $17 to $34. Sunday night, I was feeling pretty much recovered and played a lengthy session, running the stack up to $55.
All of this came while playing pot limit Omaha 8/b. Oh, how I love that game! Actually, what I love is the fact that the lowest limits of PLO8 seem to be entirely populated by holdem players trying out a different game. OK, I admit, I'm not too far removed from that category myself. I've been playing Omaha seriously for less than two months. But I've learned from my time at the tables, and what I've learned has been profitable thus far.
For instance, aggressively raising the low hand. Bad idea. Sure, for the holdem player who is just coming to the Omaha table, it seems like a good idea at first. Build that pot as high as possible so that the split will be favorable. But it doesn't take very many times of doing that, only to split the low hand two, maybe three, ways and losing money on the hand to realize it's not that smart. Sure, you've got that low nutted with your A2, but so does the high hand winner, and he's going to take all of the high and half of the low, leaving you with just a quarter of the pot and a smaller stack than before you "won." Plus, any chance of making money on the hand was lost because of your aggressive raises and reraises, which chased everyone else out of the pot.
It gave me a lot of satisfaction to drive that point home, brutally, against one idiot over the weekend. With an A23 in my hand and two low cards on the flop, me and the idiot called another guy's pot-sized bet. The pot wasn't very large, and I figured I could see one more card at the price for the guaranteed nut low if another low card came. An 8 falls on the turn, and the original bettor tosses in another pot-sized bet. I'm going to be happy to just call so I don't scare the idiot off and take half of a three-way pot, but the idiot makes a pot-size raise. Thank goodness the kids were in bed, because I immediately start spewing a string of curses at this guy. I suddenly know, KNOW, he also has an A2, but I feel locked into calling. (That's still one thing I haven't figured out. When faced with this situation, is it better to call, knowing you're going to ultimately lose money by splitting the low two ways, or should you fold and just lose what little you already have in the pot?) Anyway, I'm not certain it was the right move, but I called, thinking to myself, "But you are screwed if the river brings an A or 2." Sure enough, the river brought a glorious, magnificent A. Bettor bets, idiot raises, I move all in and both call. Of course, the original raiser had the high hand, and unfortunately, the idiot did manage to pull back a little bit by grabbing the high side pot. I, on the other hand, grabbed both low pots and ended up making a good score on that hand, while the idiot lost money.
You would think that would have taught him a valuable lesson. But while the lesson was taught, the student was asleep, and he kept up the same tactic the rest of the night.
Granted, there are times to raise with the low. I'll do it myself if I sense major weakness at the table, knowing I have insurance for half the pot if another player stays with a weak high hand. But in doing that, my hope is to get everyone to fold and hope that I can take the entire pot with just a low hand. This guy, though, didn't seem to realize he wasn't going to have any luck bluffing out a guy who was already trying to build the pot as much as possible, just as he was oblivious to the possibility that someone else could also be holding an A2, or even two low cards that rendered his 8-high useless.
Anyway, it was a pretty good weekend, intestinal flu and all. I just hope I can be wise enough to not get stupid and squander my new free bankroll.
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