Pot Limit Omaha Hand

[Mark W]

I decided to go to Tunica last weekend as a warmup to the New England tourney. All in all I had a successful tourney, but had a hand that has me still scratching my head and replaying. 5-10 PLO. I am in BB with a $25 straddle on the button. 5 players at the table with 3 in the hand. UTG is minimun buy-in just trying to survive. You know the type. He will play tight till he either decides to quit a small winner or will go broke with best hand against a redraw. Button will always straddle for $25 and if straddled before him he will restraddle for $100. He has about 15k in chips I have 7k, weak player has 2K. On the turn I have second str8 and check. UTG makes it $5000, Button makes it 2k I come over the top all-in. I put weak player on nut straight but I wanted a call from button since he would play anything. Button took 5 min to decide then called my bet. As it was I had both covered on the bet. Weak player had second set, button had heart draw. River paired the board with a heart /forums/images/icons/frown.gif Even though I had the best of it against the weak player I was not counting on that. Since he had far less money both on the table, and in his pocket the rest of the table just considered him a annoyance. I could have just called the buttons raise and then seen what the river delivered; however, while the button will make very weak draws he would never pay off on the river if he did not hit. I wanted him committed.

Poker is a funny game. I took 50k to the WSOP, 10k in my pocket and a 40K cashier's check. In 5 weeks I never had to touch the check. Managed to play several tourney's, made a modest profit of about 28K in PLO and had a great time, but in two days at a Casino in the middle of nowhere I spend more money than I did in six weeks at the WSOP. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[Ray Zee]

sorry mark i wasted time reading your post it makes no sense at all. the figures dont add up and the hands dont make sense or your play. normally i dont reply to posts that are all messed.
one thing i can say though is that never stay in a seat where you are getting straddeled or you will get broke

[Mark W]

Sorry if the hand is a blur. I was not really trying for a reconstruct. I had a wrap on the flop. flop was 3 suited. Button bets and UTG and I call. Turn gave me middle straight and 2nd heart. I put UTG on my hand or possible higher straight. I did have redraws to nut straight and low flush. Button could have anything since I had seen him call 3 way river bets for many K$$$$ with as little as one pair. Button bet 1K on turn, I raise 4k and UTG calls 1k and all-in. Button eventually calls. UTG had middle set, Button had AK hearts XX. Main Pot to UTG, side pot to Button. The question I guess I have is I knew that the Button who had the big $$$ was weak and I wanted him to call or should I have just smooth called the 1k. In hindsight I did not think the UTG was that weak, but I was fairly sure that the Button was weak since he plays fast when strong and slow when weak.

As to the straddle thank you for your advice. It was a 5-10 PLO game except 95% of the time all buttons were straddling. (I was the 5%)

I do find PLO to be very profitable, and easier than PLH. However, I rarely play out of position and very rarely without all 4 cards working. However, I relax a little from that when it gets short handed.

I wish I could tell U the exact cards, instead of a generalization, but I did not write the hand down at the time.

[Mark W]

Ray, I see why the numbers do not make since now. The UTG bet was $500, not $5,000. PS I have played with you in the past and u were nice to me then :-)

[Ray Zee]

well im not too nice to my opponents /forums/images/icons/smile.gif but since you asked--- i would say you played it well, but as you know in omaha when trying good plays when its you, thats making the pot large, is very risky to say the least. especially when you think that the main part of the pot isnt going to be yours.
overall in pot omaha when the pot gets big the nuts plays(except headup sometimes), so its better to have it unless you have a good read as you did in this case.

any hands ive played badly or well that you can remember? post them.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Well, if you know the button is going to call your raise as a big dog, then of course that is the correct play.

But, as Ray says, when you expect to lose the main pot, you have to be that much more sure you're going to get called as the big favorite for the side pot to justify the 1K you just put in as the dog yourself.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)