[Buzz]

Kyle - Hard to believe Villain called your $64 after the flop with a hand that really isn’t playable after this flop in a limit game. Just goes to show me how very little I know about pot-limit or no-limit Omaha-8 games.

At any rate, you start with what I would call a premium hand for a limit game. Your hand simply has “nut, nut” written all over it. Although your starting hand is primo against any number of players in a limit game, fine nut-nut hands such as this one are rare and you should like as many customers as possible in a limit game.

I’d imagine it’s also a premium starting hand for a pot-limit game, but there clearly are also other considerations in a pot-limit game. I’m not sufficiently versed in the nuances of the game to comment on the wisdom of your betting here.

At any rate, you raise before the flop, then get a reasonably favorable flop which you pop with a $64 bet, but Villain hangs in there in the face of your onslaught! Unless Villain is really stupid, Villain evidently doesn’t believe your very legitimate value bets. Then Villain improves to a flush draw on the turn, a card that is a brick for you. And finally Villain makes a non-nut straight on the river with another card that is a brick to you. Villain’s bet on the river is an excellent bet because you’re not likely to have KJXX. And I like Villain’s check on the turn.

But I think Villain’s call of your flop bet is atrocious.

Anyhow, Villain sucks out on you and you lose.

This hand is sort of the opposite for you as the last hand you posted, the 2347n non-limit hand. In that hand, you caught fantastic, fantastic on the turn and river and scooped.

You make a lot of money when you catch fantastic-fantastic on the turn and river, and you lose when you catch brick-brick on the turn and river. This time you had the goods and you lost while that time you were a bit on the weak side directly before and directly after the flop but won.

Luck certainly is involved in how one fares when playing Omaha-8, but I think more so for some individuals than others. Hard to make any judgments on the basis of a few hands, but there seems a lot of luck involved in your playing style - and also in Villain’s. Maybe I’m way off base - just kind of a first impression.

Sometimes I’ll be in a game with someone who forces me to trust to luck. I like Omaha-8 better than Texas hold ‘em because there seems less of that, at least in terms of my own perception, in Omaha-8 than in Texas hold ‘em. But if somebody is going to bet at me whether he has something or not, then I’m going to have to hope each time he bets that it’s one of those times when he has nothing.

I can’t tell if that’s what’s happening to you here or not. In other words, Villain may be calling your flop bet, hoping this is one of the times when you have nothing. Villain has nothing after this flop - no good enough reason to stay in the hand unless you have given Villain good cause to not believe you.

And if you have, well... fine. This time it seems as though you have Villain trapped because you really do have a fine stating hand and a nice enough fit with this flop. Seems like you ought to be able to collect. However, if that’s the plan, it backfires when you catch brick-brick.

Just a bit of bad luck. Kind of evens out the fantastic luck you had with the 2347n hand.

Buzz