Tournament Scenario Help.

[ajizzle]

My Main Question is.............. how can i squeeze the other high hands out, knowing that both CO and Button have weak highs in their hands, based on my read.


PokerStars Game #2862900851: Tournament #13822789, Omaha Hi/Lo Limit - Level V (150/300) - 2005/10/22 - 02:49:25 (ET)
Table '13822789 20' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: thatsmysky (4942 in chips)
Seat 2: Stanky58AL (8985 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: akjohn1 (6403 in chips)
Seat 4: senatro (2467 in chips)
Seat 5: milsik14 (5019 in chips)
Seat 6: Dan607 (4666 in chips)
Seat 7: buckettk (1833 in chips)
Seat 8: Cubby31 (9477 in chips)
Seat 9: AniD (7745 in chips)
Dan607: posts small blind 75
buckettk: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to akjohn1 [3h 3c Ad 2c]
Cubby31: folds
AniD: folds
thatsmysky: folds
Stanky58AL: folds
akjohn1: raises 150 to 300
senatro: folds
milsik14: calls 300
Dan607: calls 225
Stanky58AL has returned
buckettk: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Jc 4h As]
Dan607: bets 150
buckettk: calls 150
akjohn1: raises 150 to 300
milsik14: calls 300
Dan607: calls 150
buckettk: raises 150 to 450
akjohn1: calls 150
milsik14: calls 150
Dan607: calls 150
*** TURN *** [Jc 4h As] [Qh]
Dan607: checks
buckettk: checks
akjohn1: bets 300
milsik14: calls 300
Dan607: calls 300
buckettk: calls 300
*** RIVER *** [Jc 4h As Qh] [8s]
Dan607: checks
buckettk: bets 300
akjohn1: raises 300 to 600
milsik14: calls 600
Dan607: calls 600
buckettk: raises 183 to 783 and is all-in
akjohn1: raises 117 to 900
milsik14: calls 300
Dan607: raises 300 to 1200
Betting is capped
akjohn1: calls 300
milsik14: calls 300
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dan607: shows [Ac 4c Ks 8d] (HI: two pair, Aces and Eights)
akjohn1: shows [3h 3c Ad 2c] (HI: a pair of Aces; LO: 8,4,3,2,A)
milsik14: shows [9c 8c Ah Kd] (HI: two pair, Aces and Eights)
Dan607 collected 313 from side pot
milsik14 collected 313 from side pot
akjohn1 collected 625 from side pot
buckettk: shows [Kc 6d 3d 2d] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 8,4,3,2,A)
Dan607 collected 1833 from main pot
milsik14 collected 1833 from main pot
buckettk collected 1833 from main pot
akjohn1 collected 1833 from main pot

[Buzz]

ajizzle - Looks to me like your opponents did not react to your onslaught the way you wanted (or perhaps expected) them to react.

Then you got lucky on the river and managed to barely salvage your investment.

It could have been worse. If you had succeeded in knocking out one of the hands with a better high than yours, but not the other, you would have ended the hand with fewer chips than you started it with. (It's very unlikely you could have knocked out an opponent with the same, or perhaps a better, low draw as you).

I would not characterize your opponents as stellar. Milsik, in particular, seems a very poor Omaha-8 player - a calling station who got lucky on the river.

Dan607, at least flopped two pair (although not top two), and then may have gotten stuck in the pot because of the size of the pot. He might have (correctly) read you for a low hand and thus would not have been intimidated by your flop bet. To call your pre-flop raise, he could have simply been defending his blind - or he might have thought his starting hand was stronger than it actually is. (Hard to say what he might have been thinking).

Buckettk limp-reraised on the second betting round with the same low draw as you after the flop. He didn't have much of a starting hand but posted the small blind. Maybe he was on tilt or had small stack desperation. Who knows?

(A limp re-raise makes some sense on the first betting round, but seems a strange play on the second betting round. I think I'd have to be pretty sure somebody was going to raise behind me to try it. I'd guess it was just Buckettk's frustrated reaction to the raise, rather than a carefully thought out tactic. Whatever.)

[ QUOTE ]
how can i squeeze the other high hands out

[/ QUOTE ]

Evidently you cannot squeeze them out. After they all contribute three small bets on the second betting round, maybe you shouldn't expect to squeeze them out.

After the turn a high straight is possible - plus there's a heart draw - and you have none of that. All you have is a counterfeitable low draw and an oblique shot at high - not really a very good Omaha-8 holding after the turn. Two checks to you, and you bet, a semibluff, but nobody budges. That partly might have to do with their estimation of how you, yourself, are playing. In other words, maybe some or all of your opponents are (correctly) reading you as too aggressive. Maybe they think you're overbetting your low draw. (Who knows?)

But if your bet had succeeded in knocking out the two opponents who had already checked the turn to you, it would not have succeeded in knocking out the calling station (Milsik).

I think you have to play your opponents for what they are, not what you want them to be.

(But it's not easy, at least not always, to see your poker opponents for what they are. They often deliberately try to deceive you.)

At any rate, my off-the-top-of-my-head reaction to your post and question was that you were playing your opponents for what you wanted them to be rather than for what they were.

Just a first impression. Maybe I'm wrong.

Buzz