I DO Remember How to Play This Game

I went up to Motor City on Wednesday. I got to the Poker Room at 8:30 am. There was a 1/2 table and a 2/5 table open. The 1/2 table was full, so I put my name on that list, as well as the 5/10 Omaha H/L list they have every Wednesday. I grabbed a pager, and went to play some table games.

There was no Texas Holdem Bonus tables open, so I sat down at a empty BlackJack table. I used to have a system of betting more when I lost a hand. Some times it worked wonderfully, and other times in ended very quickly. Losing five hands in a row happens a lot more than it should. These days I just buy-in for $300, 12 green chips. I bet $25 each hand. If I'm having a good shoe, then I might push the bet to $30, using the red chips that I win with a BlackJack. When I'm up $200 or more at the end of the shoe, I walk away.

Since I was alone for most of my session, I saw a lot of hands. I got off to a great start. But about halfway through the shoe, things started to cool off. I ended the first shoe down one pink chip (2.50). The second shoe was even better. Halfway into the shoe, I had more than doubled up, so I walked away +$330 after tipping the dealer three pink chips. Sweet, I'm freerolling in the Poker Room.

I headed back to the Poker Room. They said that they had been paging me for 15 minutes. I handed back my inactive pager, and took a seat at the 1/2 table. There was only one player with a big stack (>1000), but I don't know how long he'd been playing.

As usual for a morning game, it was a tight passive table. Lots of limping, and not much raising preflop. There weren't any action players. Just players who were not as tight as the others. The real tight ones are easy to spot. They kept bitching that they don't get any cards.

There was only one hand of interest:

A few limpers when I look down at Jd Js in the BB. I make my standard raise to $7. Five players see a flop of 7d 6c 4d. That is a horrible flop for an overpair, but I need to fire a bet to see where I'm at. $20

UTG calls. Mid position calls. Cutoff, who just sat down, raises to $100. Now this is an easy laydown. Even if the Cutoff just called, I probably would have checked the Turn, since I'm out of position. UTG, an older guy who is very passive, shoves All-In for $19 more. Mid player folds, and Cutoff calls.

Turn: (7d 6c 4d) Jh
River: (7d 6c 4d Jh) Jc

Old Guy turns over 7 7 for a full house. Cutoff mucks and says that he flopped a straight.

Why can't I be a donkey, and not be able to fold an overpair like so many players?

My 1/2 session was only about two hours. I was up a little, and down a little, but was down $33 when they called the list for the 5/10 Omaha-8 table.

It's been a long time since I've played any Omaha-8 in a casino, hence the title of this post. It's one of my favorite games, but it is very rare to find a game in this part of the country. Mountaineer will get a 3/6 table sometimes on the weekends. The last time I played it there, half of the players were playing '9-card Bingo'.

I bought in for $300, 30 BB. There were definitely some players who could play this game. Only one player had 'Dead Money' stamped on his forehead.

I got off to a great start. I won many half pots, along with a couple of scoops. I don't have any hands to share, because there are just too many cards to remember. After about two hours, I had realized that I doubled up. I was gonna leave at the end of the orbit, but I lost two pots, so I kept playing.

Of course, I then went brutally card dead. When you go card dead in a NL game, you just fold or maybe limp in late position. It only costs you $3-$7 per orbit. But in Limit games, and especially Omaha, you gotta see Flops, and a few Turns. And that can really drain your chip stack if you keep hitting air.

Finally, after seeing half of my profit vanish, I walk away from the table up $119.

There was some snow forcasted for the afternoon and evening, so I decide to head home early with some profit. On the way to my car, I made my ritualistic donation to the Video Poker gods. It went a little better than usual. I never went above my $100 buy-in, but I did play for a while, and cashed out for $50.