Enter The Donkey

Monday, June 6, 2011

Omaha Round 5

Early in the round we limp in with 238K double suited. A raise behind us and a bunch of calls puts 5 players in to see the flop for 1000 each. Flop comes A7J with the As. I love it. I bet and get raised twice. I'm not made yet, so I just call and the four remaining players have paid 1500 each to see the turn. Turn comes Ts. Would prefer to make my low, but now any spade gives me the nut flush (although the 7 or J spade could give someone else a full house) and any low 456 or 8 gives me the nut low. Early player bets 1000 and we raise to 2000. Three players still in. The river comes, 6s. We have what is called, on the rare occasions that it, like a unicorn, appears, "nut nut." This is the best low hand (23 here) and simultaneously the best hi hand (here the K2s). The words are generally said with a quiet respect as, here, they herald the sweeping of the pot. Good times!

It's at this juncture that we decide to get a massage. Donkey's heart was pounding there. It's time to relax a little and relax the play some.

Seat 4 we raise pre flop with AA39 double suited black. We get one call and then the grinder raises. We raise and everyone calls. 3 people see the flop. 689 with 2 clubs. Love it! We have a great low draw, top pair, a pair of As and one more club gives us the nut flush. We bet 500 and get a call. Then the Grinder raises and we raise. The third party folds and the grinder calls. Turn comes 2d. We now have nut low - giddey-up! We bet and the Grinder calls. We're hoping for the club for nut nut, but instead Ad comes on the river. That's bad for our low because our A3 is no longer nut, but we do have 3As for hi! We bet and the Grinder calls. We show our three As and he mucks his hand. We take it down. I've probably played 10 heads up hands with him, and he's probably won 7 of them, but I'd say we're even now.

We play about four or five other reasonable pots, probably losing a little overall. Still, we close Round 5 with about 50,000 45k in chips. Great Round! Hopefully more good stuff in an hour.

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

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Omaha - round 4

Playing 200 400.

We're slowly getting bigger, up to 32,000, and then we lose a couple small pots. Then - a big one comes - we limp in to a 6 handed pot with A378. Flop comes A7T - we have top and bottom pair. We bet and get a raise right after us, followed by 2 callers. We call. Turn comes A; we have A full of 7s. All we're afraid of is AT. We bet. The original raiser folds (the guy I thought might have AT) and a new party raises. We and one other player call. River comes Q and he bets again. We just call. Sure enough, he has AT. Big pot to watch slip through our fingerless hooves. Back down to 23,000!

We raise from late seat with A389 double suited. BB re-raises and we call to play heads up. Flop comes 78K, but no good suits. He bets and we call. Turn comes T. He bets and we call. River comes J. He checks. We bluff bet and he calls and takes it down with Ks and 7s.

We limp in with 3357 and flop comes 279. We call a solitary bet and see the turn, A. That's great for us. Our 35 is second only to a 34 and it's doubtful anyone has that as we have 2 of the 3s. We raise the initial better and everyone calls. Good sign no one has the 34. River comes 9 putting a pair on the board. We bet and get raised. We raise and the remaining 2 players call, one of whom takes the hi with a 9. We take the low half.

There are four limpers and we're in the BB with 57QQ double-suited. Good hand heads up, but not against a full table. We raise, and everyone calls. Five people see the 789 flop, with 2 spades (we have Q5s). We bet and get 2 callers to see the Ts turn. Great card for us unless someone has the Ks or As. Still no low on the board. We bet and get one caller. River comes Q, giving us a set, but our flush is still our best hand. We bet and the final player folds. Good way to end the round.

Thus far our great starting hands have yielded consistent losses, but we've won back some of the chips with our not-quite-great starting hands. We finish round 4 and head into a short dinner break for 30 minutes. Not much time to eat. Good thing Wife's sister packed me a sandwich. She even packed the tomato slices separately so everything would stay dry.

We have 24,400 in chips. Not happy about that, but at least we're still here. More in hopefully no less than 90 minutes.

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Omaha

So Donkey is playing angry, confused, and with celery between his molars with no tooth floss available and no desire to put his now filthy hands in his mouth anyway.

Nothing in the flops looks like anything in our hooves (eg we have 2345 and the flop comes JQQ). I hope to have something fun to write about soon . . .

We have A347 with suited As and get caught between two raisers who make the pre-flop betting 1200. Flop comes 5TK with one spade. Not good, but we're able to see the turn for 300. 6s - perfect card for us (well, 2s would be perfect, but we'll take it). We call a 600 bet and the river comes Ts. That is perfect. We have the nut flush. They check to us, we bet, and we finally take a few thousand down in a pot!!!

We then played a series of smallish pots taking half of them or pushing everyone out early. Slowly picking up a thousand here and there to reach back to about 26,000. A sample small hand follows.

We raise pre-flop with 24KK, three of them clubs. Three people see the 469 flop. Bad because there's a good chance a low comes, but we bet our over-pair. We get raised and just call. We're afraid someone has 2 pair. Turn comes 9 and we check. Everyone checks. I'm guessing our Ks and 9s is good. However, the river comes 7 putting a low and a straight on the board. We call a bet and we take half with KK99. Half of a small pot, but still happy to take it.

By the way, there's a guy called the "Grinder" at my table. I don't know most the poker stars because I don't watch the TV thing, but the news guy keeps looking over at his stack.

We close round 3 with a numbness from rubbing our celery laden teeth, but we're back to 27,500 in chips, so Donkey On!

More in an hour hopefully!
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Omaha

We start round 2 with A237 double suited black) and 3 people seeing the flop after capping the pre-flop bet at 1250 each. Big pot. Flop comes 799, all red. Terrible. We call a 250 bet hoping to see a 7 or low turn. Turn comes Q, putting 3 hearts on the board. Could it have been much worse? We fold.

Well, it does get worse. Heads up with our fellow blind we flop top 2 pair and he flops a straight. We call him down and see his pretty hand take the pot.

80 minutes into the tourney we get the first river card that helps us. It's an 8, giving us a straight to win half a pot. I'll take it!

Not to get too excited, we get into a 4 way pot for 750 pre flop with JQKK. Flop comes 57J and we call 250. Turn comes 9, an apparent rag, and the better bets again. We call 500. River comes K, perfect! We have a set. Better bets 500, we raise, a caller behind us, better makes it 1500. Could he have TQ or something like 99? We call. He has TQ. Que Disastre! Our set of Ks was good against the third party caller, but second best no bueno.

We have A23T with ATs and get action pre flop. 4 players in for 1250. Flop comes 9TT! Wasn't expecting the T to be the power card, but giddey up we bet and get 2 callers. Turn comes 6. We bet and get 2 callers. River comes K and, guess what? Yep! River gives a straight to a caller and we watch our pot go bye-bye. Hmmmm, what's going on here! Donkey getting angry.

Under the gun we have A2JK. One of the best hands we've seen. We raise and get re-raised and we re-raise and 3 players see the flop for 1000 each. Flop comes 5TQ. Great flop! A 9JK or A will give us the top straight. Again we bet and there are raises and the pot balloons. A 6 turns. I would rather see the straight card, but now a 347 or 8 gives us the best low. We keep betting. River comes 6. Hmmm. Lots of cards give us half or all the pot, but that's not one of them. To make it worse, the guy pounding the pot up against us with his presumed AA is no longer afraid that I flopped 2 pair as he now has 2 pair. He takes it down (with AA). What a shit fest!

I'm looking back over the misery of the first 2 rounds of play thankful that we head into break with about 18,000 left in chips. This is a sad way to start, but we will likely either come strong in 3 and 4 or go home early.

Oddly I'm not as impressed as I thought I'd be by the play. Maybe because it's early, but this is the championship for Omaha hi-lo and these should be the best players in the world.

Hopefully it will be at least an hour before my next blog. Going in hurt, angry, and confused. It can't get worse, so maybe that will help!

Side note - Wife's sister packed carrots and celery for me. That requires acid-based hand washing before eating.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Omaha

The Donkey is at his seat. Yellow 131 seat 3. A few thoughts before we start.

As I came to the entry, there were dozens of waiting players smoking. They're a good group for this as they don't use their lungs much.

The urinals here have football goal posts in them to help players shoot for the inside of the urinal.

Cards up. 100 200 blinds playing 200 400.

66TK under the gun. We fold. We survived the first hand!

BB 23TK with K3s. Everyone's raising and, with 200 in already, I call another 600. Flop is 389 all clubs. We throw is away. At the end of the hand it's clear that our hand was as good as any. That's odd as they were raising and I felt weak to be in there pre-flop.

To make myself feel better, when everyone folds to us, we raise from the SB and steal the BB's 200!

There are too many cards to recite entire hands, but here are a few highlights of Round 1.

We flop a high straight. Only 1 low card on the boar. We build the pot a little and a second low card turns. We build the pot and a final card comes and, although it's not low, it puts 3 diamonds (including the turn) on the board and our opponent shows 46d to win. Hmmm, not a good river.

In a somewhat similar story we flop top pair with A24Q and a board of 69Q. We turn an A to give us top 2 pair and a good low draw with our 24. River comes 6 and the same adversary as before takes it with a 6 in his hand. To be fair, he also had a 78, so a 5 would have given him half the pot with a straight and a T the whole pot. Still, terrible river.

We did however have an A35K that flopped 5TJ and turned a 5. We split that pot with another A5.

At the end of Round 1, we have 28,600 (started with 30,000). Given the terrible rivers, I'm happy with that!

We're moving into Round 2 playing 125 250 blinds and 250 500 limits.

Hopefully more in an hour.

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Omaha Hi-Lo

Welcome to Donkey Bray. We're getting anxious, but the stable door is about to open. The first tournament we're entering is a championship bout, the championship Omaha Hi-Lo Split (8 or better) on June 6. Watch for postings starting around 7pm.

First, a few rules for those not familiar with Omaha. Omaha Hi-Lo is one of the more complicated games, so feel free to skip this and stay tuned for Texas Hold'em later. Also, my brief summary may seem long, but there are many books on this topic. Here goes:

Omaha is short for "Omaha Hold'em", a cousin to the currently common game of "Texas Hold'em", which is generally referred to as simply "Hold'em". The two games are identical in all but about five ways. Here are the differences:

1.       Each player in Omaha receives four cards, not two.

2.       The flop, turn and river are identical to Hold'em, creating a pool of five community cards on the board.

3.       Half of the pot goes to the person with the best poker hand. To construct this hand, each player must use exactly two cards from their hand and three cards from the community board.

a.       Accordingly, if a player has the Ace and King of diamonds (along with two rags) and the community board has four diamonds, the player has an Ace high flush. However, if the player has only the Ace of diamonds and no other diamonds, the player does not have a flush despite the fact that the community board has four diamonds. Remember that the player must use two cards from his hand and three from the board, so among those five cards the player will have something that's not a diamond.

b.      This aspect of the game becomes very interesting when a player has, for example, a 6, 7, T, J and the flop includes an 8 and a 9. Consider all the turn and river cards that give this player a straight . . . any 5, 6, 7, T, J, or Q (e.g. if a 6 falls, the player uses the 6, 8, and 9 from the board with the 7 and T from their hand to create a Ten high straight). That's 20 cards, which means a straight will happen about 69.7% of the time! More importantly, in each case the player has the highest possible straight available. This is a side note about Omaha, but very important. The biggest losses I see in Omaha occur when people have second nut hands. For example, if the board has an 89J and I have the 7T, I have a straight, but someone out there, with each player holding four cards, is likely to have the TQ to make a higher straight. I see this a lot in Omaha. King high flushes getting donkey punched. Not pretty. Back to the rules.

4.       The other half of the pot goes to the person with the "lowest" poker hand. This one is a little tricky.

a.       In order to have a low poker hand, you must have five cards, again using two from your hand and three from the community cards, between Ace and 8 (no pairs allowed). The best low hand is A2345 (flushes and straights are irrelevant) and the worst is 45678.

b.      In comparison, whichever player has the highest card loses. So, for example, if I have a 24578 and you have an A2678, I win. Our 8s cancel out; our 7s cancel out; and you have the next highest card with your 6. Although you're A2 is fantastic, that 6 kills you.

c.       In many hands no one has a low hand either because they have high cards in their hands, their low cards all paired up, or, most commonly, the community board doesn't have 3 low cards in it. Remember, because you have to use 3 cards from the community board, if the community board doesn't have 3 cards A-8 (not including pairs), then NO ONE CAN HAVE A LOW. This is very important as many players will sit in calling bets with their A234 when the board is something like 577J hoping that the river card will bring them a low.

d.      If there is no low hand, then the high hand takes the entire pot. This is, of course, hugely important and often leads to pre-flop raises from high-focused hands (e.g. JQKK).

5.       Omaha is often played as a "high only" game. In that version, it's often played pot limit. However, we're playing Hi-Lo, so we will be playing a limit game. The betting increments, of course, will go up every hour.

See you June 6 - Get your hooves warmed up!

Eric Kurtzman