I folded the nuts, etc.

Hey "All"

The Poker League got together Saturday to play two tournaments: Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold'em. We played Omaha first.  I was involved in several interesting hands but will go over a few.

First hand: I have AA7x, 2 hearts.  It's early, so the blinds are 25/50 (we start with 5000) and there are 6 people seeing the flop.  I did not raise because this early in the tournament most people will call anyway and I don't want to create a big pot at this point in the tournament when my aces may very well be worthless after the flop (this is a 10-person tournament); obviously, as the blinds increase and the number of players decrease, then I become much more aggressive with AA in Omaha.

Flop: A 9 J (two hearts): pot is 300 before any betting.  Checked to me.  I'm way ahead here.  I bet 200.  2 callers.

Turn: K (not a heart): Yippee...pot is 900 before any betting.  I check. Lefty bets 600 and Buffy calls; I sigh on the inside and call; I still have outs afterall and I'm getting 3.5 to 1 on my money with the nut flush draw and full house and quad draws.

River: shit (not a heart): this sucks...Pot is 2700 before any betting...I don't know how the betting went but Lefty bet, Buffy called after trying to figure out how his nuts could get beat and I folded quickly.  Nothing I could really do here, it's just PL Omaha and that is just the way it is; extremely volatile game.

So, then I end up a bit short, but I turn it around partly on one huge bluff on a straight board where I just had a pair of 2's and the other guy had 2 pair.  2 pair suck in Omaha and with a straight staring you in the face it is tough to call.  I had a pretty good read on him and if he called I was going to be amazed.

Later in the tournament we were down to 3 players and I was probably the big stack by then and getting bigger all the time.

My Hand: A 8 9 10.  Blinds are 400/800 I think.  The dealer folded and I called; BB checked.  I had been raising a lot so I just tried to sneak in here.

Flop: A A 7.  Check, Check.

Turn: 9: Yahtzee right?  Not so fast.  1600 in the pot before any betting. I bet 1200.  He bets pot which makes it 2800 for me to call and when I look at his stack, I know it's either all in or fold...you say "fold?  You have the nuts!"  Yeah, yeah, but I was overthinking and not thinking at the same time.  I knew I had 3 aces and I knew I had a straight draw.  However, I did not connect that my 9 that would help me with a straight also made me a boat...I asked if he would show.  "Sure."  I folded after convincing myself that he had a boat, making my straight draw worthless and he flips A 4 5 Q...I say "nice hand," a little annoyed that he didn't have the boat but had a higher kicker than me...The dealer looks at my hand and says, "You just folded the nuts!"

Well, the good news is that I eventually won the Omaha tournament and I have won 4 of the 5 Omaha tournaments we have played this year.  Wow, I have never done that before and next month we play PL Omaha 8 which can be much more confusing than just standard Omaha.  I hate making that mistake, but I think I learned from it and it certainly added to the fun of the evening.

It's 9/11; Let us never forget!

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