UBOC Event 8 Final Table

After two days off, I came back to the UBOC with a bang last night, final tabling the $200 PLO8 event. There were nearly 400 runners, which surprised me, because in general even UB’s NLHE events don’t get that many runners. Predictably, only about 10% of them had much idea how to play PLO8, and I was able to get up a stack right away. I don’t have the HH, unfortunately, so for now all I can do is sketch a few hands.

One of the first I played, I opened from late position with AQJ3 and was called by the small blind. The flop was Ac Qc 4c. I had no clubs, but I bet it anyway when it was checked to me, since I didn’t want to give a free card to a bad low draw or invite a turn bluff. He called very quickly, and I was ready to be done with it, but then I turned an Ace, giving me the nuts. He checked, I potted it, and he quickly called again. The river was a fourth club, functionally a blank. He checked, I potted it again, and again he quickly called with 44xx for the worst possible full house.

Just like that, I was one of the chipleaders, but it didn’t last. I forget how I lost the chips, but by the 50/100 level, I had about 1100 chips. I won a pre-flop all in with AAxx vs QQxx, picked up another medium pot with a bet when I flopped the nuts against multiple callers of a pre-flop raise, and then I just kind of built from there for a while.

Obviously I’m leaving a lot out, but the next hand I remember, I was sitting on like 25,000 chips at the 300/600 level. Action folded to me in the SB with AA25, one of the best possible PLO8 hands. I raised to 1800, and the BB, who had me covered, called. The flop came 774r, giving me the nut low draw and likely the best high hand. Still, I didn’t like the idea of getting raised on this flop, so I elected to check and try to induce a bluff, since there weren’t really any turn cards I was worried about. My opponent bet about half pot, and I called.

A 9s on the turn didn’t change anything, and I checked and called another half-pot bet. At this point, I was representing just a low draw, and I was hoping that it wouldn’t get there on the river so that my opponent would give more action with worse hands. Frankly, even though I was inducing bluffs, all his betting was making me nervous, because people tend to play pretty straight-forwardly in PLO8.

The river was indeed a non-low brick, and I checked. He quickly shoved. I wasn’t happy about it, but as played, my hand looked a lot like a busted low draw, and I had to call. To my delight, my opponent had like QT35 or something, and I won a monstrous pot that catapaulted me into the chiplead with about 50 players left.

There 40 spots getting paid, and almost everyone seemed concerned about cashing. The two players on my right were very vocal about how much they didn’t want to bubble and how intently they were watching short stacks at other tables. I proceeded to absolutely rape the bubble, raising at least 75% of my hands at an 8-handed table. The only guy who ever played back at me over the course of more than an hour had AA26, but he had been ground down too short to do much damage to me. By the end of the bubble, I had 130,000 chips and was still chipleader.

I had to slow down a lot at that point because I had the image of a bully and all the short stacks were eager to double up and go home now that they had made the money. I folded around for a while without ever losing the chiplead, and eventually I got AAxx in my BB against a button raise. I re-potted, which conveniently left just barely a pot-sized bet in my opponent’s stack. The flop was Ac8c3, giving me the nut high. However, I didn’t have any kind of low so I decided just to shove and hope that my opponent would fold some hands, like 75xx, that would be entitled to half the pot. He tanked and eventually called with something like Ax Qd 6c 2c x. It wasn’t a bad call, and unfortunately he turned a flush to scoop me.

That put a real hurting on my stack, as did a bluff I attempted after calling a raise with A236 or something similar. The flop came T94, not doing much for me, and my opponent, one of the more aggressive at the table, bet at it. The thing is that of the hands he’d be raising from early position, most don’t hit this flop very well. Most of his range should consist of low cards. He called the raise, though, and a turn J deterred me from any further bluffing.

After that I rebuild, again I don’t recall exactly how. Nath from 2+2 was at my table and getting really upset with my aggression. He was actually being a giant ass about it, insulting me and my play in the chat box off and on for over an hour. I don’t think he recognized my UB screenname, but that’s really beside the point.

Anyway, at one point, I called an early position raise of his with A237 and got pretty much a gin flop: 456, giving me the second nut high and the nut low. He checked, and I was 100% sure he was looking to check-raise, so I just bet my hand. Sure enough, he moved in with I think AJ36, which I guess made second nut low, a flush draw to the J, and top pair. I was in pretty good shape, but his flush got there and we ended up chopping.

I quieted down for a while, but opened back up on the final table bubble. I pulled off a pretty key suckout with QQxx > AAxx and came into the final table 2nd of 10. Unfortunately, early on I called another Nath raise with A236 and a Kh 7x 4h flop. I had the Ah but nothing to go with it, so it didn’t affect much. This time he bet out, and I elected to shove. Even though I pretty much have a low only hand and he could easily have A2 as well, I have good counterfeit protection (ie a 2 or an A will still give me the nut low, since I also hold a 3), I have a gut shot that provides 3 nut outs, and frankly this is a tough board for Nath to hit hard. The thing is that I don’t know how much of his betting range consists of hands that would fold, but as for his pre-flop range, only his AK, AA, and sets are really happy as high hands.

Unfortunately, he did have a set of 4’s and snap-called my shove. He had no low, but none got there, so he scooped me. The next hand, I committed with 9 BB stack with A224 or something and lost to a really dominating hand like AA24. I finished 9th, which was pretty disappointing given where I’d been sitting for the latter half of the tournament, but I did run pretty well to get there, so I can’t complain too much.