The PLO8 WCOOP event began at 6AM my time on Thursday. I tend to wake early anyway, so I didn’t set an alarm but expected to be up in time to late register it. By 7:30 I was at my computer with coffee in hand. I didn’t even realize it was a 1R1A until I got felted and a rebuy screen popped up.
Probably the most interesting hand I played was this one:
Poker Stars $200+$15 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament – t60/t120 Blinds – 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
UTG: t20794 173.28 BBs
MP: t27589 229.91 BBs
CO: t10025 83.54 BBs
BTN: t22487 187.39 BBs
SB: t7280 60.67 BBs
Hero (BB): t11130 92.75 BBs
Pre Flop: (t180) Hero is BB with 2
A
9
7
UTG raises to t300, 4 folds, Hero calls t180
Flop: (t660) K Q 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t396, Hero raises to t1555, UTG folds
Final Pot: t1452
Hero mucks 2 A 9 7
Hero wins t1452
It’s rare that you can run a pure bluff in PLO8, since it’s so easy for your opponent to have something good enough for at least half the pot. In this case, though, there was no low possible, and this is actually quite a difficult board for an UTG raiser to hit. I could even see him folding top two here, not that he’ll have a hand that good so often. A player almost always has at least two low cards in his hand to open from early position, so the odds of him hitting any particular high card board are not good. This is an especially good candidate because he can’t have much in the way of draws either.
My table draw in the $500 NLHE 6-Max KO WCOOP was brutal. Most of the time, four of my five opponents were either really successful MTTers or people I recognized from 1000NL cash games. In a field with 1500 runners, that’s a nasty, nasty draw. No one was giving any chips away, and I never really got above starting stack. The only real play I made was this one:
Poker Stars $404+$101+$25 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t15/t30 Blinds – 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
SB: t8862 295.40 BBs
BB: t6625 220.83 BBs
UTG: t7500 250 BBs
MP: t8476 282.53 BBs
CO: t7500 250 BBs
Hero (BTN): t6990 233 BBs
Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BTN with 2
A
3 folds, Hero raises to t60, SB calls t45, BB calls t30
Flop: (t180) K 6 Q (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t90, SB calls t90, BB calls t90
Turn: (t450) T (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t350, SB folds, BB calls t350
River: (t1150) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t990, BB folds
Final Pot: t1150
Hero mucks 2 A
Hero wins t1150
I didn’t last too long in this one:
Poker Stars $404+$101+$25 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t75/t150 Blinds + t20 – 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
MP: t14970 M = 43.39
CO: t12940 M = 37.51
BTN: t11049 M = 32.03
SB: t3436 M = 9.96
BB: t10868 M = 31.50
Hero (UTG): t5209 M = 15.10
Pre-Flop: (t345) Hero is UTG with K K
Hero raises to t300, MP calls t300, 4 folds
Flop: (t945) 8 J 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks
Turn: (t945) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets t511, Hero raises to t4889 all in, MP calls t4378
River: (t10723) T (2 players – 1 is all in)
Final Pot: t10723
MP shows 9 8 (two pair, Nines and Eights)
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
MP wins t10723
I was hoping to check-raise all-in on the flop. though looking at this hand now, I don’t think that line is quite as good as I did at the time. I remembered the flop being slightly more coordinated than this. When that doesn’t work, though, I do think check-shoving turn is the way to go.
That was my last tournament, and with quite a bit of light left in the day, I decided to head over to one of my favorite places in Montreal, the Jean-Talon Market. It’s a huge market that offers a combination of fresh produce and gourmet foods seven days a week. Having just been to the store, there weren’t any groceries I particularly needed, but you can always find something at Jean-Talon.
I jotted down biking directions, which were actually kind of complicated, and then realized that I needed to get cash. My Canadian bank charges particularly high fees for using non-member ATMs, so I had to add the nearest CIBC ATM, which was about a mile away, to my route as well.
Montreal has the largest bike-sharing program in North America. My first few experiences with it were largely positive. There are stations all over the city and a great network of designated lanes that make commuting by bike very practical even if you don’t own a bike.
Not yesterday. The nearest Bixi station to my apartment had just one bike, which was suspicious. When you pay for your rental, you get a code to unlock a bike of your choosing. The codes are quite simple and I’m certain I entered it correctly, but the station would not release the bike. No big deal, your rental is good for 24 hours, and I knew there was another station on my way.
I walked three blocks in the direction I needed to go anyway, only to find that that station had no bikes at all. Three more blocks and the same story: every bike there was already taken. I had no choice but to continue on my route and keep an eye out for another station. I spotted a huge one with three bikes still remaining. I got a new code, the station released my bike… and my butt and my heart both sank when I hopped onto the seat. The back tire was completely flat. A glance over at the other two bikes revealed that the seat was broken on both.
I finally found a usable bike at the fifth station I passed, by which time I was more than halfway to the ATM.
From there the ride to the ATM was effortless, but then there was the new problem of finding a station at which to leave the bike. To be fair, this was something I could have looked up before leaving, but as it was, I had to ride around for five minutes or so to find a station that was about four blocks from the ATM.
After all that, I no longer felt like trekking out to the market, which was still a few miles away. I had no such difficulties getting home, and other than being hot and sick of walking, I wasn’t bitter. My real goal, after spending the first half of the day in front of the computer, was just to get outside and do something active, which I did.
Besides, I’m not playing until tonight’s 5PM NLHE tournament with 10-minute levels, so I’m off to the market for real this time!
Don’t you think such a coordinated flop calls for a c-bet for value? We are getting called a lot here so are we really getting more value by check-shoving after giving up the betting lead than by betting the flop?
Now, as played, is check-shoving the turn a good option as well? Are we ever getting called by worse? It is also quite a big shove, why not just call and fold river?
I feel like the raise pre-flop/check flop line puts us in that tricky situation but curious to hear more of your thoughts.
In my defense, I think that the more coordinated the board, the more severe the reverse implied odds of playing future streets if Villain calls flop. That said, I think you’re generally correct.
Interesting, can you elaborate a little on that? Do we have to worry about reverse implied odds and therefore check the flop? It seems to me like it’s a bit of “he might get there on the turn so let’s not bet” you know what I mean? Don’t we want him to make a mistake and call us with a draw/top pair/middle pair?
Do we want to “protect” our hand? I’d love to hear your thoughts on “betting to protect.”
The RIO don’t just come from him getting there. I expect to be ahead of his flop calling range, but overall I expect playing the turn and river OOP to be -EV for me. That means I sometimes make bad bets/call, sometimes bad folds, sometimes he takes free cards and gets there, etc. I just think his decisionmaking figures to be better than mine given his position and range and my hand, so I’d rather take a line that enables me to end the hand on the flop and also induce a bet and maybe get called by worse (though those latter are more likely for a smaller raise and on a more coordinate flop.