FTOPS Event 2

Last night was the $200 HORSE event. I made it about three hours in, ran well in the first couple levels against some clueless donks, then got nothing playable for like an hour, got outdrawn by another donkey at Razz, rebuilt thanks to some stubborn Stud donkeys, made a baby striaght flush to scoop a nice pot in Stud/8, then got owned by Andy Bloch because I’m the donkey at O/8:

Full Tilt Poker Game #3206605233: FTOPS Event #2 (23185790), Table 107 – 300/600 – Limit Omaha H/L – 0:04:08 ET – 2007/08/10
Seat 1: allsk (7,708)
Seat 2: Foucault (4,582)
Seat 3: RolldUpTrips (881)
Seat 4: Magic Aces (12,180)
Seat 5: VeniceBeachy (7,419)
Seat 6: Andy Bloch (15,126)
Seat 7: Ynenk03 (3,627)
Seat 8: Burro Grande (4,225)
VeniceBeachy posts the small blind of 150
Andy Bloch posts the big blind of 300

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ah 8d 5h Qs]
Ynenk03 folds
Burro Grande folds
[b]FrankieHands (Observer): Hey Andy what’s the best way to build your stack in your opinion? [/b]
allsk folds
Foucault raises to 600
RolldUpTrips folds
Magic Aces folds
VeniceBeachy calls 450
Andy Bloch calls 300

*** FLOP *** [Ac 8c Td]
VeniceBeachy checks
Andy Bloch checks
Foucault bets 300
VeniceBeachy folds
Andy Bloch calls 300

*** TURN *** [Ac 8c Td] [7c]
Andy Bloch checks
Foucault checks

*** RIVER *** [Ac 8c Td 7c] [5s]
Andy Bloch bets 600
Foucault calls 600

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Andy Bloch shows [4h 6c 2s 6s] a straight, Eight high, for high and 7,5,4,2,A, for low
Andy Bloch wins the high pot (1,800) with a straight, Eight high
Andy Bloch wins the low pot (1,800) with 7,5,4,2,A
[b]Andy Bloch: get nice rivers that scoop [/b]

I actually don’t think this is too bad. I’ve got a suited Ace and some weak low draws pre-flop, which I think especially in a tournament is a reasonable raise from a borderline steal position. With shallower stacks, playing only hands with nut potential is a little less important.

So I flop two pair on a pretty coordinated board, and I have no low draw. I think I can fire at it once and then slow down to action, but I’m not at all sure that’s correct. Turn completes a flush I don’t have, which stinks for me, but now I have some (bad) low draws. To call the river bet, I need to win half the pot half the time, which I felt was reasonable as Andy could be betting just a flush or just a low. But like I said, I’m an O/8 fish, so don’t take that analysis for much.

And I prove that again here:

Full Tilt Poker Game #3206648126: FTOPS Event #2 (23185790), Table 107 – 300/600 – Limit Omaha H/L – 0:08:19 ET – 2007/08/10
Seat 1: allsk (6,808)
Seat 2: Foucault (3,082)
Seat 3: RolldUpTrips (881)
Seat 4: Magic Aces (10,980)
Seat 5: VeniceBeachy (10,869)
Seat 6: Andy Bloch (12,126)
Seat 7: Ynenk03 (4,677)
Seat 8: Burro Grande (6,325)
allsk posts the small blind of 150
urbandb888 posts the big blind of 300

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Foucault [Ah 8s 5h Ks]
RolldUpTrips folds
Magic Aces calls 300
VeniceBeachy folds
Andy Bloch folds
Ynenk03 folds
Burro Grande folds
allsk folds
Foucault checks

*** FLOP *** [7s Ts 7c]
Foucault checks
Magic Aces bets 300
urbandb888 raises to 600
Magic Aces raises to 900
urbandb888 calls 300

*** TURN *** [7s Ts 7c] [9s]
urbandb888 checks
Magic Aces bets 600
urbandb888 raises to 1,200
Magic Aces calls 600

*** RIVER *** [7s Ts 7c 9s] [4h]
urbandb888 bets 600
Magic Aces calls 600

*** SHOW DOWN ***
urbandb888 shows [Ah 8s 5h Ks] a flush, King high, for high
Magic Aces shows [5c 3s As Kh] a flush, Ace high, for high
Magic Aces wins the pot (6,150) with a flush, Ace high
No low hand qualified

I have no idea what to put him on pre-flop, but with 5 BB’s in my stack, I’m willing to hitch my wagon to the second nut flush draw on a board that it should be tough for my opponent to hit: no low draw, no big cards, etc. I figured he’d bet anything, and I wanted to represent trips with my semi-bluff. There aren’t many good O/8 hands with 7’s in them, so I think the unraised blind is much more likely to have it than a limper. Well, he didn’t have it, but he 3-bet me with his flush draw anyway. Once it got there, I was way too short to get away, and that was that.

A good rule of thumb is not to chase the second nut flush draw in Omaha, especially with a pair on the board. I felt like this was kind of a unique situation because of the short stacks involved, but maybe I’m just an O/8 fish.