Omaha at PKR

Kind of a slow Friday night at PKR. With the holiday weekend and all, we only had 4-6 players most of the night (Joe, Charles, Nate, Akash, Raj and myself). The table was mostly on the tight side, and the average skill level was a bit higher than usual. This combination added up to a fairly uneventful evening. It was still Omaha, however, so we did end up with a few decent-sized pots. Blinds are $1/3, but we had a $7-8 straddle almost every hand to try and spur on some action. We even joked about just making it a $7 ante.

With this group of players, I realized fairly early that this probably wasn’t going to be a night where I won a lot of money. And since I’d be bored out of my skin if I just sat around and waited for good hands, I decided to play the night mostly for entertainment value. I figured I’d end up losing $100-200 for the evening while chasing crappy draws with marginal hands. Sure enough, that’s the way the first hour or two went. I didn’t pick up any large pots, and my dissipating chip stack reflected this.

After reloading, I started hitting a few flops and slowly building my stack up. While I scooped a few smaller pots, there is really only one hand that sticks out. I may get some particulars wrong, but I’m in the small blind with A-2-4-5, and I think the entire table sees the flop for $7. The flop comes 4-5-8 with two spades, and I like the flop so much that decide to check-raise. I check, and I think Raj pushes in his last few chips, Nate raises the pot, and Akash raises all-in. Yikes! All of a sudden, I go from thinking I may have a possible scooper to thinking I may get quartered.

I didn’t think very long, however. After a night of crappy hands, I decide if that I’m going down, then this is the hand I’m going down with. I make the call, and have everyone covered. Chuck throws up the turn and river before I can look at everyone’s hand. I definitely like the 5 on the turn, which boats me up. I don’t like the 8 on the river so much, but it turns out it doesn’t improve anyone enough to take the high away from me. Nate turns up a flush draw with no low (clearly he was as bored as me!), Akash turns over A-2 (I didn’t notice the other two), and I never saw Raj’s hand. Akash has Nate and Raj covered, so he gets ¼ of the pot with his shared nut low and I get the rest. This was by far the biggest pot of the night – around $1,300 or so.

There was one other interesting hand. I have a crappy Kd-6s-6c-3d, and the flop comes 9d-6h-2d. I like the flop, as I have middle set and second nut flush draw, but this is the kind of hand that can get real ugly if the wrong turn card comes (every card in the deck that doesn't pair the board makes a possible straight, low, or higher set). I bet the pot, and Akash is the only caller. The turn is the 9h, boating me up. I had put him on some kind of draw, and I don’t want to bet the pot and chase him off a straight of flush draw. If he’s on a low draw and it comes and I lose half the pot, then so be it. I bet $80 into a $120 or so pot. Akash thinks for a minute, folds his 7h-8h, and asks to see the river. In typical PKR fashion, Chuck turns up the 10h, which would have given him a straight flush (whew!). The interesting thing about this hand is that it really could have really been a monster for Akash if it had played out differently, as both Charles and Nate said they folded what would have been bigger boats than mine!

We played a while longer, but nobody else showed up and the game broke at around 11:30 or so. Though I began with low expectations, I ended up cashing out for a decent amount. It’s a funny game. I had crappy cards most of the night and played crappy as well, but one big hand made the difference in finishing ahead or behind. But as they say…that’s poker!

See ya at the tables…
Rick