Tuesday at Dave's - A New Game!

Well, I didn’t think it could get much more crazy or exciting at Dave’s, but I stand corrected. 60-70% of the time we already play a game that’s not for the faint of heart; Omaha 8 (Hi/Low) No-Limit. This is a game you will not find many places during your travels, but it can result in some intense action and very large multi-way pots.

For Dave (the original adrenaline junkie) this game is apparently becoming too mundane, as he has invented a new off-shoot. His new game is called “Omaha 8 (Hi/Low) No-Limit Raise $100 Blind Pre-Flop When It Gets To Me.” I must admit, it, um, spiced things up a bit. Our hero was on my left Tuesday night, and he had a few fellow crazies (Bill, Elvie, Michael, etc) acting behind him. Like clockwork, Dave would carelessly toss in a chocolate chip, and by the time it got back around to me, the middle of the table looked like a fat kid’s bedroom floor on Halloween night. I’d look down at some garbage like K-J-4-2, but by then I’m usually getting 7:1 pot odds and almost incalculable implied odds, so I’d toss one in as well.

I tell you what; you’ve never seen a table full of card players more interested in the flop! Everyone was hoping to flop to their hand and cash in their lottery ticket. It definitely beats the heck out of the North Carolina State Lottery (where the payout is $1 a year for a million years). Dave got back to his “normal” self after a while, then we got to see some flops for *only* $20-25. While it was a bit of a letdown, trying to get excited about a pot that had less than $2K in it, we all did our best to at least pretend interested.

As for the big hands, I gave Dave $400 pretty quickly. I forget the specifics, but I think I flopped top pair in NLHE and paid off his overpair. I told him at the time that it was just a very short-term loan with an extremely high interest rate. Sure enough, a few hands later he gave me $800 or so when he has 8-8, I have 9-9, and the flop comes 9-8-3. Not much he could have done there, but I raked his chips and never looked back.

I had a few nice scoops in Omaha 8. Dave even paid off my monkey when the board shows 9-9-9, and he has A-A. I check the river, he bets $300 into a $500 or so pot, and I min-raise to $600. He calls immediately, and says he would’ve called an all-in. With Dave (like Roseanne Roseannadanna’s father) you never know, but I was happy to take the extra $300 “sure thing.”

Tuesday also marked the return of Eli, one of my favorite people to play with. He’s an action player, but more importantly, he’s a quality individual, and all-around good guy. He’s still learning Omaha (and making a few mistakes along the way like all of us did at first), but he’ll soon grow to love it like the rest of us have. I’m convinced that Omaha 8 is the best game around for an action guy.

Once daylight came and the smoke cleared, I was lucky enough to have held on to most of my chips, and cashed out for a very nice amount. As usual, Dave had a lot of money invested, but he made some nice plays, scooped a couple monster pots, and (I believe) ended up ahead. All in all, it was a very interesting and exciting night of poker with The Jizz. I’m looking forward to next Tuesday! Until then…

See ya at the tables…
Rick