A-A vs. A-A

Okay, okay, it was only Omaha, but still…

Friday night brought the usual group of suspects together in Cary for our weekly game of “But, I had the nuts on the turn!” The night was fairly young. I had won a couple smaller pots and had increased my 500 POINT buy-in (remember, it’s ILLEGAL to play for MONEY, so we play for POINTS) to around 650-700 POINTS. We’re playing 2/5 Omaha 8, and maybe half the hands have a live straddle to help spur on the action. This particular hand, I believe there is a re-straddle to 30 POINTS.

I’m in early position, and look down to find Ah-Ad-Qs-Js. Of course, my first thought is that I wish this was one our rare high-only hands (it’s dealer’s choice, though we usually play 95+% high-low), but no such luck. I toss in the call, there’s another caller, and the action is to Stone, who raises the pot – another 120 POINTS or so. Everyone folds, and the action is to me.

As I’ve mentioned before here, I normally don’t like raising pre-flop in this game, even with a premium hand like A-A-2-3. However, I will sometimes re-raise if I have a very good hand, and I believe that either A) I can win the pot right then and there, or B) I can isolate someone. Stone has a fairly large stack and is a pretty tight player, and could have made the raise with K-K or some nice low cards, something like A-2-3-5 with a suit. A re-raise by me will tell him I obviously have aces and something to go with them (in this case, flush and straight draws), and I figure there is a good chance I can take down the pot right there. If not, well then I’ll just have to see what the poker gods have in store for me this time...

I re-pop to 360 POINTS, and it folds to Stone who re-pops all-in for another 180 POINTS or so, announcing “Well, I guess you know what I have.” I make the call, and he turns over As-Ac-10s-6s, pretty much the one hand I don’t want to see – the other two aces with a low draw. He even has my spades covered (though with at least five of them out, the chances of a flush are slim). I immediately start praying to the normally-vengeful poker gods, asking for big cards on the flop. Either I caught them in an unusually sympathetic moment, or (more likely) they had my prayer confused with someone else’s, because the dealer peels off a flop of K-Q-Q. Woo hoo! Stone is all but drawing dead, as the J that gives him a straight also fills me up. Two bricks are turned up on the turn and river, and I scoop a nice little pot.

I scooped a couple other decent pots later in the evening, and for the most part stayed away from the trouble hands before they cost me too much mon, er… too many POINTS. I ended the night with around 2,800 more POINTS than I started with. Of course, these POINTS have NO CASH VALUE, as that would be ILLEGAL - it’s all about having fun. Still, I slept well that night, secure in the knowledge that I had scored more POINTS than the other guys. Because in the end, it’s all about having a good time - mon, er… POINTS are just a way of keeping score.

See ya at the tables…
Rick