From Omaha To Nomaha.

I know, that title is pretty gay.

After winning a $3 KO game about a week ago, I've been playing a lot of them since. Part of my mentality has been "Well, I've already done it once, why not again?" I've final tabled it once since then, and end up going out somewhere in the 20-30 range. I've had a couple chances to run deep again in these but have donked away some mid size stacks playing too aggressively. These games are fun though and I'll still play them fairly often, but I need to reign it in a bit. My bankroll is noticeably lighter since that victory.

I also played a $5 DS PLO game last night. Doubled up my stack within the 1st hour, then lost 23rds of it on a 983 board with AAxx. I had an overpair and the nut flush draw, bet out, and got reraised. Since I had him covered I took a chance at getting a huge stack, and he shows KJTT with a draw to the straight flush. Turn was good but river was a T for trips.

Fought back until I had an interesting hand against a big stack who wasn't very good. He limped from EP and it folds to me in the BB with KJ4x. Flop comes AQ8, Q8 are same suit as my J4. He min-bets and I check raise to 3xBB. He smooth calls, and for whatever reason, I read this to mean that he wasn't drawing to a nut flush - not sure why, but from what I'd seen I figured he would've reraises top pair with nut flush draw. Turn completes my flush, and I try to sell it as a scare card by delaying & weak betting. he smooth calls again. River is irrelevant, and I check. He then pot bets it which is more than my stack. I'm only afraid of KX spades here, and I just can't fold it after all is said & done. He shows A8TX for a smaller flush & I double up. Probably not the best play but I just really felt that I wasn't against a higher flush.

Afterwards, the cards started pouring in. Took more chips from the same stack when he couldn't fold his 2nd nut flush to my nut flush. Got AAKx and AAKK twice in about 15 hands, both times flop came AKx. And one of those even gave me the case A on the turn. DQB baby. Sadly, I couldn't get very much post-flop out of those hands.

Then the wheels fell off.

Hand 1) I was sitting in 2nd place with about 30 left to play, raised it in EP with AQJ5, single suited. BB calls and flop is a wonderful 234 rainbow. BB bets about 23rd pot and I smooth call. Turn is a Jh and he bets big. Losing this hand still keeps me around 10k so I put him in, he shows 4566 with 2 hearts for the utter nuts + flush redraw. I thought maybe the Jh meant flush redraw & 2 pair or trips - did not expect nuts vs 2nd nuts.

Hand 2) Raised with AAQx (yes, again), saw a flop of 734. Flop was uncoordinated and I could have won the pot here, but I checked OOP. Opponent checks. Turn is a 2s and I bet pot. Opponent goes all in for less then a minraise more & shows A2QX with AX spades. River is a Q and gives him two pair.

Hand 3) Final hand was a silly battle of the blinds. I had 5666 but it folded to me in the SB and the 56 was sooted so I just limped. Flop was 333. I pot bet it and BB calls. Turn is an A. I bet again, he calls. River is a J, I don't feel like playing anymore so I push. He calls and shows the case 3. I was correct in figuring he didn't have a pair, but he has the one card that beats me.

Not sure what to do with those last three hands. I'm sure I could fold Hand 1 preflop OOP, but aside from that, is anyone folding that hand at any point? Hand 2, yes I could have bet on the flop. My opponent got his money in on the turn behind with at most 17 outs (if no other spades were dealt preflop). Can't do the calc since I'm at work & they block that kind of stuff but I figure my AA is decently ahead with one card to go. IMO, it was just a sucky river. Hand 3, I should have just folded the 666 preflop (did I need a bigger sign than that?) or check-folded after the flop, but I was tilty at that point and just refused to believe he has the case 3. Any thoughts?

Anyways, so yeah, time to get back to business. I've had fun playing MTTs the past week or so but it's time to get back to my bread-n-butter, the SNGs. I'll also be playing a home game tonight that a friend invited me too - $10, 5k in chips, two rebuys through the first two hours. This should be interesting - I'll try to provide a Jordan-esque recap for you next week.