Omaha is Holdem on Steroids and other Revelations

I'm not going to worry about it. The entry fee is $2.20 and I had rebought 2x for an investment of $6.20.
I think at this point especially after chopping this tournament last Sunday I can absorb the loss.
I just found it strange and wanted to point out that this stuff happens to everyone at one time or another.

I stole this from the .gif thread but it seemed appropriate.
May 2015 find everyone happy, healthy, and wise.
Good luck in 2015

Here are my totals as of the end of 2014.
Please keep in mind I stole $1,000 out of my Stars account to play in an $1,090 live tournament in Brantford where I did absolutely nothing.
Starting Capital----$100-------------Me $50 Pokerstrategy $50
Stars balance------$710
Everest balance---$370
PKR balance-------$350
Total------------------$1,430
Profit up to now--$1,330

Here's hoping 2015 is much more productive.

Love your blog. From the beginning to the end always intressting. One thing I would like to mention anyways is that you keep focusing on the negative things... for example when you say you post all the bad beats you confront yourself again with the "few" situations (if you look at it longterm it will not occur that frequently) where you really had bad luck.

Try it the other way an focus on situations everything went fine or perhaps when you gave someone a bad beat. Post the hands you are not sure if you played them right in the forum to get feedback on them.

Sofair you are doing a great job anyway, so it looks like you've got a lot of skill.
I wish you all the best in 2015 and will follow your future progress.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I wish more people who read this blog would.
You may be right, I probably do focus to much on the negative but as I try to keep this blog real, negativity is a part of life that we all have to deal with. This is my way of blowing off steam. If I don't vent then I find it eats at me, and in my opinion that is worse, at least for me it is.
Everything that has happened or will happen to me in my life has happened to others before. I try to keep things in perspective and hopefully this will help the mindset of someone reading this blog. This reminds me of this song by Avril Lavigne.(a fellow Canadian)

I have been playing poker off and on all my life and pride myself in my limited abilities. I can beat up the guppies but the sharks still beat me up. So although my game is not at the level of players I used to play against like Gavin Smith and Grant and Nick who have all gone on to play professionally; I took a long break to raise a family (wife's order ),. I take a shot every now and then in medium and big buy-in live tournaments and I try my best to respect the game and my fellow players. I make a lot of mistakes but DAMIT JIM I'm giving it all she's got (STAR TREK reverence)

What's up with Stars connections these days? Today I am playing an 8-game tournament that pays 12 places. We are down to 20 players and I lose my connection. 15 minutes go by before I can re-connect and by then I am blinded out and finish 16th. Dam!

Here is a hand I played earlier in an Omaha cash game.
It's hard to get action when you flop QUADS.

I didn't re-raise pre-flop with position as my Aces are naked. Some would re-raise here but I prefer to take a flop and then proceed as I am a post-flop player.

"it's always better to get the money in while you are behind since it's the only way to avoid bad beats"

I love your footnote. It sums things up nicely and is the exact opposite to the way I try and play.

Nice hand. Well I would perhaps 3bet it since you are in position and even though it's not suited it's still connected pretty good with J9. But that would also depend on the stats of villain. Not sure about the turn, you could try a small bet just around 2$ to make it look like a float or a cheap attemp to steal the pot, with some villains it would induce a bluff raise, but well you can never be sure, so I guess your line of check turn, min-raise river is also more than ok.

well ofc you always have to keep the negative things in mind too and deal with them, just saying that I for myself try to find positive things wherever I look at. For example -> you "complain" about a bad beat and I am happy that villain is stupid enough to stack off with 5% equity against my hand. Ofc sometimes I also get mad about such things but most of the time I just remember myself that even though he got lucky this time I will win it in the long run.

Btw. don't get scared by my gold status here, my poker skills are not as good as you might think. Just finished writing my opening post for my blog (currently only on my PC will post it during the next days) and it's shocking how much I donated to the regulars online so far ^^

till then I hope you could enjoy your new year's eve and gl at the tables

EDIT:
Finally finished the opening "post" in my blog... New Year's ReVolution - 180 SNG MTTs whenever you have a spare week feel free to read it

I do not understand why I donate in the Omaha Hi-Lo limit cash games these days. I am doing something wrong. Oh well.
Fortunately the Omaha 3x turbo Hi-Lo tournament that I play in is good to me. In the last week I have had a chopped win (1st and 2nd prize money was chopped and then we kept going all-in until he had all the chips) and a 13th place finish. Maybe I should keep away from the Hi-Lo Limit Cash Games.
This morning we got close but ran out of steam just before the final table.
Still finishing 13th out of 371 runners isn't to shabby and no disconnect problems either.

Here is the hand that did me in.
I was short-stacked and was in 13/13 at the time and with the blinds coming I needed to pick up some chips to survive.

Tried another Omaha Hi-Lo this afternoon but made a mistake towards the end and finished 74/510 with 54 getting paid. In hindsight I could have probably held on for a min cash.

Here is a hand from a session of Omaha Hi Zoom. I am not a fan of zoom but after getting beat up on the limit Omaha Hi-Lo cash games again, I've got to quit playing that variation, I wanted to get my money back before calling it a session.

I raised pre flop with 2 pair and when I missed I decided I was going to take the pot away on the turn with a donk bet.
He doesn't have to have a Jack for his flop bet and that is what I counting on.
When I hit my card on the turn I decided the donk bet was now out of the question and went for a check-raise still not believing him to have a Jack. When he calls my check-raise I know he now has a Jack. Being out of position I fired all in on the river hoping he missed his full-house. If he had a made hand on the turn, odds are he would have 3-bet me there.

I read a lot of poker related material.
Everything from the European poker tour to the W.P.T. to the W.S.O.P. I also follow quite a few blogs. Yes I do like to read.
One of these days I'm going to have to buy myself a kindle so I can start reading Bluff magazine again. They no longer publish a physical copy and neither does Poker Player or the W.P.T . I used to get these magazines in the mail every month. Now I have to content myself with reading them on-line when I am home at night and that is the only time I get to play.

Nanonoko was giving away 5 tickets to this Sundays Team On-line free-roll with $2,000 up for grabs. All we had to do was post our New Years resolution and he would pick 5 winners from those who posted.
Here is what he posted on facebook;

Hoping 2015 is treating you well so far! Here's the 5 winners I picked at random for the Team Pro Online Freeroll running on January 4th, 2015, tournament ID#: 1094762478

Be sure to let me know how you guys do!

wheelerleo - Happy New Year. Get enough money so I can retire from the daily grind of getting up at 4am every day to go to work

TAVOONE - Making Supernova at least one time

Norbalus11 - making GoldStar status

Perocar5 - grinding nonstop

cooper667 - More focus, work better

Good luck to me ♦

Hey!
Congrats on winning the ticket!

Ticket?
Ship it!

VS

gz to your great tournament results and ofc on winning the ticket...

I was thinking about what RaucheCh1987 wrote in an earlier post about being to negative in my thought process and to concentrate more on drawing out my opponents.
I was also reading an interview that was done on Andrew Robl. One of the things he said that stuck in my mind was that all the great players have to have a lot of gamble in them. Wait a minute.!!! Could this be why my cash game has been floundering lately!
After checking my saved hand histories, the story they tell is I have almost no gamble in me. When I know I am beat by the turn I usually fold and then curse my luck for not playing when I would have drawn out on my opponent. Combine that with the negative bad luck when my opponent does draw out on me and I am now supporting 2 negative thought processes. Since this isn't math we aren't able to multiply this, so 2 negatives do not make a positive, they just makes a bigger negative.
With this new light bulb illuminating mind set I set off to 4 table some Omaha Hi. Here are a few hands from that session with this new found gamble.

Hand 1-
I know I'm behind on the flop but I have a flush draw to go with my over-pair.
When it gets raised behind me I feel ill and when the pre-flop raiser who I know has Aces repops it I'm almost certain he has a bigger flush draw. But.... since I can go runner-runner straight or hit my over pair and with my new found gamble and the pot odds, call off all my money I did

Hand 2-
I thought I would get tricky here and only call the flop with A-A as I didn't want to balloon the pot out of position. I check-raised the flop to spring my trap and promptly got re-raised. I now know he has a set. I didn't get all the money in at that time because if the board pairs on the turn I will fold and save the last $10. Now the turn is a blank but If I check he will put me all-in and I will call so then I may as ell go all-in and hope he folds which is very doubtful as with the action up till this point he can't be going anywhere. If he calls I can always hope I hit my flush draw and then the hand would have played the same as getting all the money in on the flop.

Hand 3--
Same opponent as the previous hand but on a different table. I limped with AA again as I am in early position and they are not suited. I knew my opponent would be looking at getting his money back from the previous hand so I went into check-call mode. As long as the board stayed semi-save I was never folding. With the board pairing on the river my money was in the middle as soon as he bet.

with this new found gamble, there are also a lot of misses but at least I was in when I got there for a change.
Finished the session up $40. Not much but it is a start back.

I read a lot of other people's blogs here at pokerstrategy.
One of the blogs I find is this one here. This guy is travelling around the world playing poker. If you have a few minutes to kill it is definitely a good read.
Oh how I wish I was young again.

World Poker Trip

Omg, you just made my day or at least my morning ^^ Glad you found gamble BUT don't you think that in the second hand you just pushed it a bit too far? I mean on the flop you got the equity to call there with your FD, and on the turn you also have the equity to call but that doesn't mean you've to get it in. Even if you check he will bet ofc, but perhaps, just perhaps, not AllIn, and if so you can call anyways, but if he checks behind (whatever strange reason he may find to do so) you can draw for free and he will still pay you off on the river with his set.

Anyway, don't want to focus on that hand, just saying ofc the pros have a lot of gamble within them but they also level each other brutally. So if we see a guy betting half potsize for value on the rive with 24s and their rivered pair of deuce we think he must be an idiot, but in there thought process it's a valid value bet against this special villain.
BUT in your daily game -> don't invest money in the pot to gamble when you don't get the odds or necassary equity.

thanks for the blog tip, will check it out now, perfect timing too since I'm still drinking my "good morning coffee" ... hope you have a great day and gl at the tables....

You are right I should never have check-raised the flop because of my position but once I did so
On the second hand:
1- My check-raise on the flop was to win the hand right there. He doesn't have to have a set and I thought I was ahead
2-Once he re-raises my check-raise I am screwed as;
a-I am playing a big pot out of position which is a no-no
b-The pot odds aren't there so I am suppose to fold.
3-If I am to proceed then I should get all the money in at this point and hope for the best
a-I thought by switching things up and only calling his re-raise on the flop I can get away and save some money if the board pairs on the turn.
This was my thought process.

Ahhh damn seems was a bit to early for me when I read it the first time. Ofc you don't have the Equity to call the XR here, actually the correct play would be check-raise/fold.
Well nevermind, we both agree that it wasn't the best play but your new friend gamble helped you here to win the pot

Remember my old signature "you always have to get it in while you are behind to avoid bad beats" ^^

In one of Doyle Brunson's collections of poker stories, he says that to be a good poker player, you must be willing to take chances.
But which chances?

Pot odds alone can't be the determining factor -- otherwise the game would be a snore, and math boffins and accountants could use it to print money.

At some point it is necessary to do things like re-raise in mathematically -EV spots.
You might get folds from people less equipped to handle pressure, you might leave a false impression of your ability in opponent's minds, and you might get called by worse even.

In a reply to https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=1978365#post1978365 is this:

when the CUTOFF sees either the BTN or SB 3-betting frequently versus an open raise, in the future, the CUTOFF may cut back on his opening frequency; if so, you've gained future equity because you will have more opportunities to play HU against the BB

Aggression pays off.

Peace,
VS

Pot odds alone can't be the determining factor -- otherwise the game would be a snore, and math boffins and accountants could use it to print money.

You are right of course my friend and that is exactly why I prefer to play live. Body language needs to be taken into consideration even more then pot odds when playing face-to-face.
I find on-line much more math orientated and I question the RNG online at times.

Well it's back to work tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. I've enjoyed these 2 weeks off but with the way I play sometimes it's good I have a full-time job.
Bombed out of the Omaha Hi-lo tournament both yesterday and today.
I didn't fare very well with the ticket I was given for the $2,000 free-roll which turned out to be a $1,000 free-roll. How did I get that wrong? At any rate I finished around 70th from 150 runners by calling off most of my stack with Top-Top (A-K) with a flush on board. He wasn't bluffing.

Here are 3 hands I played today in an Omaha Hi cash game.

I am posting this first hand only to show how bad I can play at times. No explanation is needed.
Sometimes I play like a NUT.

Sometimes you just get dealt a cooler.

And sometimes things just work out.

On the day between the tournament buy-ins and the Omaha hi cash game I finished up $2.00
HI-HO HI-HO its off to work I go.

I think that it is beyond hilarious the "HappyToFold" shoves.

Enjoy work.
I *think* I'm scheduled off tomorrow, but I'll phone in to find out.
If I must I must...

<sigh>
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I think that it is beyond hilarious the "HappyToFold" shoves.

VS

Never noticed that. ♦

Yesterday I played the following hand.
I have been thinking about my turn bet on this hand all day and for the life of me I can not think of any reason why this bet is wrong.
O.K. I know it worked out this time but disregard that fact as there are going to be many times this bet will fail.
Still I think in the long run this is a winning play and as such I've got to start making it 100% of the time.
Can anyone think of any reason why this turn bet is wrong?
I am open to discussion or even ridicule as it is about time I started taking my game to the next level.

I played 275 hands yesterday and finished -$3.25
I played 50 hands today and finished +$20.04

Puh, I try.

First of all, it sucks that it is a multiway pot. It would been important to know how ofte the preflop aggressor cbets cause if he does that let's say over 65% of the times I might just check to him, to XR/shove the flop. Or perhaps check/call flop and shove any non spade/straight turn. (you still would have enough equity to call a potsize bet on the turn too).

Witht the XR it would be obvious that you are holding a set most of the time, or at least to me it would be.
With the check/call - ship safe turn it would not be that obvious so you would get paid.
With the check/call - call spade/straight turn it depends on the river and on the aggression of villain again if you could call a river bet when the board doesn't pair.

As played I think you are in "pretty bad" shape. There are so many hands that won't fold the flop: every decent flushdraw, every JTxx combo, every 67XX 78XX and so on. This is actually good for you in case the turn blanks BUT think about how many cards are bad for you on the turn:

- every spade
- every K
- every J
- every T
- every 8
- every 7
- every 6

so actuall there is not really a card you want to see, because even 4,3 and 2 bring new straight draws to the board.

So what you did is - instead of trying to check raise flop and get it in ahead or win it there, you decided to go allin on the worst possible turn card (KJxx is not unlikely and the flushdraw is also not unlikely) and turned your hand into a (semi)bluff, cause you will only get called by hands that are currently ahead.
If you check the turn -> villain (was probably floating) -> he will go AllIn so many times or at least raise. If you call then you will be behind sometimes because he has the straight or the flush (hands he wouldn't fold anyway against your shove) BUT he will also have draws (for the straight), overpairs or two pair combos you are ahead of.

As you can see I was thinking about the hand while writing. To sum it up (in my opinion):

If you donk the flop. A check/call turn and river (because you are getting incredible odds on the river if he bets the turn) should be way more profitable. Even though your hand will be face up. Donkt flop, check scarecard (it will look like set, two pair without spades) and villain should try to bluff you off it so many times.

If villain cbets a log (multiway). check/raise flop and get it in ahead.

Btw. if I'm not wrong if villain would have JTxx in spades he would be ahead on the flop anyways with around 55% against your set (didn't check it in Equilab, just my current feeling).

Let me know if you agree on my thoughts and if not, why do you think my thought process is wrong.

EDIT: I'm sure there would've been a way, to say the same thing in two or three lines ^^ but as long as you get my point I think it's ok to write half a book.

Originally posted by RaucheCh1987
First of all, it sucks that it is a multiway pot. It would been important to know how ofte the preflop aggressor cbets cause if he does that let's say over 65% of the times I might just check to him, to XR/shove the flop.

In PLO going for a check-raise in multiway pots usually just doesn't work. It really doesn't even matter who was the pre-flop raiser, because no one (including the pre-flop raiser) doesn't/can't bet unless they have the nuts or big draw to the nuts. Basically there are no such thing as bluffing in multiway pot.
Of course if there are some ~maniacs who are willing to flip with some piece of equity (plain FD and stuff like that) then it might be a different story. But at least in PLO25 quite often people just check that kind of hands behind also so they don't get check-raised.

Imo donk flop and cross your fingers is the way to go here..

Of course donking range have to be balanced with big draws so you don't turn your hand face-up.