♠ Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Ah Is Duh Champ-een o' Oh-mee-haw!
On a lark, I entered a $5+$1 “multi”-table Pot-Limit Omaha tournament on Intertops Poker tonight. This was a cash tournament, so there was no overlay opportunity, but exactly four people signed up. Kind of takes the “multi” out of multi-table, doesn't it?
I recognized one of the names from earlier playing of Holdem tournaments:
LordGeznikor: Hey, AK ... do you actually know anything about Omaha, or are you strictly a Holdem player?
AK: only hold em
AK: no idea what im doinh here
LordGeznikor: Me either, it was a lark
AK: gl dude
LordGeznikor: Thx, you too
AK: i'm good at this omaha thing
Of course, by the time he'd typed the last entry in that conversation, the first hand was over, and AK had gone all-in preflop with 5679 rainbow, and got called by AA3Q. When the board came TT892, not only did no low qualify, but AK's ridiculous Omaha hand had made a straight, and since no low qualified, he had not only doubled up on the first hand, he had knocked a player out. And so, without so much as posting a blind, I had made the money.
Okay, that wasn't that thrilling. With four players in the game, the top three paid, and the only one who would actually profit would be the person who placed first (for a whopping $10!) In fact, the tournament was a big coup for Intertops, because even though they made only $4 off the tourney, their hardware would get used for maybe half an hour to determine the winner.
It didn't take much longer to determine that AK really did have no clue. I don't have a clue either, about Omaha, but AK really didn't have a clue. And so I considered the game to essentially be between me and the other remaining player.
As it happened, I was wrong. The other player (let's call him “BS,” mainly because his name really did start with “BS”) had picked up a few small pots, and I had picked up a big one off of AK, so on the 37th hand I was sitting with 2403 chips, with 807 for BS and 790 for AK. I'm on the under the gun button (three-handed is great), with A346, and so of course I raise the pot-limit, which both other players call. When the board flops Q24, I like my nut low draw, even if I don't really have a high hand, so after BS bets the minimum and AK raises the pot limit, I reraise the pot again, which puts both other players all-in. (This might not be optimal play; it strikes me that to raise with a draw is kind of an advanced play even for holdem, so it might also have been wrong in Omaha.)
Both players ended up calling, so we see the turn A and river 6 come out in a hurry. The Ace fouled my nut low, but I still had an A2346 low, which one would think would be a good low, three-handed. But, of course, AK had been playing with a stellar QJ53 for a six-high straight (for the high) and an A2345 wheel for the low.
This killed BS, and left me at a 2730–1670 chip disadvantage. But, with AK playing ridiculously, I still liked my chances. We chopped a few times, with me making a high and him making a low, or vice-versa, until the 51st and final hand came. I was dealt A47T, and called the big blind, whereupon AK checked. The board flopped 237, giving me the nut low. I decided to pump this, because I figured I could expect a split at worst, if he made a high, and I could still make a high myself. The turn is a 3 and the river a 7, and I bet the pot after each, and he calls after each. My A2347 holds up for the low, and my 777 holds up for the high, and I've won. Strangely, he turns over A56J, making me wonder what he thought he had. He had an A2357 low, and who knows, headsup maybe I would have thought I was good, too. But for a high, he didn't even have the two pair that was on the board. So, I conclude, he just wanted the game over, because he really didn't understand what was going on. He admitted as much beforehand, remember?
And so I find myself, at 25 minutes past midnight, the Grand Ultimate Super Final Champion of the Entire World If You Only Count the Four People who Entered of Omaha, and I can hold my $4 profit high, and shout something like people do at the end of dramas, like “I am somebody!” or something. Of course, I might wake someone up.
