Exploting Edges

It's been a very up and down day for me as I got up a buyin early and then proceeded to drop about 2.5k through some excellent play which was not rewarded on each occasion. I'm going to post a couple of hands further down one of which is a key example of getting money in where you are not favourite to win the pot but it is still the correct play and +EV (worth money) over the long term.

There are very often circumstances in omaha where you have little choice but to commit to the pot with a marginal/non favourite hand purely because of pot odds. Regular occasions for this is where 1 player has a set and others have wraps and flush draws, often the set is favourite but this can be extremely marginak and a strong wrap will in fact be ahead.

Other occasions occur largely due to short stacked players, you raise your strong draw and are called by one player who you suspect for a set and then a short stack goes all in opening the pot up for reraising by the player with a set. Obviously you cannot simply drop your hand as th epot odds you are getting are very favourable even though you KNOW you are behind it is still correct to call the all in from the big stack. This is because of all the money already in and you actually make money on this sort of play (compared to folding)

This should help to explain why you very often get two or more players all in on the flop or turn in omaha even when playing stacks of 100BB or more. The below hand is a prime example, I lose but made the correct play. I called with nut flush, AA and inside straight draw figuring I had maybe 12 outs depending on other hands. The short stacks both had straight draws and the big stack had top set which held to take the pot.


***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.

However since that pot things have improved and I am back to being about $2k up for the day, principally due to the below pot where we got it all in pre with 4 players, me and one other player had the AA but I flopped QQ4 to hit a boat and take the pot. Lucky but I had lost a very similar hand earlier when all in pre with AA, so overall I think it's just about worked out fairly! Well I'm happy at least


***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.


So another positive day and although I have spent much of it feeling irritated not to be more up (ideas above my station) and cursing my luck on draws (again this resolved itself) I've got to be pleased, I'll take $1k a day it's not a bad win rate after all

Steve