The second stage will be how to play drawing hands and how to maximize your win. The third and final stage will extend for numerous articles on how to bluff and read your opponent. There will, of course, be more than that, but this will be the template with which I will work with, to help you become a highly successful Omaha Hi Lo player.
Unfortunately for my well structured plan, I ruined it yesterday when I won the 2007 Aussie Millions Omaha Hi Lo tournament. This means my first article will be about how I won it. The rules and starting hands will come shortly. Without further ado, let me explain what happened to me.
The tournament was a 4000 start bank, 50 minute level Limit Omaha Hi Lo tournament. There were 96 entrants and there was a little over $33,000 for first prize. The blind levels started off at 25-50 and increased fairly slowly to allow for plenty of time to play well without having to make silly gambles. I was mainly getting unplayable hands like 27K9 which can not be played, especially with the blinds being as small as they were. The answer was to keep folding until I picked up a hand. I realise this sounds bad, however, it is very good strategy. The blinds are insignificant to the start bank, thus making blind stealing bad play. This is not no-limit hold’em where you can play a bad hand for a small price and take someone’s whole stack if you hit a lucky flop. Chances are your bad hand won’t hit a flop and even if you do hit it, you can not win much money because it’s limit. When the blinds increase and there is some serious money to be made by picking up the blinds, blind stealing becomes crucial to survival.
I had a few very unlucky hands where a guy was on a huge upswing and managed to hit everything he needed. I made a raise with AK29 in late position, player X called, flop – AK4 no flush draw, he checks, I bet, he called, turn 9 no flush draw, he checks, I bet, he called, river 8, he checks, I bet he called, he shows KK33 for 3 of a kind kings. I like my bet on the river despite the fact I was beaten. Usually that is a value bet and I will not get scooped like I did. In a few hands I had the nut low and was quartered. I maintain it is almost impossible to get away from the nut low, especially when it is multi-handed.
Things got really exciting when the blinds increased and I started to get more aggressive stealing pots with air. I raised the pot in early position with A34T to be called by the big blind. Flop was JJ6, he immediately bets into the pot. I know he doesn’t have a jack because he would have acted weak and bet if he had the jack, or he would have check raised me. I also knew from a few hours of play with him that he was capable of making bluffs like this. My response to his bet was to raise him. He immediately threw his hand in the muck. In another classic move, which is of the utmost importance to my survival during this crucial period, was the following play: The under the gun (UTG) position player calls and I call in middle position with Ah 3h Kc 9s, everyone folds around to the big blind who checks. The flop comes 88Q, both players check to me, which I respond with a bet. From their body language, I got the feeling both of them had missed. The big blind folds and the UTG player makes an agonising call. The turn is a 3 which totally ruins my hand, in case I wanted to make a running low. He immediately checks which means I now know he is on the A2 low draw. If he had the Q he may have bet there to find out where he was. I bet and he immediately calls. At this point I was praying for any high card, so that he misses his low and I can steal on the river. The river came a beautiful blank ten, and he was absolutely disgusted with that card. Before I could even place the chips on the table to bet, he angrily threw his cards at the dealer and almost coped a penalty.
During the mid-late stages of the tournament I was moved to Lee Nelson’s table. I didn’t really get involved with him much except for one hand where I raised with A2KQ double suited in middle position and he called me in the big blind. The flop came 559 rainbow, and he checked to me, I bet and he check-raised. I deliberated a re-raise, because I know for a fact that Lee is the kind of player that can make that play on a stone-cold bluff. I decided that I didn’t have enough chips to risk re-raising him so I just folded. Luckily for me, Lee later reported that he actually did have the 5 in that hand. After that hand I was a little cautious to get involved with Lee, considering there were 7 other players at the table that were not playing as tricky as Lee. I was fortunate enough to pick up AA28 against Lee’s dominated hand when he was forced to call my re-raise all-in, after he had raised my big blind. I was able to double up and I didn’t look back.
In the second edition of this 3-part article, I explain how I built my stack from being all-in, to coming to the final table as second chip leader.
|
