Poker Moth

I’ve been playing small stakes pot limit Omaha hi/lo, which absolutely terrifies me. Why? Because of hands like this…

*edit* As this hand took place on iPoker, home of the wacky uncopyable hand histories, it’ll have to be prose. Plus I still haven’t sorted out a style sheet for HHs…

Four players in the hand. I have Ac 2h 5h Js in the small blind, two players limp in, I complete, and the BB checks.

Flop is 8d 6d 4h. I check, the BB bets out less than half the pot, gets three callers. Turn is the 7c, I check, BB bets the pot, the other two guys call, and I reluctantly call behind. River is the 7d, and by the time it gets to me, everybody’s chips are in the middle, and did I mention that I’m basically completely clueless at this game?

I look at my nut low, look at the board, and think how annoying it will be to get quartered, or worse. I then look at the money in the pot; there’s already four buy-ins in there, and that’s enough reason for me to click the call button. It was probably the only reason, in fact.

So! The high half of the pot went to the big blind, who had the straight flush (T9 diamonds). The first limper won nothing with his quad sevens. I split the low half with the other limper, who had the A2 of diamonds, and I ended up making a small loss on the hand.

I have no idea if the call was right or not. Maybe, in that spot, with a paired, flushed, straighty board, there was a good chance that I was up against three high hands (straight flush, quads, and the “nut” flush, even) and some non-nut lows, in which case I’d be scooping the low half of this mammoth pot. That has to be weighed against the chance that I’m either up against one other nut low (where I lose a couple of BBs), or more than one nut low, (where I lose between a third and half of my buy-in). I think the call comes out ahead, there. I think.