I stated in the last post how Stud is not a game that should be played in tournament format. Well, the exact opposite is true with PLO High. It’s not that Omaha is a game that is designed for tournaments; rather, the appeal is from the fact that most PLO online tournaments are chock full of TERRIBLE players. I mean TERRIBLE! Worse, by far, than the donkiest of NL Hold’em tourneys. Why? Most likely, it’s because of lack of experience combined with the gambling nature of PLO in general. Regardless, it’s a beautiful sight.
Here’s the hand that exemplifies the stupidity of some PLO online tourney players. This was a $5k Guarantee tourney, with a buy-in of $26 or a token. My guess is that these donks used tokens.
With blinds at 40/80, I had already accumulated 5,310. UTG folds, and UTG+1, whose name is LoverKid (KidLover?) raises pot to 280. KidLover has only 2,850. With AKKQ with two spades, I re-pot it to 920. It folds to McLovin who has 23,585 and is in the SB. He calls. The action is back to KidLover who re-raises all-in for 2,850 total. I decide that my very strong hand is likely ahead and has some decent draws if I am behind. But I don’t want McLovin in the hand if I can avoid it, so I re-push all-in for my full 5,310. McLovin, though, is emboldened and calls the nearly 5,000 more. I assume I am screwed and likely behind AAXX. In reality, these are what my opponents held:
KidLover: QJT9 with two clubs.
McLovin: Q993, doubled suited hearts and diamonds.
These are both terrible hands. KidLover was nuts to raise in the first place, but to re-raise all-in was just pure suicide. He must’ve known that one of us would call, at which point he’d have to cross his fingers and hope for the best.
While McLovin had chips, his play was pretty crappy as well. He was obviously playing for the flushes, but a Q-high or 9-high flush is hardly the nuts in PL Omaha.
The board was Js 7d Ah 2d Ac at showdown, so for good measure, I hat three of a kind Aces, good enough to beat KidLovers two pair (Aces and Jacks) and McLovin’s two pair (Aces and Nines).
Man, what donkeys.
Until next time, make mine poker!
May 27th, 2009 - 11:19 pm
QJT9 two suits is actually a top-10 PLO hand, FYI. Single-suited is worse, but getting it in with that hand is not a bad decision by any means. Of course, I’d rather see a flop first …
-PL
May 28th, 2009 - 1:14 pm
Really? Good to know, PL. I must admit that my depth of knowledge in PLO hand rankings is a bit loose. Top 10 is still a bit surprising though.
June 1st, 2009 - 10:40 pm
QJT9ds ranks that highly because it makes so many nut straights and can also make high (non-nut) flushes, and can back into top two pair. As we all know, in PLO the winning hands run bigger so the high suited connecting cards are really, really good and have good equity even against AAxx, KKxx and QQxx hands. Personally, I like to apply pressure on the flop so I don’t like jamming preflop vs. a likely AAxx hand, but QJT9 is very much a premium hand.
-PL
June 4th, 2009 - 8:07 am
I like the QJT9 move but its in the wrong hand.
I wouldn't heistate calling two smaller all-ins if I were the big stack with that hand, easy push. But shoving the hand openly with a smaller stack and small blinds is up for debate.