Today’s post is really about an Omaha H/L hand that I played on PokerStars. I have been playing a lot on Stars, mixing it up between their Turbo NLHE and PLO8 SNGs (all single table except for a two-table PLO8 game I played and took 2nd in last night), the Double-or-Nothing tables, and every once in a while, an 8-Game SNG. I’ve been multitabling up to four tables, usually to keep from boredom and to address some of the variance. I’m only playing with something like 15-30 buy-ins, which is pretty short, but since I withdraw my online money into my real money whenever it gets significantly high (or after any big score), my online roll is really not limited to the $ actually online.

I was playing a $16 single table PLO8 tournament and we were still at 10/20 when this hand happened.

I was at 1,850, and no one else was over 1500. Go figure. I was dealt4 7 3 5 in UTG+2 at the full 9-person table. It folded to UTG+1 who called, and then I called. The Hijack calls (two off the button), and the button raised to 100. The SB and UTG+1 called and I decided to call as well. The Hijack also came along for the ride. There was 520 in the pot.

At the time, my thinking was that I had three wheel cards and a potential scoop hand. I was willing to call 20 because it was so small, and 100 wasn’t that much bigger given the amount of players in the pot and the size of our stacks. I knew if I hit a crappy flop, I’d get out of the hand.

The flop was 2 6 9. That gave me a wrap. Any Ace gave me the nut low. Any three, four, five, or eight gave me a straight (which was vulnerable to a flush). I also had a lot of draws to the second nut low.

It checked to me and I check as well. The Hijack wakes up and bets pot, 520. The button folds and then the SB pushed all-in for 1290. I decided to overpush for my full stack since I had everyone covered. Hijack also came along for the ride.

This wasn’t a snap-call. I took my time and tried to mull it over. I finally decided that I had too many draws to the nuts and/or close to the nuts. I was essentially playing both ways for the high and low, so I figured it was a good time to gamble. Keep in mind that when it got to me, the pot was alread at 2,200+ (520 post-flop, 520 hijack bet, 1200+ check-raise all-in) and all I had to pay was about 1300, since I had everyone covered. If Hijack came along for the ride, the pot would reach 3000+ (not including my call). But in hindsight, I still don’t know if my hand was strong enough for this play.

The turn was a J and the river was a  7.

My opponents showed:

SB: A K 4 A (high hand: pair of Aces; low hand: 7642A)

Hijack: 6 9 K 9 (high hand: set of Nines; no low hand)

As you recall, I had 4 7 3 5 (high hand: pair of Sevens; low hand, 76432).

I won half of a tiny side pot for 70 and was left with a little over 300 chips.

Now, before the commentary, I want you all to try to think about playing for a win. Does it make sense to take this gamble early? Was it a good gamble or a bad one?

I know some people will instantly think that the correct move was to fold on the check-raise by the SB on the flop. That may be correct. I just want to understand why. To me, the call was marginal at that point, but is it worse than marginal?

I’m really interested in some other opinions on this hand, so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Until next time, make mine poker!