Hello there. As far as concerned the profits I’m making, I like Cake Poker. No I LOVE Cake Poker. I think it has been since the period I played a lot of heads-up games per hour that I had such a great profit rate. Only thing that sucks enormously about this room are the hand histories. I wanted to show you two hands from today, but I couldn’t convert one of them at all and the other one is pretty fucked up.

However, I converted that one and you can see it here:

Now of course it’s PLO and I’m not playing $10/20 but $.10/.20 . The things that happen preflop aren’t as strange as they look like: it’s just a limper’s pot and I’m in for free on the big blind. I flop what’s sometimes called ‘el nutzo’: this hand will win every showdown at this point. However, I bet pot, as lower straights, sets and flushdraws will call for sure. Now my move after the reraise is crucial here and can be very profitable, especially in pot limit games. I just call here, risking to be outdrawed by a flushdraw or a ‘fulldraw’. I turn a set of threes with my straight but that isn’t that important: my opponent doesn’t give me credit for the nuts because I just called the flop and raises me practically all-in on the turn with the lower straight. I hope Cake improves his hand histories and makes them more suitable for converting, I mailed them about this.

Luckily there’s still the top 200 to enjoy, as I’ve revealed numbers 150-101, find them as always with the all-time music lists button. New are two tracks from My Morning Jacket, the wonderful NYC from Interpol and Tweeter and the Monkey Man, a song from Traveling Wilburys, the band with amongst others George Harrison and Bob Dylan.

I left Everest Poker the other day to start playing at Cake Poker. This is mainly because Everest couldn’t offer me any more bonuses and I discovered one other important thing I didn’t have on Everest: rakeback.

I was able to build up a decent bankroll on Everest the last couple of days and a friend told me that having rakeback can be a great advantage when multi-tabling on cashgames frequently. I searched for a room that offers rakeback and I found Cake Poker . Now I had never heard of this room before, but it became clear soon that the graphics etcetera were reasonably good. Besides, I received a 100% deposit bonus on my $350 deposit, so that’s great also. I’m playing for a couple of days now ($.10/.20 PLO, sixhanded, 3 tables) and am curious how big my rakeback is gonna be in the first week .

Anyway, I already won a really great pot on Cake, and this one shows once more how juicy this game can be. I’m still having some troubles with finding the hand histories so I copied this for you:

As you see, it’s all about Aces again . I have a suited Ace and two connectors so I bet pot after one caller. The guy behind me decides to raise this for some reasons with only Kings. The guy with 7889 calls, which is not that bad if he can see a flop for this price. However, he could suspect that it’s gonna be raised again. The next guy also calls, which is of course a very retarded call. I make a big reraise, as I prefer a situation where I’m heads-up with one caller to a four way pot. INSTEAD: Mr. Kings reraises me and all the other players throw in their money as well. I’m of course very happy to flop my Ace, as this knocks out a lot of hands and draws, but on the turn I have to beat two flushdraws. So I’m very relieved when the club hits the river and win the $54 main pot. That’s more than 250 big blinds, PLO can be so sick .

No song of the day today, because I updated my top 200 songs of all-time and you can find 200-151 right here! Forty new songs this time, amongst other the magnificent Do You Realize from Flaming Lips and a new Beatles song: I’m only sleeping.

It’s probably the most debated subject down here since I’m speaking about Pot Limit Omaha: Aces. Just like in Hold’em it still is the most exciting moment in poker after the cards are dealt: notice that you’ve received two shiny aces. Of course when you get what we call ‘rag aces’ there is not too much excitement and it’s very easy to play them, limp and try to flop top set. But all the other aces are a wonderful subject for a PLO-discussion.

The hand I will speak about here is Ah5hAd3c. Those are relatively good aces: you have the suited one and two connectors with your aces to make a (small) straight. So you’re definitely raising with this hand, look how it worked out:

Now this flop is no good for my hand: my flush and straight draw are dead now so I’m only playing my Aces till the river. The board pairs, which can be an advantage for Aces: you have Aces up and there’s a chance you’ll win the pot by leading out right there. However with the connecting 8 out there, there’s a small chance this will happen so I check. It’s checked around but the turn really kills any other moves I had in mind. The guy who flopped a boat bets pot and gets called by the guy who makes a straight flush^^. So remember: don’t overplay your Aces, preflop as well as after the flop.

Song of the day:

Kraftwerk - The Robots (The Man Machine, 1978)

Today I’m gonna show you two important lessons in Pot Limit Omaha: representing the best hand and getting somebody to fold the best hand. Or actually, getting somebody to fold the best hand BY representing the best hand.

That’s what I did yesterday when playing the micro stakes on Everest. I just sat down on the table (I decided to play deep stack, with 100 big blinds) when I got the following hand:

As you this is not a premium PLO hand, but the (potential) pot odds made me make this call preflop. Now, in Hold’em this would be a great flop, as I flop the flush and other people could also certainly have made a hand. But in PLO, this is only a marginal flush BUT I draw to the straight flush of course. So I have a reasonably good hand + a reasonably good draw (my hand would be huge if I would hit it but I only have two outs to it), so I make a minimum raise to see where I’m at and add some value to the pot. Now nobody reraises, so I’m almost sure nobody flopped the nuts. With that in mind, it’s of course ME who can represent the A high flush, so I make a suspicous minraise ont the turn again. On the river, I know my only remaining opponent has a low flush (even Q high is kinda low here) or flopped two pair so he can never call a big bet on the river. So if he had the better flush here, it was easy for me to get him to fold that hand here. Finally, the song of the day:

Radiohead - Idioteque (Kid A, 2000)

Today I’ve got some perfect examples (from other players sitting on my table of course) how not to play Pot Limit Omaha. I removed their nicknames of course to not insult them . But the bottom line is the following: there are a lot of poker players at the moment who try their luck at the Omaha tables, but have no single clue about this game.

The first hand shows a typical beginners move in PLO. The contrast with a more experienced player is even more clear because I have the same hand as this beginner, but I play it like it has to be played . Watch:

I have four connectors again so I make the move that’s already known to the readers of this blog. Then comes the flop and yeah, I make a straight, but you don’t see me being all too happy about it, flopping the baby straight. So when somebody makes a pot bet in front of me, I immediately fold, knowing I’m probably already beat by AT and I’m not very likely to improve much. As you can see, ‘Player 6′ does exactly what I didn’t.

With the second hand I really made a very nice profit myself thanks to the donkeys. It’s one of those hands which you push all the way preflop in PLO (now the converter makes some error with the pot size, as ‘Player 5′ doesn’t get enough money returned, total pot size was about $25):

So I have Aces, and I have pretty good Aces: a suited one and with a King on the side. So I make a BIG pot preflop and am really stunned to see the hands where I’m called with and especially the hand which raised me, being ‘Player 1′. However, my Aces are never really in danger and I make trips Kings on top of it. Thank you very much! The song of the day really is a song to celebrate such winnings with:

Animal Collective - For Reverend Green (Strawberry Jam, 2007)

I’ve got another two beautiful hands for you which I played the other day to show you some interesting insights into the marvellous game of Pot Limit Omaha. Later on I show you how to induce a bluff, similar to Texas Hold’em, but first I’m gonna teach you how to make a straight flush. Or how to play a hand and hope for a straight flush .

So let’s watch the hand first:

As you see, I minraise on the button in this hand, for reasons I told you earlier: IF you make a hand, it’s most likely a big hand and/or a draw and it’s easier to protect it this way. Now on this flop this is not even the case: I’ve got the OESD and the flushdraw, but I would have preferred two pair with the OESD. That’s exactly why I don’t raise the flop. However, i catch the straight flush on the turn and am lucky to be paid off by only the J high flush.

Just like in NLHE, it’s sometimes a good tactic in PLO to show weakness on the river in order to be paid off maximally by someone who missed his draws and isn’t likely to call another bet from you. I applied this tactic perfectly in the next hand:

I see a free flop from the BB and the flop is quite good: toppair with a double bellybuster, as a 4 and an 8 would make me a straight. So I lead out immediately and get two callers, most likely flushdraws. Turn gives me top two with the same draw so I keep betting the pot. One caller and a totally harmless river: IF I was against a straight draw on the flop, it was most likely against the OESD (42) and in that case he would have made the straight on the turn and would certainly have raised me on the turn because of the double flushdraw. So I check, knowing he’s not going to call another bet, with the purpose of getting him to bluff at this pot. Worked out perfectly.

More lessons next time, for now the song of the day:

Brian Wilson - Roll Plymouth Rock (SMiLE, 2004)

Let’s say I don’t play Kings in the hole anymore today… I played a session of PLO a few minutes ago and it was not a winning one, thanks to some sick things that happened to me. Let’s watch the first one:

So I just sat down on this table and get rather crappy kings on my first hand. There’s a pot bet preflop in early position from a deepstack player (so most likely it’s a good player), so I already figure he might have Aces. But I give it a try, hoping I might catch a King or some clubs. My dreamflop appears: I flop the nut flush and as a consequence there’s also an Ace out there. This is an easy play in PLO: wait for the preflop raiser to bet his trips and come over the top to make a big pot right there. This is exactly what happens and I’m ready to win 100+ big blinds on my first hand. But my opponent makes quads on the turn… Like an half an hour later:

Those kings are really crappy so I just limp because there’s no reason to raise here: I basically only play my Kings here. Life is good when you flop the second nuts. Except for those moments that you’re against the nuts… With that suspicious bet on the turn I’m a 100% sure my opponent also has a full house (63 or 6K, maybe 33). Well, I wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

Well I sure needed this powerful song of the day to get me going again:

Monster Magnet - Negasonic Teenage Warhead (1995, Dopes to Infinity)

As the odds of making quads in Omaha increase, the odds of making a royal flush of course also increase. I think I made a royal flush one or twice during the three years I played Hold’em online, and yesterday I made my first one in four months of playing Omaha. Nice detail is the fact it was the first hand I played after I sat down on that particular table:

This shows exactly why making a royal flush is seldom very profitable: when the board doesn’t pair there’s only a small chance you’re against a strong hand of one of your opponents. That’s the difference with a ‘normal’ straight flush: there’s always a chance you are going to be paid by an A-high flush. However, I won my big pot on another hand, with an ABSOLUTE dreamflop:

I like to limp when possible with those kinda hands on the button. The flop is really awesome: I flop the nuts (with the wheel) AND I have middle set so my hand is protected against a pairing board (as somebody holding aces is very unlikely with an unraised pot) AND it’s a rainbow flop, so I’m also kinda protected against a flush. So I’m very happy to see another player lead out and this is one of those rare spots where you don’t put in a pot sized bet, but you want to keep the players in and make a big pot. But I’m getting reraised and I’m of course all-in: I know it’s a split pot for sure at this moment but I can improve. River is sweet.

Song of the day:

The Move - Fields of People (Shazam, 1970)

Maybe that’s the most important rule in Pot Limit Omaha. Your hand, or even your draw, can look so gigantic, but you always have to keep in mind that your opponent also has four cards in the hole and probably also has a (very) big hand when betting big. I have an extraordinary example for you from a game I played yesterday:

If you’re a beginning Omaha player you’ll wonder why my money isn’t out there in the middle. Well, I’m almost sure my opponent has hit a one-outer on the turn and I would have doubled up for sure probably with any other card on the turn. So I flop the second nuts and as soon as my opponent bets the (small) pot on the flop I know he has a 2. So I raise, knowing he’s going to call anyway and hoping he improves to a full house. Turn is the one card I didn’t wanna see: if he has a high pair he would probably have raised preflop and not called my raise on the flop so you can be sure in this case that your opponent has quads.

In the next hand the situation is the other way around: I have quads (I told you, this happens often in PLO) and my opponent has the nut full house:

I have two paired cards in the hole so I put in a minimum raise, in that way I can defend my set on the flop if I hit it. Instead I flop quads^^. I check again, just like I showed last time when I flopped quad aces, with the purpose of letting somebody else to pick something. This hand shows exactly why this is a good play: my opponent turns aces full. I just know he has a strong hand and that’s why I check the river with quads: he will bet for sure. I love PLO. And I love the song of today:

My Morning Jacket - One in the same (It Still Moves, 2003)

I already told you making quads is not a rare thing in Pot Limit Omaha. Certainly when you play multiple tables at a time, your chances increases and if you play a session of 90 minutes a day, you’ll experience it almost every day. And what’s more beautiful than catching the most magnificent quads of all: quad aces.

I’m talking about quad aces with two aces in the hole here. Interesting point in PLO is how to play Aces preflop. Three things are important in this case: how strong are your aces (double suited, accompanied by two other high cards or rags like AdAs5c9h?), what’s your position and has somebody opened the pot yet with a raise? For example, I don’t like to (re)raise with Aces rags because you have to flop a set (you have no other draws). And I almost always reraise with double suited Aces. Make a big pot with them, you’re in good shape. Some hands would make it more clear:

These are definitely ‘raising aces’: I have a suited ace and can make a straight with both a wheel and broadway. Because I open the pot, my raise is low and I get two callers, this happens frequently. Then I flop quad aces and I know that unless somebody has 33, I can’t extract any more money here. I try to let my opponents pick up something but they obviously don’t. Next hand:

I have one suited Ace again and can make a low straight if necessary. I raise anyway because I have to open again and that means you’ll get a caller anyway. I flop a set and the board is relatively harmless but checking would be suspicious: bet pot. Turn gives me quads and I try to make it look that I’m scared of this card by checking. When my opponent bets I know he’s going to fire again on the river if I just call. That’s what happens and I take a nice pot. I hope you learned something about aces in Omaha . Otherwise just listen to the song of the day:

Girls in Hawaii - Flavor (From Here to There, 2005)