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OT - live poker, California style

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Wednesday, 3 October 2007, at 6:58 p.m.

The venue: Lucky Chances in Colma, California on recent Monday and Tuesday evenings.

1. Like Lenny said, if you want to win at poker, play with people who don't know the rules!

The game: 4-handed pot limit Omaha. The blinds were high enough ($10/$10?) that after some action the Small Blind could make it $200 to go, which got three callers. $800 in the pot.

Flop: 664

Small Blind bets $300, Big Blind raises $1000, one semi-sane player folds, and the Button raises the pot. SB folds and BB ("I'm pot-committed!") puts in his last $600.

When BB turns over his A69K and Button turns over his A46K, BB is drawing near dead to a 9. Turn and river bring no 9 and BB has lost $2100.

BB says "I could have sucked out with a low." Okaaaaay ...

Button says "Dude, this is high only."

BB says "Oh. I thought we were playing hi-lo," as he tables another buy-in.

2. The chop at the $3/$6 fixed limit hold'em tables is an astronomical $3 plus $1 for the jackpot regardless of pot size except, if there's no flop, the chop is "only" $2 total. Yet room has no problem keeping five tables full into the wee hours of the morning.

3. What do you with 2899 in a $4/$8 half-kill Omaha Hi-lo game? In Colma, you call.

4. What do you do with 23 offsuit in a $6/$12 hold'em game? In Colma, you cap the betting pre-flop. Who knows, the board just might come KJ5-4-A.

5. Same $6/$12 game. Board is T86-5-2. What do you do with 74 offsuit heads up? on the river? In Colma, you put in 15 bets lose. Next time, remember that just because the other guy straddled and bet the flop blind doesn't mean he doesn't have the nuts -- 97 off.

6. Same $6/12 game. Board is 39J-Q-J. What do you with QJ heads up on the river? In Colma, you put in 12 bets, wishing you had more, while telling your idiot opponent who three-bet preflop that "You can't beat my full house." Except he does, with QQ.

7. There weren't any higher fixed limit games going on these off-nights, but there were three no limit tables going, and four spread limit tables with $2/$3/$5 blinds, minimum $20 to go and maximum raise $200 any time. At spread limit, the seated players seemed to enjoy the endless chip counting and deep thought delays, but the general run of things seemed to be that the last raiser likely had Aces and the last caller didn't.