Today was a poker day again after taking the day off yesterday. I played alot of hands today, and alot of Omaha hands, so I'll try to recall as much action as I can from memory here. Should be a long one.

Skipped breakfast at the Lux cafe again. We've got 1 more free breakfast tomorrow, and I may use it...will just skip all the protein as I don't trust it. Headed down to the Venetian poker room for some cash at about 11:30am. I planned to play the 7:00pm Daily Deepstack, so I wanted to see if I could turn a bit of profit before the tournament and maybe win my buy-in.

Got down to the poker room and decided to play some 4/8 Omaha hi/lo. My Pops was already playing 1/2 NLHE, so I left him to it and took my seat at the Omaha 8 table. I haven't played fixed Omaha very much, but I do have a pretty good history of hi/lo Omaha so I figured it would be interesting.

The table was pretty soft. The only real player was a cute young lady to my right. She played pretty solid break even poker for several hours. The rest were just regular fixed limit players who like to gamble.

I played for about 40 minutes without winning any significant hands. A few lows and a few highs but no real scoops.

Eventually I picked up QQxx and as the board ran out J J T Q 9, I took down a pretty big pot to get up a bit.

I scooped a few pots against a call station old guy sitting behind me and I was up about a buy-in and a half. It was kind of ridiculous as I sat down with $200, they give you only $1 chips to play with, which causes huge massive stacks at the table. It's very deceptive, to have such an enormous stack and only be up $100 or so.

I went on a pretty gross run after grinding for about 3-4 hours. I picked up a number of hands where I flopped the nut flush draw and the nut low draw, but managed to miss both. These types of hands are where you make your bread and butter in hi/lo, where you can scoop both the high and the low. I couldn't catch em.

I lost a painful one to a lady at the table who I think was her first time playing.

The Turn read: 3 4 7 8

I held 256x

So I had the nut straight, and the third nut low (A2 and A5 are better lows). We raised back and forth heavily on the turn.

The river hit: 3 4 7 8 9

She bet and I flat called.

She tabled A2JT for the nut low and the rivered nut straight to scoop the pot from me.


I took another painful one later in the game against the old-guy calling station and his friend.

The flop came: K Jc 2c

I held Kc Jx 5c Ax for top two pair, the second nut flush draw and a nice backdoor low draw. We bet the flop heavily and went to the turn.

The turn came a 7x, pretty much a blank. Again we had heavy betting.

The river dropped Kx Jc 2c 7x 3c

The old guy checked and his friend bet. I called and the old guy check-raised for the first time all day. His friend folded, and I made the call.

He tabled Ac 4c X X to scoop my 2nd nut flush/2nd nut low wth the nut flush and the nut low. Pretty nasty hand. I played a few more hands but eventually gave up trying to hit/hold against this table and moved back to NLHE before I tilted.

I folded a few hands, then mixed it up with a guy I had a pretty good read on. I raised Q8s from late position and he reraised from big blind. I made the call and we saw the flop.

The flop was 4c Kc 4s

He bet 15
I called

The turn came 4c Kc 4s 7c

He bet 25
I raised to 75

He thought about it and folded. Earlier when he hit a monster hand he was incrediby "jumpy" in his seat. This time he was far too "cool" to have hit this hand very hard and I knew I'd have a good shot at stealing this on the turn.

I lost a bluff, and then won Aces before going to dinner.

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After another burger at I <3 Burgers, came down to play the $120 Venetian Daily Deepstack.

We started with 7500 chips, and 25/50 blinds. I think it was close to $4500 for first. I didn't realize the blinds were going to be 20 minutes, making it more or less a turbo after 2 hours.

I played a few hands over the first two levels without a showdown, and picked my way up to 9000 from the starting 7500.

Just after the 3rd level started, there were a few limps, and I looked down at AQs in SB and BB moved all-in. After a quick count, I decided to make the call. I don't make this call often, but given the turbo nature of the blinds coming up, I figured that I would take the chance at a coin flip to go to 15k here and run over the table.

Unfortunately I ran into AA, which in hindsight I probably should have saw, since his all-in was for more or less a whole starting stack. Which means his all-in was pretty much the first hand he played in 3 levels. Bit of a lazy mistake on my part.

I busted soon after that shoving 56s into 88 for 10 big blinds.

I went back to the cash tables.

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I waited for a few minutes and jumped onto a 1/2 PLO table, the same crazy table I played the first night here.

I bought in for $400 and took my seat. A few people left the game and a few people went for a walk and we were playing 4-handed for a bit.

I picked up a few small pots and was sitting about $450 when a few seats filled up, and I got involved in my biggest pot of the trip.

I was in the Cut Off with Q998 single suited. After a few $5 limps, I made the call. The button folded, and SB raised to $25. 3 calls ahead of me I made the call and we went to the flop.

Pot: $125
Flop: Jc 9x 5c

I flopped a set of 9s, a great flop but scary. With 4 opponents, and only a gutshot as a redraw, I could be looking at a coin flip as best. Still, I have to play this one aggressively.

They checked to me and I bet $75 into the $125, hoping that I get a check-raise by someone on a draw and I can play the rest of this hand heads up. Unfortunately I get 3 calls. Ugh!

The turn is: Jc 9x 5c ... 4s

A brick! One of the three bricks in the deck (2,3,4). They checked to me again and I pushed all-in for $345ish.

Two folds and the crazy old guy call station made the call.

The river hit Jc 9x 5c 4s ... 3s

It looks like a good card, but with this old guy, you never know. I tabled my 999 and he looked at his hand for what seemed like 10 minutes before finally saying "it's good," and I raked in a $1000+ pot.

The next big hand I played I was dealt Ah Ax 5x Th and I reraised the old guy all-in on a turn of:

Tx 9x 3h 5h

There was alot of preflop raising, but the flop went checked. So when the old guy lead the betting on the turn, I was about 95% confident my two pair was good, and I had to reraise to push the other guy out of the pot. He called.

The river was: Tx 9x 3h 5h Kd and the old guy threw his cards across the table when he saw my two pair and stormed off.


I played two more notable hands before calling it a night.

I got it all in with KKJx vs AJxx on a KQT flop. We ran it twice and I lost both pot (what?!?!...I know!)

But about a round later against the same opponent, we got it all in on a:

K 8 4 4 board  with my AAK9 vs his KQJ9. We ran it twice, but he was drawing dead anyways, and I got my money back with interest.

I had a couple Rum and Cokes, saw a few extra hands and then called it a night.

That last omaha session brought me back to about even on the trip so far, after the three busted tournaments and a sloppy morning cash session (plus meals and a ball game). Not a bad night at all!