Medic

I'm learning that Pot Limit Omaha is one massive high wire act. Actually more like a big fun house mirror. It's a world in which top full houses get laid down to big raises and perfectly played hands can loose you $2,000. Naked nut straights are marginal hands and top pairs are meaningless. Bottom sets will break you and when you get the nuts, take a picure, 'cause it aint gonna last long. After a hold’em hand you can usually say "there's your mistake", or as a previous boss was wont to say, "there's your sign". PLO is much different.

And these guys are hilarious. Yesterday a guy gets SMOKED for about $3,200 with AAK7; he flops top set, turns the nut straight and loses to a flush on the river. He's sitting there in disbelief as an EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLAR POT IN WHICH FLOPPED THE NUTS AND THEN TURNED THE NUTS gets shipped to a guy with an ENORMOUS wrap/flush draw (129 outs or so). The table gets kind of quiet like someone just died or something; out of nowhere Al mutters "Medic".

I didn't stop laughing for 15 minutes.

(The winner flopped a wrap and the nut flush draw, turns the same nut straight, and rivers the nut flush. Medic indeed)

Pushing my Luck at PLO

$5-$5 PLO: KQ54 double suited in the small blind. Call $15 PF. Pot: $60.

Flop: 632. Hello there, nut straight. Someone is not going to be happy (but it might be me...) I figure I can't just bet it, what fun would that be? Let's have a little fun instead (check). Bet from the end of $60, 1 other caller, I call.

Turn: (632) 9. This is a good card. I check again and the original better tries $200. I come over the top for $600 and he looks at me like "how could that have helped?!" He calls the $600.

River: (6329) Q Another beatiful "clean" card. Amazingly, my naked nut straight held up the whole way. I launch the rest of my chips into the pot, maybe $575 or so. He doesn't like it but calls and berates me for not betting the nut straight on the flop when he sees it.

He's basically right; it's amazing the kind of trouble you can get into flopping the nut straight. It's trouble. But it was a fun hand.