Online Poker News » May 2005
» May 19, 2005.
A Week of Unusual Poker Hands In Online Poker.
The renowned poker player and co-author of "Poker for Dummies", Lou Krieger, has posted this article about his recent online poker experience:Things always seem to run in cycles, and this has been a week of really unusual hands for me. In an online Omaha/8 game, I raised before the flop with A-A-2-5 and was called in two places. The flop was A-Q-9, giving me a set of aces. One player checked, the other bet, and I raised. The third player folded and I was reraised by the intitial better. I capped it at four bets. Why not? I had the best hand and there were no apparent draws. The turn was another ace, giving me four aces and eliminating any worries about someone backing into a low hand to snatch half the pot out from under my nose. I had all of this baby, and my only thoughs now were concerned with how to maximize my win. Turns out I didn't have to think too long or hard about that either.
We went four bets again on the turn, and four more on the river. The best he could have been holding was a pair of queens in his hand for a full house, but even queens full could have been beaten by aces full or quads, and with me going four bets on every betting round, at some point he should have put me on a hand that might, just might, have been better than his. But he never did and I loved the action.
I also caught pocket aces back-to-back in a tournament last week. In other games I made a straight flush and I also ran into a straight flush on the river to beat my ace-high flush and take a nice pot away from me.
In another Omaha/8 game, I was dealt T-T-T-T and had to fold those beautiful looking but absolutely worthless quads. Talk about redundancy. All I really had was a pocket pair of tens, with no draws, no hopes for improvement, and my chances of winning an Omaha/8 pot with that holding were pretty close to nil.
But not all quads are redundant. I called from late position with four callers already in the pot with 8-8, only to have the button fire in a raise. We all called. We all prayed, and I was miraculously rewarded with the best of all possible flops: 8-8-A. I was in hog heaven. Someone had an ace, surely; and the fact that two of the board cards were hearts had me hoping for a flush draw or two as well. What was really nice about this hand is that the big blind came out betting, was called by two others, and I called too. The button hesitated and finally just called. I wasn't sure whether his hesitation meant he was pondering whether to call or decideing whether to call now and raise on the turn or to fire a raise at the pot right now.
The turn card was a queen and once again the big blind bet out. One player called. I was ready to raise, but decided against it, because I was hoping that the button actually held a raising hand and was preparing to pull the trigger. He didn't disappoint and both the big blind and the other active player called his raised. Now I reraised, and was called in three places. I bet the river but only the button looked me up. I'll never know what he had because he mucked and I won a big pot for my quads.
Sometimes you don't win much at all with a hand that good because you have so much of the flop that there's not much left in the feeding trough for your opponents. But I was lucky. As I said, it was a strange week for hands. The odds against pocket aces back-to-back are astonishingly high, and some of the other hands I was dealt were very unusual too.
Source: Lou Krieger's Blog
Recommended Reading:
"Before The River" - Texas Hold'em Poker Lesson 1.
"With The Best Cards" - Texas Hold'em Poker Lesson 3.
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