BigO has swept across the Nation, and Oceans-11

Pot-limit Omaha, game of the future.  At least that's what I keep hearing.  Yet, it never really took off.  But, and I must stress the but, pot-limit Big O has, especially at Oceans-11, where on a busy night you can find 3 games going.  What is Big O you ask?  It's 5 card Omaha, played high-low split with 8 qualifier for low.  This game can be found spread in both fixed limit format—barf—and pot limit formats.

Now, I am not a pot-limit Omaha (PLO) specialist, nor a Big O expert, but one of the great things about poker, is you don't need to be an expert to be able to win in the game.  It's like the old joke goes, I don't need to be able to out-run the bear, I just need to be able to out-run you.  It's the same at the poker table.  I don't need to be the best player in the world, I just need to be better than most of the current players at the table that I am playing with.  In other words, game selection.  Oh, and the secret to Big O, make the nuts and always try to have a redraw.  The weaker players are more than willing to put it in with no chance to improve and you can be stone free-rolling them.  I'll give some examples from my last two sessions.

I got in two sessions over the labor day weekend.  Work has been a little light the last couple of months fortunately, so I was able to enjoy the 3-day weekend with the family and get a little poker in.  On Sunday, I played multiple different games and hopped around, but spent the majority of time playing 2/3 pot-limit Big O.  Couple of strange rules at Oceans-11, though.  In a normal pot-limit games the first open is 3 times the big blind plus the small blind (by the way, this math is always correct.  If you want to compute a pot-sized raise it's always 3 times the bet you are facing, plus what's already in the pot including any callers of the current bet).  So in a normal 2/3 pot-limit game a pot-sized open would be to $11.  But, to keep things a little bit easier for the dealers (mainly, I suppose) and some of the more math challenged players, the game is played with red chips ($5).  So keeping in line with this, a pre-flop limp is $5, while a pot-sized open is $15.  Basically, the small blind and big blind are combined to treat it as a single $5 blind game.  After the flop, if either blind calls and one folds, the other blind's amount is rounded up to $5 when computing the pot amount.  Now because of all these quirky rules, the best deal in the world, is if you live straddle.  Normally a live straddle would be double the big blind.  So, I think if you want to live straddle it should be $10, but the powers that be have decided that would make the game play too big, and thus a live straddle is only $5!?!  That's right.  For the price of a normal pre-flop call, you can buy last action pre-flop.  That's pretty crazy if you ask me.

Now on to the free-rolls.  There are multiple players who don't seem to realize that in the pot-limit variety of the game, unlike the fixed limit version of the game, getting quartered or scooped is catastrophic.  And, if you are drawing for only half the pot, your pot-odds are effectively halved.  So if you are facing a pot-sized bet, instead of getting the normal 2-1 odds, the pot odds are halved if you are drawing only to half in either direction.  You should be looking to scoop or three-quarter your opponent.  That's the key to BigO.  Because of that, it can actually be mathematically correct to fold on the flop with the nut low, with no redraw to a high hand, or a made nut straight with no redraw to a higher hand and no realistic chance of low, if the action dictates it.  Because of the pot-limit format, the bet sizes grow geometrically if the stack sizes are deep enough.

On Sunday, I got it all in with 89JQK on a 79T rainbow board against a person with J8A27.  Yes, we both flopped the nuts.  But I have all the redraws to a higher straight, while the other person only had a variety of runner runner draws (full house, low, broadway straight).  We both bricked and chopped it up.  Not ideal for me, but oh well.

On Monday, I got it all in multiple times free-rolling the same opponent.  In one I had A3567 suited in clubs.  I flopped the nuts with on a 234 board with one club.  Turn is a 5 bringing a back door club flush draw.  River is Tc, giving me the scoop as my opponent had 67xxx with no low and no redraw when the money went all-in on the turn.  The next one, I had KQT98 double suited in clubs and spades.  I flop the nuts on a AQJ two club board.  Unfortunately, the turn is K, and I end up chopping with my opponent's ATTxx hand.  There were a couple of other instances as well, but I think you get the idea.