Pot Limit Omaha – What a Game!

Date: 2004.07.15 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

OK y’all, the following hand occurred in a $5-$10 blind pot limit Omaha game in Kinder, La. Jeff Sparks out of Houston wrote this hand up, and sent it to me. It reminds me of a very famous statement that I have heard many times…it seems to be right at the tip of my tongue. Oh well, let’s get to the hand right now:

Small blind (SB): holds 5c-7c-8s-9s ($800)

Big blind (BB): holds 3d-5s-7s-8d ($1,000)

Position 1: Under the gun holds Ac-Ad-4c-4d ($600)

Position 2: Jeff holds Kd-Kd-10d-10s ($1,500)

Position 3: Holds As-Qs-Jh-9h ($2,000)

Position 4: Holds Kh-10h-6d-6c ($400)

Position one (P1) brings it in for $35 under the gun, all hands called with good reasoning. The flop comes down10c-6s-4s. The SB–with a wrap and a weak flush draw–leads at the pot for $150. The BB calls $150 with a weaker wrap and a straight flush draw, P1 (with bottom set) calls, Jeff (P2) wants a safe turn card before he puts all of his money in the pot with top set, so he just calls. P3 (with the nut flush draw) just calls, and then P6 (with middle set) just calls.

Jeff gets what looks like the second-best card in the deck to him (after the fourth ten), the Kc, for a board of 10c-6s-4s-Kc. Now the SB checks, the BB checks, P1 checks, and Jeff (P2) bets the pot for about $1,100. After all, he just got the safe card he was looking for with the Kc-it made him a set of kings to go with his set of tens. P3 now has a wrap draw as well as the nut flush draw, and decides to put in all of his chips-about $200 more than Jeff put in. The pot is now so out of shape that P4 has to call with his small money (about $250). Then everyone else calls all-in as well, with about four side pots. $5,800 makes a pretty big pot, especially this early the night (2 hours into the game), and Jeff wants some insurance or at least to see how many outs there are against his hand.

Funny thing about that safe card on the turn though, it gave Jeff the nuts with one to come, but it also killed him deader than a stone! There is not a single card in the deck that can come on the last card that would allow Jeff to win the pot. I just remembered that famous statement: be careful what you ask for, you might get it. In this case, the off suit K looked like Jeff’s second-best-possible card. He got what he wanted, only to find out that it was the worst possible card in the deck for his hand!

Fortunately for Jeff, the big blind ended up drawing out on him on the river when the 2d came off of the deck for a final board of 10c-6s-4s-Kc-2d, which allowed Jeff to only lose $500 on the hand. Repeat that out loud once. Jeff was lucky to only lose $500 on a hand where he had the stone-cold-nuts with one to come!

I hope that everyone enjoyed this weeks Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.