Same old tournament song. Big stack flops a set while you guys both have way too good hands to get out. You are way ahead pre and 75% + favorite if it goes to showdown against both of them. So I don't see what else you were supposed to do here.

Despite getting repeatedly demolished by unlucky run outs in Big O this weekend (runner runner flushes, rivered by bigger straights on a gut shot card, etc), this exemplifies by why this remains my favorite poker variety.

Thanks for sharing!

Before I started playing in this game, I had played virtually no real-money Omaha except for a couple sessions of PLO online and low-stakes limit O8 at "charity" cardrooms. I was making all the typical hold'em player mistakes and was somewhat uncomfortable playing games with four, five, and six hole cards with deep stacks.

Now I can't get enough of PLO variants, especially Big O8 and SOHE. (I know Big O implies high-low, but we play it high-only sometimes, hence specifying Big O8.)

Also new to the lineup as of last time: ludicrous pineapple. Four hole cards, discard one on the flop, one on the turn. Lots of fun.

It's kinda funny how many people in my game (and it seems a lot of other games too) were so reluctant to learn the PLO variants, but now they usually become the games of choice. It's all about the action I guess.
Thanks to you guys SOHE has become really popular, and speaking of the pineapple games, we've tried SOHE with the Hold em hand being pineapple. Not my favorite but adds a new wrinkle.

Earlier tonight, I'm sitting behind about 400 or 500 BB playing 5-card PLO8 when I get TTJQK in MP. I decide to take a shot with a high-only hand, and I pot. I get raised from BTN and close the action with 2 or 3 other callers.

Flop comes TJA. I pot, BTN and SB call.

Turn K. SB shoves for a bit less than pot, I pot, and BTN, who nearly matches stacks with me, calls all-in.

BTN wants to run it twice for the significant side pot, and I'm on board, but SB only wants once. SB agrees to let the main pot ride entirely on the first river, while our side pot goes 50/50 on the first and second rivers. It's a deal.

SB has AJxxx. BTN shows AQ3xx.

First river: T, giving me the entire main pot with lifetime royal flush #4 (live #2), plus quads just for the hell of it. Second river is 2, carving up the side pot.

^Misdeal. Looks like everyone got 5 cards.

How did the side pot end up as a chop? Didn't the BTN have a flush to your straight?

T / J / A / K / 3

You: TTJQK
Him: AQ3xx

So you have broadway and he has a Q high flush (and the consternation of the SB for not wanting to run it more than once for the main pot).

They ran the the side pot twice. Jim had a royal to scoop the main and win first half of the side.

That is correct. Understandable point of confusion, though. I initially thought I was only chopping the main until it was all shoved to me. That was a pleasant surprise.

Fair enough. Confusion on my part.

As of July 1, my state finally has big-bet poker in the "charity" cardrooms. The state imposes silly rules ($4 max forced bet per player, $150 max buy-in per hand, and a couple other little things), but the games have gotten off to a hot start.

I had stopped visiting one of the cardrooms because the rake was murder (10% to $6 + $1 BBJ at $2/$4 and $4/$4 fixed limit), and game selection was meh. All the NLHE games were tournaments.

I went back a couple weeks ago, and it's a whole other world. The place is still a bit dingy, and they're still doing waiting lists on a small whiteboard in a less-than-optimal spot, but the games have experienced a huge boom. During peak hours today, they had what looked like eight or nine tables of $1/$2 NLHE, two $2/$4 NLHE, two $1/$2 PLO, and I think a couple $2/$4 LHE tables. This time last year, it would've been three $2/$4 LHE, one $4/$4 LHE, and one $2/$4 O8, with most of the action in tournaments.

The $2/$4 NLHE is my state's silly version of $2/$5, and at this place, the buy-in is no-cap, but with the catch that you can only add $150 per hand. It tends to play very deep. (Sadly, I think the state is going to squelch the no-cap soon.)

The $1/$2 PLO game I played ($300 max, $150 at a time) was not so deep, but not unreasonably short either—a hundred here, a few hundred there, nothing to write home about. But the game was incredibly easy, and the players tended to rebuy frequently.

I'm only a novice/intermediate student of PLO at the moment, and I suspect I was one of the best players at my table all night. The game was mostly populated with regs who spend as much time there as the employees, and who are donators at $2/$4 and $4/$4 limit hold'em and O8.

I worry a little that big-bet poker will dry up this soft player pool, but you never know. It's been 10 or 11 weeks now, and they're still in the action all day. Apparently they have deeper pockets than I thought.

Not sure I get the bolded part. Is that in the new rules or the old rules?

The old rule was $4 maximum amount per bet, hence nothing bigger than $2/$4 and silly $4/$4 fixed-limit games.

The new rule establishes an exception from that rule for "table stakes" poker, but with a maximum $4 blind (or ante) per player.

I've been watching a lot of old poker TV lately, especially PLO games, and I tonight I went for the 2008 WSOP PLO Championship. Anyone remember this guy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvv1cyvN9k#t=02m21s
(The video's tagged to jump right to him, but cue to 2:21 in case it doesn't.)

I loved the poker boom and how much easier it made it to find a good game, but I sure don't miss all the ridiculous circus antics.

Found this electronic sign to add to my table through a Chiproom sale. Really finishes off the table.

Is there a generally accepted rules for cash game holdem manual somewhere?

Roberts Rules of Poker is the gold standard for this. Links to it and a lot of other good info is in the sticky here.

Howdy, folks.

Howdy, Breich.

Any fun home game action lately? I've been hosting $4/$8 HOE fairly on the regular. Fun times.

The Glenn Place Rounders are still pluggin' along each friday night. After a total of 47 (5 or 6 hour) sessions this year I am down $38. Or 76 bb at .25-.50 stakes. Oh the agony of defeat!! Well 6 sessions left in 2015. I might recover after all.

Happy Thanksgiving all! Hope you are able to enjoy a great family with family food, and poker.

So got word our Saturday NLH will be discontinued. Attendance has gotten too low. Just 5 regulars this year.

On the positive side, the Friday NLH tournament will continue. But that means a 2-2.5+ hours drive during rush hour to get down there and an 80 minute drive home.

Hey all! Thought I'd drop by and say hello. I've been lurking here and there, and I respond to post reports when Breich doesn't get to them first, but I haven't been posting much at all lately. I think I went through the reasoning a couple months ago when I was last in this thread, and not much has changed since then.

I'm still playing pretty regularly with my weekly cheeseburger tourney group, and we do occasional .25/.50 NLHE cash games still - though far from the regular monthly game that I tried to get going for so long. Frankly, I got a little burned out on poker for a few months. I was tired of the uphill battle for a regular home cash game, non-poker facets of my life got a little crazy, and I hit a hard downswing at the local cardroom and burned through most of my roll. Honestly, I was way underrolled for the 2/5 game that I was playing, so the math says it was a matter of when rather than if it would happen.

How are things these days? I know it's been very quiet both in HP and apparently at 2+2 overall. Everybody have a good Thanksgiving?

Glad to hear from you schmendr1ck. Thanksgiving was meh, had vacation just prior which was fantastic but came back to news of a grandfather dying and another that got put in ICU, still waiting on that one. Had to travel with layovers with a 16 month old which was exhausting even though he is amazing. Life therfore has been crazy and we are just surviving.

Regarding poker I've made an arrangement to buy a lot of chips to start building a mixed set. The foundation will be in play for my annual Xmas game that is coming up on the 19th. I'll post pictures afterwards. We have 17 for the "Meltdown" tournament that is always the best game of the year that includes all of the current regulars (and Breich).