“People Call With Anything”

I typed that into chat last night after losing a modest amount in a silly PLO hand. I try my best not to gripe -- we all know little good can come from doing so. But in this particular instance my fingers somehow were able to operate independently of instructions from the ol’ cerebral cortex. It happens.

It was one of those “orphaned pot”-type hands. There had been a preflop raise from a player who’d been chucking out 3x bets preflop every other hand. This time I’d called his raise from late position with two middle pairs and we were heads-up. By the time we’d reached the river, I hadn’t improved, and there were four Broadway cards out there. So following my opponent’s check, I decided to take a crack at it, pushing an oversized bet (not quite pot) out into the middle.

I’m a conservative player, by nature, although I will gamble it up sometimes in PLO. Oftentimes I’ll build up a fairly tight image, then let loose a bluff like this which’ll often enough get respected & elicit the desired folds.

Didn’t work this time, tho’. Dude called me with nothing but a bare ace. That’s right -- a pair of aces. With four friggin’ Broadway cards on board.

He typed back a “LOL” after my whiny missive and we had a friendly chat afterwards. Tho’ I have to admit I felt like I was talking to someone who might very well be missing a chromosome.

The fact is, there are certain times when one finds a preponderance of untutored play going on at the PLO tables. I probably play the majority of my hours during the late afternoon or early evening, meaning there are many times when I find myself up against decent players, most of whom tend to have a clue about what’s what. However, at other times -- especially later in the evening (when I played last night) -- with the drunks and other assorted crazies, you see all kinds of nutty behavior.

For example, spent a good stretch last night sitting to the right of a guy who raised pot preflop every single hand for about fifty or sixty consecutive hands. Certainly affected the table dynamic. Problem was, he didn’t seem to have much idea what to do after the flop, so while he’d hit hands every once in a while, he was bleeding chips fairly quickly. I managed to pick him off a couple of times, although he was able to remain afloat a surprisingly long while by turning quads a couple of times.

You see many other obvious faux pas in this "party" atmosphere. A lot of overplayed aces, of course. Insta-all-ins with flush draws (even non-nut) is pretty common. And there’s a lot of overvaluing of non-wrapped straight draws (where one might not even have eight nut outs). Just have to be patient and wait for something, ’cos you will be paid.

Of course, while one is waiting there’s usually plenty enough going on to remain entertained. Aside from the crazy plays, this is the time when one is more likely to encounter funny chat, too. Like last night, when the dude with the word “blunt” in his nick saw someone win a $4.20 pot and typed “nice 420 lol.” (Cue Beavis and Butthead uncontrollable giggle clip.)

Or that other guy with his whiny “people call with anything” complaint. LOL.