Showing posts with label A-5 hi-lo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A-5 hi-lo. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Last Imperial Palace mixed game

As I am now into my last week in Las Vegas, last night's $3/6 mixed game at the Imperial Palace would be my last for this trip. This time there were two mixed game tables running & I seemed to be at the much friendlier of the two. It turned out to be a reasonable night financially, though not the marathon session of previous weeks. I finished with a small profit, but the table broke just before 1am (unlike the 9am finish the previous week) & as there were no seats on the other table I decided to call it a night.
Hand of the night for my was in A-5 hi-lo, which is a 5-card triple draw game, with the pot split between the best 5-card poker hand (high half) & best A-5 low (low half, though there is an 8-or-better qualifier for low). As with most split pot games, it seems like the best way to play the game is to aim for the low & hope to back into a high hand. Of course this is all good in theory, until you are dealt some sort of strong-ish high hand, when you hope to win the high hand with no-one making a qualifying low. This often leads to unusual split pots when heads-up, so that two players with decent lows end up chopping (eg: A2467 v A3568 is a chop, with the A7 winning low & A8 winning high).
Anyway, to my favourite hand of the night ... I am dealt 2d2h4d4c8s on the initial deal. I decide to call & draw one, keeping the 2244, looking to hit a 4-outer to fill up (two pair 4s-up is unlikely to win multi-way in this game). Of course I draw the 3d, so now have 22344 with three low diamonds. This gives me something of a dilemma ... the 2d3d4d now looks tempting to play as a potential scoop hand, but then I'm throwing away two pair ... ultimately I decide to go for glory & discard two (of course no-one at the table notices that I have gone from drawing one to drawing two) ... and I manage to draw like a champion! 5d8d! I now have an 8-high flush & an 85 low! Of course this is again an improvement, but not ideal. If someone makes a 7-low I am crushed for the low & an 8-high flush is most definitely beatable for high, so that half is far from locked up. Regardless, I decided to raise & stand pat with my 8-high flush & am pleased to see that the other three players in the hand are all still drawing. Of course it probably helped my cause that a few hands earlier I had stood pat with a weak low & wound up winning the high when the only hand that called on the river was a better low (see the explanation above). I bet after the last draw & was called by two others & showed my 8-high flush .... and scooped! Not a bad finish for the last mixed game session at the Imperial Palace. Definitely a game I would recommend people playing if they are in town & looking for a fun game to play on a Sunday night.
Next on the agenda: More poker, back to the Rio to rail the main event ... and thoughts of packing & how to fit everything into my bags!