NoCal Single-Draw Lowball: Rough Pat Nine OOP.

[AlanBostick]

It's the Oaks Club in Emeryville, Calif. I'm fed up with getting shellacked in hold'em, so as a long shot I start a list for $20-limit lowball. The brush isn't encouraging, but amazingly enough a game gets going after about an hour. The game is the Northern California format, with a single $20 betting limit; blinds of $5 (from the dealer -- yes, it's player-dealt!), $5, and $10; before the draw the opener can only open for $20 (later players can raise, but you can't open for a raise); it's ace-to-five, straights and flushes don't count; the deck has a joker that plays as the lowest card not otherwise in your hand; after the draw players must bet their sevens or better, or forfeit the post-draw action. Yes, that's right, it's poker like my granddaddy used to play in Gardena!

There are two players (not in this hand) who are canny high-limit action players who really grok lowball, four elderly gentlemen whose distance from death's door is much shorter than it used to be, and me. It's been ages since I've played California lowball, and I am resisting the temptation to raise in position deuce-trey-seven-brick-brick and draw two to my apparent wheel.

I'm under the gun, and I've just been dealt 98742. If I'm playing it, I'm pat. (Break and draw to an 87? Draw two to a seven??) Pat nines are can be troublesome, but against the elderly-gentleman crowd they can be profitable.

I decide to play, and open the betting. Across from me, an old guy on oxygen raises. Ruh roh. The dealer, another elderly gentleman, calls, but the big blind folds. I think for a moment, and then reraise. Oxygen calls, and so does the dealer.

I rap pat, Oxygen draws one, showing the nine in his hand as he discards it, and the dealer draws two(!).

After the draw, I check, and the two other players check after me.

I think I played this hand terribly, but I wonder what other people think.

[2461Badugi]

Once you decide to play it, this is the only way. Presuming you didn't kill I think it's a fold, though. Zadeh suggests opening any nine UTG in a tight game, but I think I'd want to be more comfortable in the game than you seem to be to go with that. And this game may not be that tight anyway.

Anyway, you can't fold to the raise, calling seems awful, and any line but check-call (don't overcall) on round two is obviously wrong. So pump it and hope you get a break.

[AlanBostick]

Feedback I'm getting in another forum is that I should have mucked this turkey in the first place. Pat nines play well head-up against someone drawing; multiway they come off a lot worse. If I wanted to play a nine, it should be something like 9-7-smooth or better, where I can open and then see what happens. If I'm against one guy who is likely drawing, then I stand pat; but if its multiway or against a better pat hand I can pitch the nine and draw to a better hand.

I don't want to do that with a 987, of course, because pitching a nine to draw to an eight is generally a money-losing proposition.

One lowball expert suggested betting out after the draw in hopes that the rocky old guys would put me on a good hand and not call with their eights or better nines. This doesn't strike me as good strategy -- lowball river betting is tractable to game theory, and game theory sez I should be betting my stronger hands and a particular fraction of my weakest hands; a rough nine falls in between those ranges, good for stopping bluffs and not much else. It's a hand that wants to see a cheap showdown.

[Phat Mack]

I think your opening bet was fine. After you were raised and the button called it's a clear fold for value.

If you lead out after the draw, you might get a better 98 to drop but that's about it. Might as well check.

jmo

[MarkGritter]

In regards to your game-theory comment: What, weaker than your 987, would you be patting here? Only a stone-cold bluff?

That is, your range in this situation consists of

out-and-out-snows
unbreakable 9's
8's
7's
6's
5432A

But presumably not any T's.

I am wondering if there are enough out-and-out snows to balance the legitimate bets, or whether it's better to include some of the 98's.

[spike420211]

The game i used to see in Garden City in San Jose was the exact same format, but they used a house dealer...Grandpa might be old, but he could still stuff a slug in there...

[AlanBostick]

There's 9.75 bets in the pot (three bets three ways, plus the middle and big blinds). That means that my bluffing frequency ought to be four times in forty-three. There are twenty-one pat hands that I will bet here: any seven or better. So I should bet those and my two worst possible hands. Leaving snows out of the picture, by your reasoning they would 98765 and 98764. Everything between a perfect eight and 98763 should be checked.

[Soviet Exile]

Alan,

did you ever talk them into spreading a TD game at Oaks?

John

[AlanBostick]

I spoke to Larry Thomas several times, and he was extremely dubious.

I heard a rumor, though, that on at least one occasion some lowball players agreed to switch to triple-draw for a day, keeping it on the QT from the management.