Fifteen Minutes of Fame

I had just picked up from the $20-limit lowball game at the Oaks Club, and was waiting for the next time light to come on so that Debbie would get up from the $4-$8 stud game in which she was playing. While I waited, I leafed through the April 11 issue of Card Player, and found Michael "Q" Wiesenberg's column, "The Low Rollers:"

An interesting situation arose in the lowball game of a Bay Area cardroom that generated a lot of e-mail traffic on the Bay Area Poker mailing list. I won’t identify any of the posters nor use their own words. I’ll just describe the situation, because it’s one that is typical of lowball, and one in which an inexperienced player could easily make a mistake. Nor will I use real names for the participants.

Wait a minute, I thought, the only serious lowball talk I can recall on the ba-poker list recently was started by a question of mine. Sure enough, Q went on to write:

The under-the-gun player folded. From the next position, Jim, a solid player, opened. The next player folded, and Erik, the prop, raised. Andy, a player whose specialties are seven-card stud and Omaha, but who sometimes jumps into a lowball game while waiting for another game, was next with, as he posted to the mailing list, a pat 8-5. He wasn’t sure of what to do, so just called. The remaining players folded to Lucy in the big blind, a fairly loose player, who called. Jim also called the raise.

Yes, it was indeed the hand I had described in a posting to ba-poker last January:

Subject: [ba-poker] Lowball Hand: Pat 85 in a Raised Pot

It's the Oaks' 20-limit lowball game, with a good lineup — [name withheld] the Prop who plays a lot of lowball, one or two other solid players, and a bunch of optimists who will open and draw two under the gun.

UTG folds and Solid #1 opens. Two folds, and [name withheld] the Prop raises. This means either a very good draw or a pat nine or better. My own hand is a pat 8-5.

What's my play here: cold-call the raise, or reraise?

Assuming that Solid #1 is along for the ride either way, how should I draw, and how should I play after the draw?

The broad consensus on ba-poker, supported by Q, Dave "Quick" Horwitz, and Bill Chen, was that I should indeed have reraised the raise I faced. (The sole dissent was good old reliable Beth Even, who asked why I didn't consider folding in this spot.)

Q's column isn't about my play of the hand; it is about "Erik's." Q has been writing lately about what to do with nines in lowball, and "Erik's" hand, when it was shown down, proved to be a nine, and my eight-five held up to win the pot. Q rakes "Erik" over the coals for his play of the hand: The loose player in the big blind drew two cards, the solid player drew one, "Erik" stood pat, and I stood pat after him. After the draw, the solid player checked, "Erik" bet, and I called him down. Why did Erik bet? Q writes. His play made no sense with the hand that he held, basically because his hand doesn't make money if it's good, because no one calls him, but if he gets a caller with his nine he's very likely beat.

Q's column contains some invention, however, perhaps as invented details to protect the guilty: I play a lot of seven-card stud, but Omaha is definitely not one of my specialties. And I don't sit down in the lowball game only occasionally while waiting for a seat in another game. I'm playing a lot of lowball now because there's no jackpot drop in the Oaks' lowball game. And the Oaks' $20-limit game is soft and sweet; while there are some exceptions I usually walk away winners from that game. (I'm still learning lowball, though, and I'm not terribly good by objective standards: I've played in the $60-limit game once, and the other players mopped the floor with me.)