I Think I Did The Right Thing. I Think.

Played exactly 25 hands of $25NL 6max Rush Omaha today. Below is the very last hand I played.

UTG ($9.40)
MP ($11.61)
CO ($19.47)
Button ($28.77)
Hero (SB) ($25)
BB ($15.40)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, 10, J, A
2 folds, CO calls $0.25, Button calls $0.25, Hero bets $1.25, 1 fold, CO calls $1, Button calls $1

Flop: ($4) 7, 5, 8 (3 players)
Hero bets $2, CO calls $2, Button raises to $12, Hero raises to $23.75 (All-In), CO calls $16.22 (All-In), Button calls $11.75

Turn: ($69.72) 3 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($69.72) 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $69.72 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had 8, 8, Q, 10 (flush, Queen high).
Hero had A, 10, J, A (flush, Ace high).
CO had Q, 7, 6, A (straight, eight high).
Outcome: Hero won $66.72

There are a few interesting things about this hand (besides the fact that I won a monster pot :-):

First, I was playing $25NL because there aren't any $10NL Rush games. I really don't understand why FT isn't spreading the lower stakes games, but they aren't, so I'm forced to play higher than I'm super comfortable with. Also, I'm playing 6max because the 9-handed Omaha tables have very few players these days, sometimes as few as 10 (yes, essentially the *entire* table gets moved to a new table after everyone folds!). Even with 40-50 players, it can take a long, long time between hands in Omaha to fill up the next table you've been moved to. In addition, because the player pool is so small, the opp can actually start to make reads on you. This sort of negates one of the main attractions of Rush, so I'm pretty much forced to play the 6max games during the week (the weekends seem to have enough players to fill out the 9-handed games sufficiently).

Second, I was reading Cloutier and McEvoy's (old) Championship Omaha book this weekend. In it, TJ writes that my hand, AAJT double suited, is his favorite starting hand. Even though most everyone else's favorite, AAKK double suited, is technically stronger, Cloutier says that AAJTds is the only hand he will actually raise with preflop in a multiway pot in a tournament. His reasoning is that there are more ways that AAJT can make a straight than AAKK, and that while they both make the nut flushes, the AAJT hand allows for someone else to make a K-high flush and pay you off, whereas the next best flush someone can hit against you when you hold AAKK is the Q-high flush, and good players won't pay you off with that weak of a hand (yes, a Queen-high flush in Omaha is actually pretty weak). This all seems to make sense to me, and is the reason I got frisky PF with the hand out of position (OOP). (BTW, Cloutier almost never raisies PF in PL Omaha because, unlike hold'em, there he says you usually can't get other people to fold and there is no reason to build a pot preflop; the pots easily grow to full stack size without risking getting too much in PF.)

Finally, and most importantly, I think (but am not 100% sure) I was getting the right odds to get it all in on the flop, even though I was clearly up against some strong made hands. I had nine heart outs for the nut flush, plus three non-heart nine outs for the nut gutshot straight (plus some partial outs (e.g., two aces (assuming the opp didn't have a made straight))). This is 12 outs twice, which is close to 50:50. Against two players, plus the little bit of dead money in the pot, I think I was supposed to get in all in. Again, dunno for certain, but I believe I was correct. This (a) is the problem with Omaha-- i.e., I'm still figuring out the game, the odds, staring hands, etc; and (b) demonstrates the classic Omaha example of a made hand being a dog to a drawing hand. I think.

Boy, this is such weird, tough game to get my head around...
All-in for now...
-Bug