Aria Poker Room

Anyway, a hand came up recently that was so entertaining that I felt compelled to write about it, even though it was an Omaha Eight-or-Better hand. A well-known high-limit player named Cuco raised it up to $400 to go from first position. In third position, Luis Velador folded his hand. Then, he threw it over to Arturo Diaz in the fourth position to inspect, after Diaz had folded his hand.
Next, Jay Abujawdeh called from the button, I folded in the small blind, and my buddy Layne Flack called from the big blind.
I asked Diaz to see the hole cards that Velador had folded so he tossed me Velador’s hand: A-2-J-9, all offsuit
The flop came 9c-9s-5d. Flack, Cuco, and Abujawdeh all checked. Of course, Diaz and I silently chuckled at Velador’s misfortune because he would have flopped trip nines had he not made a very fancy fold!
The turn card was the 3h. Flack bet $400 and Cuco and Abujawdeh each called.
The river was a king. Flack checked, Cuco bet $400, Abujawdeh insta-called, and Flack folded.
“You win,” said Cuco. Abujawdeh waited for Cuco to showdown his hand, but instead, Cuco threw his hand into the muck. That’s when Abujawdeh flipped over his A-J-6-2.
Cuco starting swearing as he angrily plucked his cards out of the muck. He continued to berate himself, muttering, “I had you tied! Why did I fold my hand for free? I never do that!”
Everyone chuckled at the absurdity of the situation as Cuco revealed his now dead hand: A-J-4-2.
Let’s take a closer look at this hand.
Laying down A-2-J-9 in Omaha Eight-or-Better is definitely a controversial play. Most pros wouldn’t fold this hand pre-flop in a $200-$400 limit game. To get an expert’s perspective on this laydown, I called poker pro Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, known to be one of the best Omaha players ever.
Mike was certain that Luis Velador had an automatic folding hand. He explained that Luis had no choice but to fold because Cuco had raised it up in first position.

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