Plugging Some Leaks - Part I

In this 10-part series, I will provide a short overview of 25 poker leaks, an analysis of mistakes that are quite common and that can easily be solved. I will try to come up with some quick solutions to problems that especially somewhat inexperienced players may sometimes encounter. This discussion will involve small stakes as well as large stakes, cash games as well as tournaments. I will also focus on more games than just limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha (the games about which I write most often), even though in this column I will focus on these two games.

Leak No. 1:

Calling with overcards in limit hold'em

The problem: You've got two big cards in a raised pot. The flop comes with rags and there's a bet and a call. Should you call?

While quite a few players almost always call in this situation unless there's been a raise, I think it is often correct to fold. Of course, the quality of your opponents' play, the exact texture of the board, your position, and the characteristics and habits of your opponents (especially those of the bettor) are all very important. I would say that the people who habitually call with overcards in multiway pots like this are probably making a mistake, for the following reasons:

1. The pot has been raised (probably by you) and now, in a multiway pot, someone is betting into you. While the bettor may have "only" top pair, he might actually have much better than that.

2. Even if you hit one of your overcards on the turn, someone may have improved to an even better hand; for example, your pair of aces with a good kicker may now face someone with aces up.

3. If you hit and your hand is good, you might not make much more money (especially if your preflop play has marked you with having A-K), but if your hand isn't good – for instance, when you're up against a set – you will lose a lot. However, because the pot is big already, this may not be an overly important consideration.

4. Even if your hand is good at the moment you hit it, your opponents may have straight, flush or two-pair redraws on the river. This being a multiway pot, it is likely that even if you hit your six-outer on the turn and it is actually the best hand at the moment, you still might lose the hand on the river 35 percent, 40 percent, or even 50 percent of the time (depending upon the exact board and your opponents' hands).

Now, all of this doesn't mean that you should never call with just overcards. What it does mean is that you will need a very good reason to do so; avoid doing it "because you get only so many playable hands, and when you finally get them, you have to stick with them." Also, the comments above apply mostly to low-limit hold'em games in which lots of people see the flop, and where someone betting into the raiser actually means something. In bigger, more aggressive games, someone might simply be trying to bet you off the kind of hand they think you could hold (unimproved overcards), even when they don't have a pair, either. Now, obviously, if you think this might be the case, it would be a big mistake to fold too liberally; you will often have to call or even raise in situations like this.

Leak No. 2:

Playing A-A-A-X in pot-limit Omaha

I get lots of questions from people who want to know about the strength of their starting hand in Omaha high when they have a big pair, but also hold a third card of that same rank, also known as "trips in your hand." (Remember that in Omaha high and also in Omaha eight-or-better, you have to use exactly two cards from your hand and three from the board, making the third ace in your hand worthless.) It should be fairly easy to see that having a third card of the same rank diminishes the strength of your hand, but quite a few people don't know exactly by how much, and in what way.

The problem with a hand like this is that in Omaha, you will often need help from the board to have your aces stand up; unlike hold'em, it is very hard to win with them unimproved. (This is especially true in multiway pots. Against one player only, the big pair does hold up a large percentage of the time, especially if your opponent also is playing big cards.) So, you would like to hit a set on the flop, but because there is only one card left in the deck that can help you instead of two, it has become much harder to get what you want. What's more, even if you flop top set, you've still got that third useless ace in your hand, meaning that one of the good turn or river cards that can give you a lock is now in your hand. (Instead of the usual maximum number of seven and 10 outs on the turn and river to improve to a full house or better, you may now have only six and nine outs.) Also, you've got one "blocker" card less against the straight and flush draws that your opponents are probably pursuing. Say that the flop is A-10-3. With A-A-A-6, you've got top set with no backup. If your hand is something like A-A-Q-Q or even just A-A-Q-4, you make it much harder for your opponents to outdraw you by making a straight; heck, you make it even harder for them to have a good draw to a straight. Even if they hold the K-Q-J-X inside wrap, if you've got two blocker cards in your hand, your opponents will now have only seven outs to outdraw you, instead of nine. Now, with two cards to come, this is a significant difference, and depending on the depth of the money, this might be the difference for your opponent between making a profitable or an unprofitable call. Pot-limit Omaha players know that there is a huge difference in being up against someone with nine outs twice, as opposed to someone with "only" seven outs twice. It is the quality of your own starting hand that may give you this extra edge, an edge that a hand containing three cards of the same rank could not give.

By the way, A-A-A-X is a rather funny hand. Quite often, I will not even call the initial bet with it because of the drawbacks mentioned above. But in tournament play, this hand can actually be quite profitable. This is because in tournaments, play is often much tighter than in cash games, and because the money is usually not very deep in tournaments, big pairs become more valuable because it is much more likely that if you raise, no one will have enough of a hand to call you, or to try to snap you off. A second exception of when the A-A-A-X is actually pretty strong is when you can go all in before the flop against someone who is marked with having big cards, also. As an example, let's say that you have a $500 stack in a $10-$10 game. An early-position player raises to $40, and it gets reraised to $140. In this case, reraising all in is undoubtedly the proper play, because the first raiser is likely to fold, and the second raiser might choose to fold, as well (winning you the pot without a fight), or call you with a hand that is a dog to yours. With the most likely hands for him to hold (K-K-X-X, or something like A-K-Q-J), you will be a pretty large favorite – despite the fact that you hold a bad and uncoordinated hand.

Some Final Words

In the next nine parts of this series, I will focus on two or three more leaks at a time. I hope you will enjoy them, and possibly learn something along the way.