Big Moves in Pot-Limit

With three tables remaining in a rather large (200-plus entrants) online pot-limit Omaha high-low tournament, you are leading your table with about $25,000 in chips. On your $800 big blind, you hold the K J 7 5. Everyone folds around to a player on your right, who makes it $1,600, and the small blind folds. Would you defend your blind heads up with this hand?

Although this hand does not quite meet the criteria of five "blind-calling points" (BCPs – see my How to Win at Omaha High-Low Poker, Page 80), it seemed close enough (four BCPs). One strong consideration was my observation that the preflop raiser always followed through with betting his hands after the flop, which meant that I would probably get paid off well if I hit a good flop.

The flop came A 4 3, giving me a straight-flush draw. I checked to the raiser, who had started the hand with about $12,000. With $3,600 in the pot, he bet $1,000. What would you do? I just called. The turn card was the 10, giving me yet a second straight-flush draw. I checked. He bet $2,000. What would you do here?

Based on all the information I had, which included the fact that he was a very active player and had about one-third of his chips in the pot, I decided that I was not about to fold, since I was about even money to draw a winning high hand and might actually have the best low. So, given that I was about to at least call, it seemed right to test him by raising him all in. Since I had been playing rather tight, there was a fairly good chance that he might not want to call with a marginal hand that might beat me on the last card.

So, about $10,000 in chips magically moved into the pot. He thought about it for well over a minute. If he called and lost, he would be just a few places out of the money (the tournament paid 20 places). He folded.

About 20 minutes later, having about $30,000 in chips, I was in the small blind and picked up the Q 3 10 6. With seven players at our table, there was only one caller around to me. Even though I had a bad hand, since I was getting 5-to-1 on my money and each of the other two players had less than $10,000 in chips, I chose to call the half-bet.

With $6,000 in the pot and three-way action, the flop came Q 4 2, giving me a pair of queens, a flush draw, a gutshot-straight draw, and a bad low draw. In first position, what would you do with this hand?

Although there is something to be said for checking and trying to get a free card with this drawing hand, I think this type of hand and situation present a good opportunity to use muscle power. I bet the pot, $6,000, which was enough to put either of them mostly all in. With 21 or 22 players left, we were all "on the bubble" (almost in the money), and I thought they would be less likely to call with marginal hands.

The big blind on my left folded quickly, but the other player thought for quite a while and finally called all in. He showed a K-2-3-4, which many players would consider a rather dubious call. The turn card was an 8, which guaranteed me at least half the pot (and a 6 would tie low but win high for me). Now, I had many outs (diamonds, a 5, or another pair) to win the whole pot. But, the river brought no good news, so I had to settle for half the pot.

In this type of situation, in which both opponents are short-stacked, making a big move on the pot has a high-percentage success rate. And note that this kind of "big move" with two-way prospects in Omaha high-low works even better (that is, loses less frequently) than it does in hold'em, because you have two ways to back into half the pot if you are called. You are much more likely to get called by a hand that is strong in only one direction, and therefore you will frequently salvage half the pot and net a profit on the hand.

By the way, I did manage to cruise into the final table, where I had a good run and finished second.