Wimp or Wise?

While playing in a delightfully loose $5-$10 Omaha high-low game (with a kill) at Foxwoods, I was in the cutoff seat (next to the button) and picked up 3-2 with the J 6. Three players called in front of me. Is this a playable hand?



I usually advocate playing a 3-2 in Omaha high-low only if the other two cards are "good." Obviously, J-6 suited is not really good. If the 6 were a 4 or a 5 (a "prime" low card), that would be good enough. Or, a J-10 suited also would be adequate. But, clearly, a 2-3-6-J is, at best, a marginal starting hand.



However, in a loose game in which there are already five players (counting the blinds) in the pot, and possibly more to come, at least half of them rate to be playing hands worse than this. A 2-3 is a very nice holding if an ace hits the board. And the 6 is a good "medium" card. Neither the button acting after me nor the blinds were frequent preflop raisers.



So, I made the admittedly loose call, and the button and the small blind also called. In seven-way action, a wonderful flop hit the table: A 6 5. I had flopped the nut low, a flush draw, and a pair of sixes. It was checked around to the player in front of me, who bet. Would you call or raise with my hand here?



I think, generally, that it would be wrong to raise here, although a raise conceivably might fold a high hand that could end up beating you. Since everyone has put only half a bet into the pot at this point, and since I flopped the nut low, there is more reason to pull players in than to push players out. I certainly do not want to pressure out the low competition.



I am unlikely to win high unless I make a flush, a wheel, or an unlikely full house. And a raise here is more likely to knock out a hand that would lose to me than a hand that would beat me (in a loose game, a higher flush draw would probably call). Thus, a raise here would be more likely to cost me money than make money. If I had a high pair, a raise would be much more likely to promote my high potential.



So, I just called, and three other players called. In five-way action, the turn card was the 8, giving me a flush to go with my nut low. It was checked around to the player in front of me, who again bet. Since the third club had not slowed him down, he was probably betting a (nut) low or had the big clubs. What would you do with my hand, call or raise?



Whenever you think you might be getting quartered for low, the key consideration is how a raise would impact high. In this situation, anyone who had a higher flush than mine would probably call, so the key consideration here was, would a raise be more likely to push out someone who might outdraw me or push out someone who was contributing and might contribute on the next round also? Although in some games this could be a rather close question, I thought the dominant consideration was that the lead bettor might well have me tied for low or beat for high. Probably the main justification for raising here would be to fold a low draw that might beat me if the river was a deuce or a trey. But if that happened, I might lose low anyway.



All in all, with two-way potential, I concluded that in order to increase the size of the pot, I was willing to risk a deuce, trey, or board-pairing card hitting the river, because it would not necessarily lose the pot for me; plus, there was no card that would hurt me in both directions. Another way of looking at it was that a raise would be more likely to push out fish who were unlikely to beat me either way than push out a dangerous hand (for example, trips).



So, again I just called, and the other three players called. The river card was the 7, one of the 27 cards that did not affect either of my prospects. Once again, it was checked around to the player on my right, who bet. What would you do this time?



Again, I could see no reason to try to eliminate people, especially when it was still quite possible that I would win only a quarter of the pot. So, I just called. Two of the other players called, also. The bettor, as expected, also had a 3-2 nut low. But my flush held up to win high, so I won three-quarters of the pot. The other two players were just fishing along with marginal hands. If I had raised on any of those three opportunities, I certainly would have won less. In a loose Omaha high-low game, wimps often win more money than bulls.