Starting-Hand Selection and Stack Size - Part II

In Part I of this column, I explained that with a very marginal pot-limit Omaha holding like K-K-8-3 with no suits, it is sometimes correct to see a flop with a medium stack, but not always when playing either a small stack (less than 25 times the big blind) or a big one (more than 100 times the big blind). I will now discuss two more hands and the impact of stack size on their play. Note that we are discussing cash-game strategy, not tournament play.



Hand No. 1: 9-8-7-6 rainbow (no suits)
This is the sort of hand that good pot-limit Omaha players have come to appreciate, because under certain circumstances, this type of holding can be very profitable. Again, just as in the K-K-8-3 example in Part I, this is mostly when you are playing a medium stack – say, in the range of 45 to 75 times the big blind – in an unraised pot. In fact, with a stack of about 100 times the big blind, you could even call a raise with this holding, especially if you are up against a weak player who almost certainly has a big pair and has a tendency to overplay that big pair. But with a small stack – say, anywhere from 20 to 30 times the big blind – you should not be that eager to get involved with this 9-8-7-6 – not even in an unraised pot. With a small stack, your goal usually should be to play for all of your money, or not play at all. An exception with this hand may be calling from the button in an unraised multiway pot – which may be worth it. This is because this hand has quite a bit of nut potential, and can make quite a bit of money after the flop, provided you can see the flop cheaply. But in early and middle positions, it should almost always be folded, even when there's been no raise. Why? Well, because the texture of your hand and the size of your stack just don't make for a very good combination:



1. As was the case in Part I, you don't want to invest a relatively large percentage of your stack by calling the initial bet when you know you will have to fold if the pot is raised behind you – and when you're in early or middle position, the probability of the pot being raised behind you may actually be quite high.



2. Even if the pot does not get raised, you will still have lots of problem hands after the flop, like a pair and a gutshot, a good straight draw against a two-suited board, trips with three low kickers, and bottom two pair and a straight draw on the ignorant end. All of these hands are dangerous if several players have seen the flop cheaply. You will make lots of second-best hands, especially if relatively weak holdings like J-10-8-6 double-suited are still in the pot; and in multiway unraised pots, it is very probable that these kinds of hands are still in.



3. Because you are playing a short stack, you don't have enough chip strength to seriously hurt your opponents and/or pave the way for a successful bluff or semibluff. While with deeper money this type of holding has lots of playing advantages – for instance, when up against a big pair (mostly because you usually know where you're at while your opponent does not, and thus you can put lots of pressure on him even when you don't hold much) – with short money, you don't have this luxury. Your opponent will simply put you all in to see whether you have him beat or not, and the only way for you to win the pot is to have the best hand at the showdown.



So, it is clear that this type of holding (if it has no suits, that is; with suits, you can play this hand much more strongly) cannot be played very often with a short stack, and can often be played with a medium stack. Now, how about deep money? Well, with deep money this can be a very dangerous and tricky hand that has quite a few playing disadvantages:



• You are often playing to make a straight, while your opponents may be drawing to a flush or a full house. This means that making your straight on the turn is not the same as winning the pot: Your opponents may have a bunch of redraws.



• What you would like most with this type of holding is to make your hand on the turn (most likely a straight) and then bet all in to make your opponents pay to draw out, and to avoid a headache on the river. But when the money is deep, there usually will be a lot of money left for the river even after a pot-sized turn bet. Now, it should be clear that if you make the nut straight on the turn with these small/medium cards of yours, there are lots of possible river cards that will leave you without the nuts, creating higher straights, flushes, and/or full houses. This carries the danger of either paying off with the worst hand or throwing away the winning hand. (Both of these possibilities are even more likely to happen when you are in bad position with this type of holding. When playing with deep money, you should be very reluctant to play these unsuited small and medium cards if one or more opponents may have position on you. Reserve these hands strictly for the button and possibly the cutoff.)



All in all, what we have here is a situation in which a hand is often playable with a medium stack, sometimes even against a raise, while the exact same hand should usually be folded for just a single bet with either very deep or very shallow money. It's strange, yes – but undoubtedly correct.



Hand No. 2: A-A-A-J rainbow (no suits)

This is a holding I have talked about before: three aces in the hand. Let's say you are playing a $420 stack and are in the $10 big blind. It gets raised to $30, one player calls, and now the button reraises to $120. What should you do? Well, you should reraise all in, of course! Even though you have a bad and uncoordinated holding, if you can turn this pot into a heads-up contest, you will almost always be a favorite. What's more, against the most likely types of holdings for the button to hold (quality hands like K-K-10-10 or A-K-Q-J), you will even be a big favorite. Add to this the dead money in the pot from people folding, and it should be easy to see that this is a situation with a clear positive expectation.



With deep money, a hand like A-A-A-J with no suits can almost never be played. With a medium stack, you might occasionally want to call one bet to take a flop to see if a profitable situation will present itself. But usually, the more money you've got in front of you, the more you should try to protect it by avoiding marginal hands or situations that can easily get you into a lot of trouble.



So, here we have a hand that may sometimes be worth your entire stack when the money is shallow, yet not worth even a single bet when the money is deep.



Conclusion

Playing a short stack
In general, things are simple when it comes to hand selection and finding profitable situations. To make a stand with a short stack, you usually should have a hand of at least some power, like a big pair, or hands that have some high-card potential and suits, meaning you have multiple ways to hit your hand. This second factor is usually more important than the nut potential of your hand, and it becomes increasingly important once the money gets deeper. Anyway, depending on both the looseness and the aggressiveness of your opponents, hands as weak as A-J-10-8 single-suited and K-J-J-8 double-suited may be good enough to go all in before the flop with when you are playing a short stack. But at the same time, you should avoid hands like 6-5-4-3: speculative holdings that rely on implied odds and that don't hit very often, despite the fact that they do have quite a bit of nut potential. With these hands and a short stack, you usually should not even call the initial bet.



Playing a medium/large stack

With medium stacks, you can often play some more speculative holdings (for instance, the 6-5-4-3 mentioned above), especially when you are in position and/or up against weak players whom you can outplay easily. Because of this, hands like 9-8-7-7 are almost always playable when playing a medium stack, especially when your opponents have a tendency to overplay their big pairs. But this same 9-8-7-7 should be played with caution once the money is very deep. If you are playing it, you want to do it only in one of the following situations:



1. In position, heads up against a weak player who is marked with having a big pair



2. On the button, as the aggressor in the hand



Note that with very deep money, you will usually want to play these middle cards in raised pots only, when you have a pretty good clue as to what you are up against. The reason to sometimes raise with these hands rather than call (remember, only when you have good position) is that your opponents may read you for having a big-pair/high-card type of holding. You may profit from this either by bluffing or semibluffing them out of the pot because of a scary board, or by having them play back at you when it seems to them that the board may be bad for you – but in fact you have hit a whopper.



Some final words

While quality hands like J-10-9-8 double-suited, K-Q-J-10 double-suited, and aces with suits perform well in all cases, marginal hands may be profitable under certain circumstances and unprofitable under others. If you learn to distinguish between these situations, you will have a big edge over the (many) players who are oblivious to this, and who treat every single situation just about the same.

Rolf "Ace" Slotboom has been a professional money player since 1998, specializing in limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha. He is the tournament reporter for almost all major European tournaments, and is the Dutch commentator for Eurosport's EPT broadcasts. His first book, Hold'em on the Come: Limit Hold'em Strategy For Drawing Hands, is scheduled to be available in March 2006. He can be contacted directly through his website, http://www.rolfslotboom.com/. Part I of this series can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/.