Shorthanded Online Play: Dangers of the large-stack approach - Part I

This is an edited excerpt from Rolf Slotboom's brand-new book Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha. In this book, Rolf describes and analyzes, in depth, two specific strategies. One is a tight, sandbagging, minimum buy-in approach based on exploiting to the fullest the overaggression of some (even very good) players. The second approach is a more loose-aggressive, attacking one. It focuses on playing a large stack correctly – with the ultimate goal of breaking the weaker players (in the book, described as "targets") in one single hand.



In this two-part series, Rolf analyzes three potential problems and dangers associated with the big-stack approach – especially in shorthanded online games. The focus is on a $10-$20 blinds online game with a $2,000 maximum buy-in.


Danger No. 1: The swings

The nature of Omaha is such that even in the extremely big pots, you will often see a lot of 60-40, 55-45, and even 50-50 situations. For instance, if you have a set and your opponent has a pair plus a wrap plus a flush draw (or the other way around, with your opponent having the set), it is quite likely that all of the money is going to be in the middle when no one has a very big edge. This means that in a situation in which you are trying to bust a weak player, it is also possible that you are the one who will get busted. And if by chance the two of you both have more than $3,000 or $4,000 in front of you, it could mean that it is actually the weak player who ends up with the massive pot. Heck, he could even leave right after winning that pot, taking your money to another table! So, it should be clear that unlike no-limit hold'em, in which it is often a bit easier to get into situations in which you have a big edge, pot-limit Omaha will have quite a few situations in which you don't have that much edge. This is especially true in situations in which the draws have not been completed yet; and, quite obviously, those are the situations in which monster pots are most likely to occur. So, you would need a fairly large bankroll and quite a bit of stamina to withstand the swings that are part of pot-limit Omaha. And those who think they could get away with a bankroll of just $30,000 or so in shorthanded situations, where the big-stack approach is often played, have to be either very good or – more likely – very lucky not to end up on the rail.



Danger No. 2: Not adapting well enough to the effect that your game has on the other players' mindsets

In shorthanded big-stack play, it is extremely important to be paying attention to the atmosphere at the table and to your opponents' mental states of mind. Because you are so busy running over the table, isolating people, and so on, it may start to irritate lots of players. It may start to irritate not just the weak players you are trying to isolate all the time, but also the players to your left who hardly ever get to see any cheap flops, are always raised off their button, and so on. This means that, they may decide to take a stand and come over the top of one of your raises. Don't automatically think that you are up against a big hand in a situation like this: Your opponent may simply be fed up.


Here's an example: I have raised from the cutoff seat on four consecutive occasions, in all cases making it $90 to go. In all of these cases, I have succeeded in making the button fold and isolating the weak player. Now, the fifth consecutive time that this weak player limps, I again make it $90 to go. My hand is the Q Q 9 8. This time, the button comes over the top with a reraise to $320. Everybody folds, and it is up to me, playing a $2,200 stack. Well, in this case, most people would reason: "I have only queens and face a pot-sized reraise in a fairly deep-money situation, against a player who until now has always folded to my raises. So, I must be up against a bigger hand. And being out of position with only fairly big cards, which may be in the exact same range that my opponent is playing, I don't get any implied odds, either – making my hand a clear fold." While most players would use this reasoning, in reality, the situation is almost certainly quite different. The button is probably thinking: "This schmuck keeps raising me off my button with garbage all the time. I cannot let him succeed in doing this every time, so I am simply going to fight fire with fire here. The first time I get just the semblance of a decent hand, I will reraise him the pot to put him to the test. Then we can see how hot he really is." If you judge that your opponent is in this frame of mind, there is just one way to play your hand here: reraise the pot once more. Then, if your read is correct and you indeed have the best hand, you could win the pot there and then – netting $370 without even needing to see a flop. Or, you could get called by a hand that is either a slight or a big dog to yours. For instance, the times that you get called by hands like J-10-9-7and Q-J-9-8 (hands that are massive dogs to your hand) more than make up for the times you misjudge the situation and are up against aces or kings. And if indeed you get called by a worse hand for almost half of your stack, you will have put yourself in a highly profitable situation – not because your holding is of such high quality, but because you have analyzed the psychology of the situation well and have taken maximum advantage of it.



Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha is available at all major online gaming stores, including Amazon and Conjelco. More information is available at the site of the publisher, http://www.dandbpoker.com/, and at Rolf's site, http://www.rolfslotboom.com/.