When playing in a pot-limit (or no-limit) Omaha eight-or-better tournament, you should strongly prefer to bet your stack (go all in) when you have the nuts or a very big hand at least one way. But occasionally a situation arises in which you have a combination of both tangible (already made) prospects and several draws, and the total likelihood of your winning at least half or possibly all of the pot will be substantially increased if you can get one or more opponents to fold.
Playing in a pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better tournament in my $200 big blind, I was looking at the K
J
4
2
. I had about $3,500 in chips. In five-way unraised action ($1,000 in the pot), the flop came 7
5
3
. Since there were two better possible lows than mine (A-2 and A-4), I checked.
A very aggressive player in fourth position, who probably would have raised before the flop if he had an A-2, bet $300 and everyone called ($2,500 in the pot). The turn card was the very interesting 6
. So, now I had the low-end straight, the third-best low, and two non-nut flush draws. All in all, it was a hand with which I might well end up second best in both directions. What would you do with this hand in first position?
Note that there was not much activity after the flop, and it is quite possible that no one had the nuts in either direction - yet. A big pot-size bet here would probably fold an A-4 (second-nut low) and most flush draws (which would be drawing for only half the pot). So, I bet the pot, $2,500, which took most of my remaining chips.
I admit that it was very risky, but apparently the other players also thought it was risky, as the first two players folded after much thought and consternation. The aggressive fourth player called slowly, and then the fifth player raised all in, about $7,000 total. Uh-oh, I thought to myself, there goes half the pot (although I wasn't sure which half). I put in my last few chips and then the aggressive fourth player stewed for a while and finally called.
The river card was the 10
and one of the players who had folded (probably a club-flush draw) looked very unhappy. The fifth player (the all-in raiser) actually did have an A-2 and won half of both pots (main and side). The aggressive fourth player held J-10-4-2 and won the high half of the side pot. My small club flush won the high half of the main pot, more than $5,000, which was a very nice result with those cards.
Was I just lucky that a club came on the river? After my big bet, any club or heart would have given me the high. And with no club or heart, I might have split high with the other 4-2 (small straight). If there hadn't been an A-2 lurking, the 4-2 might well have won low. And a river ace would have made 4-2 the nut low.
Note that if I hadn't made the all-in bet, I probably would have lost my $500 that was already in the pot, or more if I had ended up calling the hand down (with my small flush). Quite often, a hand with several mediocre two-way possibilities will lose when calling in a multiplayer field. But that same hand might have been one of high percentage versus only one or perhaps two players.
When you have a combination of two-way possibilities, it is often a high-percentage speculation to pounce on the pot and pressure all of the non-nut opponents. As long as you don't run into nut holdings in both directions (often reliably diagnosed), you can often pick up half of the pot by default, and sometimes even the whole pot if you happen to hit a great card.
