Card Player Pro

In this column, I will examine an interesting hand from one of my recent pot-limit Omaha training videos.

Game	Five-handed $50-$100 pot-limit Omaha with a $4,000 cap on Full Tilt Poker
Opponents	Opponents Richard Ashby in the cutoff, very loose preflop but plays well after the flop, and elmariachimacho under the gun, very loose and passive preflop
Stacks	All stacks cover the $4,000 cap
My Cards	A J 10 8
My Position	On the button

Elmariachimacho limped in, as he would with a wide range of hands, and Richard Ashby made a pot-sized raise to $450 as the next to act. He is loose and aggressive enough to make this raise with a relatively wide range of hands to try to isolate the limper. I called from the button, both blinds folded, and elmariachimacho called. I considered reraising before the flop, but in this case I believed the superior play was to call with position and keep elmariachimacho in the pot. My hand will play well in a multiway pot, because when I flop straight and flush draws, they will usually be to the nuts and dominate weaker draws, and my hand has enough high-card strength that when I flop two pair, for example, it will often be top two. All of these factors make me prefer a call rather than try to push what is at best a marginal advantage before the flop by reraising.

The flop came A 8 4, giving me top two pair, and both players checked to me. I almost always have the best hand here, and with $1,500 in the pot already and the betting capped at $4,000, any reasonably sized bet commits me to calling a check-raise, capping the betting. I made a standard-sized bet of $1,200, to get value and protect my hand; elmariachimacho folded, but Ashby called.

This is a very strange line for Ashby to take, as the standard play for him with a strong made hand or strong draw that he was willing to play for the cap on the flop would be to lead out with a big continuation-bet. In the former case, the bet would obviously serve to get value from worse hands and protect his hand, and in the latter, it would be a semibluff, knowing that on this ace-high, relatively dry board, he will have a lot of fold equity. In particular, if he had a hand like a pair and a flush draw or a flush draw with some kind of straight draw to go with it, I think he would usually play it this way. Of course, once he checks and I bet, if he had a very strong hand, he would check-raise, capping the betting, since it appears I would be pot-committed. Therefore, when he just calls my bet, he most likely has some sort of marginal hand and does not believe that I necessarily need a very strong hand to make this bet when checked to on the button. He is either waiting to see a safe turn card before committing to the pot or looking to bluff on certain turn scare cards that do not actually improve his hand. For example, if he had a hand such as 7-6-5-X for a straight draw but no flush draw to go with it, he might call and hope to either make his straight or bluff me if a club comes off. It is unlikely, however, that he would call with just a naked flush draw, because when I have a better flush draw, he would be drawing almost completely dead and my bet is large enough to price him out.

The turn was the J, completing the possible flush draw, and now Ashby capped the betting by leading for the maximum of $2,350 into the $3,900 pot. He is representing the flush, but our analysis of the flop action indicates that is not actually a particularly likely holding for him. We decided that he was unlikely to check and call the flop with just a naked flush draw, and that if he held a pair or straight draw to go with his flush draw, his typical play would be to continuation-bet the flop as a semibluff. We have also established that he is capable of turning certain hands into a bluff on scare cards. On top of all of that, we're getting over 2.5-1 pot odds to make the call and we have six outs to improve to a full house if he does have the flush. I called, and Ashby showed the A K 9 7. The river was the 8, and I won the pot.