Pot-Limit Omaha: Hand Quiz Top two-pair, high SPR scenario

Over my last three columns, we discussed the stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) and its implications for pot-limit Omaha (PLO). Now let’s run through a practice hand applying what we have learned. I borrowed this hand from an online poker training video.

The game: $5-$10 PLO (6-max) online

Your position: Big blind

Your hand: J T 8 7

Pre-flop: You ($4,322.75) are dealt J T 8 7 in the big blind. The UTG player ($1,123.50) limps in, and the hijack ($1,109), cutoff ($1,017), button ($1,058.50) all limp in. The small blind ($800) calls.

Do you:
a) Check?
b) Raise?

Action: You check.

Flop ($60): J T 6. The small blind checks.

Do you:
a) Check?
b) Bet?

Action: You bet $60, and the next player folds. The hijack calls, and the next two players fold. The small blind raises to $300.

Do you:
a) Fold?
b) Call?
c) Reraise?

Action: You reraise to $1,020, and the hijack folds. The small blind calls, showing J J 5 5.

Turn ($1,700): K
River ($1,700): 3. You lose.

Grades and Analysis

a(10), b(5). Generally speaking, you probably aren’t missing much even if you basically never raise out of position before the flop. Now on the one hand, with five other players in the pot, you can probably justify raising and building the pot with a true premium-class hand, particularly if you play well after the flop. But that said, J-T-8-7 with a suit – a middle-gap rundown – is a near-premium class hand, or not so strong a hand that you should be dying to build the pot out of position.

a(4), b(10). You basically have a bare top two-pair, as the sucker gutshot isn’t worth a whole lot against any hand that will give you significant action. Checking your top two-pair is weak, but not quite as bad a play as it might sound at first. Think about it this way: You are out of position with an extremely vulnerable hand on this straight-draw heavy flop. If you bet and one or more opponents behind you call, any ace, king, queen, nine, eight, or seven could all potentially beat you; moreover, playing out of position, you won’t have the benefit of having your opponents check to you on the turn or river.

Basically, you are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. You don’t want to give a free card, and so you should probably bet. But if you bet, you are likely to draw action on this kind of flop, and the turn could be difficult to play.

a(10), b(0), c(-10). This is the other scenario: You have a bare top two-pair in a high-SPR scenario. The small blind has a $790 stack, for an SPR of 13 – a high-SPR scenario – and you have him covered. The hijack entered the flop with a touch under $1,100 for an SPR of 18, or well into four-bet territory. You have him covered as well.

Folding is the only reasonable option. You are essentially playing for stacks, and the only hands that are going to give you action for stacks on this flop are top set which has you smashed, and maybe a nut wrap like A-K-Q-x or A-K-Q-9 against which you are in OK shape (you are about a 52/48 percent favorite against A-K-Q-2, and a 47/53 percent dog against A-K-Q-9; you are also 50/50 against A-K-Q-J for top pair and the nut wrap). On your lucky days, you might be up against middle or bottom set (still not good), or, alternately, against something like K-Q-J-T rainbow for the same top two-pair with the nut open-ended straight draw, against which you are a huge dog (24/76 percent in favor of a single opponent).

Heads up against one opponent with that range, you are in bad shape with your bare top two-pair; against two opponents with that range, you are toast.

The gist of it is that bare two-pair is toast in high-SPR all-in confrontations on the flop. In the hand, the small blind let the big blind (you) off the hook with the check-raise – at this point, the big blind has an easy fold. The big blind instead blew the hand and his stack by three-betting and effectively committing his stack.
Incidentally, if you’re curious, the hijack (the instructor and actual hero in the training video) called the flop with K Q Q 2 and then folded to the reraise. ♠

Jeff Hwang is a gaming industry consultant, a semiprofessional player and author of Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy and the three-volume Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha series.