One Fourth Your Stack Raise at Pot-Limit

While attending the week-long Regional Bridge Championship at the PGA National in Palm Beach, Florida, many of the bridge players frequented the nearby Kennel Club Casino (at the dog track). In addition to many tables of hold’em, they also had a $500 buy-in mixed game alternating one round of hold’em and one round of pot-limit Omaha with $5-$10 blinds.

The Omaha half was quite loose. There were three players who seemed to play every hand and most of the Omaha pots were raised to $20 or $25 before the flop. I had bought in for the minimum $500, but I noted that there were several players with several thousand dollar stacks. One advantage of playing a small stack is that you are more willing to gamble your whole stack in a high percentage situation. If you get unlucky and lose your small stack, you can afford to buy in again. This is often a sound money management strategy in a new game where you are not familiar with the players.

On one of my first $10 big blinds, I held an 8-6-5-4 with two spades. A player on my left raised the pot to $20 before the flop. There were four other callers around to me and I called also.

The flop came 6-3-2 rainbow. I had flopped the nuts; but, of course, that could easily change after either of the next two cards. Since the preflop raiser on my left was reaching for his chips, I smoothly checked. He bet $25 and there were two calls and two folds around to me. I had about $500 in chips. There was now about $200 in the pot. What would you do here?

Although some good Omaha players prefer to bet the pot when they flop a “fragile” nut straight, there is much to be said for taking a two-step approach. If you bet the pot, it is quite likely that everyone will fold and you have not optimized this opportunity. Since the fourth card pairs the board some twenty percent of the time (9 cards out of 45), you are willing to risk losing this small pot if you can substantially increase your profit, most of the time.

If instead you bet a lesser amount that is approximately one-fourth of your stack, and if you get one or more callers, then you can go all-in with the rest of your stack after the turn if you still have the nuts. You are then in a extremely favorable and high percentage situation since anyone who calls you will not get the equity of an additional bet if they hit.

So I raised it to $125 (about one fourth of my stack). There was one caller; the other two folded. The turn card was the J. I still had the nuts but there were now two spades on the board. Needless to say I did not want to make a flush (since he might make a higher flush).

The pot was now over $400, so I could bet the rest of my chips (about $400). The remaining opponent who had about $1,000 in chips looked very unhappy but decided to call. The last card was a spade and I thought I might have lost the pot. But since I was all-in, I did not have to worry about facing a large bet here. We turned over our cards and it turned out that he had flopped top set (sixes). So I won a nice pot.

Note that by betting approximately one-fourth of my stack after the flop (sometimes called “sizing the pot”), that makes the pot big enough to get the rest of my stack into the pot after the turn if I get a caller. And by getting my whole stack into the pot after the turn deprives a prospective caller of the profit from a subsequent bet if he hits.

So if a scary card rivers, you might lose, but at least you don’t have to worry about facing a very large (possibly a bluff) bet. And the loss of that action lowers the potential payoff and hence the overall odds for calling. This “one-fourth your stack after the flop” guideline is very handy in pot-limit money management. ♠

Formerly a career lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, Mike Cappelletti has written numerous books on poker and bridge, and is considered to be one of the leading authorities on Omaha. Mike has also represented the U.S. in international bridge competition, and he and his wife were featured in a four-page Couples Section in People magazine. His books include Cappelletti on Omaha, Poker at the Millennium (with Mike Caro), and Omaha High Low Poker.