Flopping the Straight in Pot-Limit Omaha

Hold’em players dream about flopping straights and stacking overplayed one-pair hands, but in pot-limit Omaha, unless the pot is huge, most of the action you get will be from hands that have equity against you ⎯ a straight is not a through-ticket to your opponents’ stack, and can even be an underdog when your opponent only has high cards. The straight is the most common nut hand on the flop, but could be only 8/1 to remain the nuts by the river. Let’s look at the factors that will influence your play.

The Non-Nut Straight

If you flop the non-nut straight without a redraw, you will often be drawing dead when lots of money goes into the pot. Sets and draws might give you action but they have good equity, while you have no equity against the nut straight. Be very careful putting significant amounts of money into the pot with a non-nut straight, especially when the board is high and the pot is small.

The Freeroll

Two players flopping the same straight is a common situation. If neither can improve, the only way to win the whole pot is to bluff when a scare card hits. Freerolling means you can’t lose the pot, but can win ⎯ if we both have the same straight, the turn or river might give me a higher straight, or a flush. With a good freeroll, try to get all your money into the pot. Without a freeroll, be aware that you could have less equity than you need to get all in, so unless you think your opponent will chase a lot of draws or pay you off with a worse made hand, be very careful about going all-in.

Different Textures

Consider the nut straight on the following boards:

A) J-T-7
B) J-9-7
C) T-9-7
D) J-8-7
E) T-8-7
F) 9-8-7

Can you see the difference? On boards A-C, wraps are available to higher straights, whereas on D-F, for someone to hit a higher straight, they need to hit a gutshot. This means your equity on the first three boards won’t be as good ⎯ you’ll need the turn to be a card under a seven for your hand to remain the nuts. Your opponents could have a wrap to a higher straight, giving them up to 15 outs, or the same straight with a freeroll. In both cases, without a redraw, your equity is under 50 percent.

Multiway Pots

It’s possible to be in very bad shape with the nut straight in a multi-way pot. If one opponent has the same straight and another has, say, a flush draw, you only get half the pot when the flush draw misses. The flush draw is usually in good shape against a made straight ⎯ without extras, the flush hits about one-third of the time. With extras like a wrap and a set, they can have 70 percent equity on the flop. Even two pair and a flush draw is a favourite against a straight and against two opponents, you might be up against the same straight, a set, a flush draw and a higher straight draw. In this situation you need the turn and river to blank out ⎯ on a J-T-7 board, there’s only a 11 percent chance your hand is still the nuts at showdown, and even then you’ll be splitting the pot sometimes.

How do we avoid putting in lots of money with such bad equity? Unless the pot is big compared to remaining stacks, you should usually play a vulnerable nut straight slowly. Still bet when checked to, getting bad draws to call, but usually just call facing a bet unless you can get a raise called by a worse straight. When a blank comes on the turn, your equity is a lot better ⎯ against a freeroll or draw, only the river can improve him. Playing your hand slow on the flop adds deception value ⎯ your opponents will be less likely to put you on the straight and may play draws and sets faster.

Facing a bet and a raise from solid players, you can fold vulnerable nut straights. Sometimes the pot will be too big to justify folding, and some opponents will be overplaying bad draws or worse straights, but when they’ve got all the draws against you and are drawing to a split, your equity is so bad that releasing the nuts on the flop (and sometimes the turn, too, in extreme situations) is correct.

Advanced Plays

Who needs the freeroll to win when you’re a great, aggressive player? If you know your opponent well enough to say that he has no redraw with his straight, you can chase lots of draws, knowing that you can bluff him off the pot when a different draw hits. If you have the same straight as him, play the hand slow and try to bet him off if a scare card hits the turn or river. If you get all the money in now, you won’t have a chance to steal his 50 percent equity, so consider playing the hand slowly and turning your hand into a bluff when the board gets scary.

Straights can be the toughest hands to play in pot-limit Omaha, so there’s a lot of profit in making fewer mistakes than your opponents. Look at the board texture and think about the range of hands your opponent wants to get all in with; look at your own hand and consider what shape you can be in versus your opponents’ ranges. With good knowledge of your opponents’ ranges and the relevant equities, playing straights well will provide a huge source of profit in this topsy-turvy game.

Michael Piper has been playing PLO for a living both online and live for more than three years. He posts online under the screenname “wazz”, and coaches at Cardrunners.com and Plomaha.com.
Equities:

Nut Straight vs. Nut Straight + Straight Redraw:

Board: Js 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 21 percent
Kh Qd 9d 8c 79 percent

Nut Straight vs. Big Wrap:

Board: Js 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 43 percent
Ac Kh Qd 9d 57 percent

Nut Straight vs Nut Straight + Straight and Flush Redraw:

Board: Jh 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 13 percent
8h 9h Qs Kd 87 percent

Nut Straight vs. Set + Flush Draw

Board: Jh 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 37 percent
10s 10d 5h 6h 63 percent

Multi-Way

Nut Straight vs. Nut Straight and Straight Redraw vs. Two Pair and Flush Draw

Board: Jh 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 8 percent
Kh Qd 9d 8c 37 percent
10c Jd 5h 6h 55 percent

Nut Straight vs. Nut Straight and Set vs. Wrap and Flush Draw

Board: Jh 10h 7c

9c 8d 6d 5s 5 percent
Jd Js 9d 8c 45 percent
Ah Ks Qd 9h 50 percent