Poker Strategy: A Guaranteed Win For A Maniac

The structure of Dramaha is a split-pot board game with five down cards where the player forms an Omaha high hand by using two of their hole cards and three of the community cards on the board.

Half the pot goes to the best Omaha hand, and half the pot goes to the best draw high hand (your five hole cards). With the 2-7 variation, however, players are trying to draw the best low hand, with the nuts being 7-5-4-3-2.

In a typical hand of 2-7 Dramaha, a player may start with something like Q-8-7-4-3 (this is a standard hand to open for a raise, as the player would most often discard the Queen post-flop and draw one card hoping to make a good low).

Once the flop comes down, if the player throws away the Queen they would be drawing at 8-7-4-3, needing a two, five, or six to complete an eight-low. Drawing a nine or ten would make a competitive hand as well. As such, this player has a total of 20 outs (minus any on the board) to a solid to very strong hand.

I recently came across an interesting spot while sweating a friend during a hand of $20-$40 2-7 Dramaha. (This Hero is a winning regular that leans on the nittier side of play.)

Hero was dealt K-8-5-4-3 and called early position. (I would have preferred a raise, but he elected to limp.) The cutoff then limped, the small blind completed, and the big blind checked.

The flop came down A-2-2 rainbow, the small blind checked, the big blind bet, and Hero called. The cutoff then quickly raised, the small blind folded, and the big blind immediately three-bet. Hero called, the cutoff four-bet, and then everyone called. (Note: We play a five-bet cap in most limit games in Las Vegas so this four-bet was not a cap.)

Now, as I was evaluating the hand range here, I asked myself what hands would the big blind and cutoff play in this manner? Both were players with some experience in mix games, so any strong made low from the cutoff would have definitely come in for a raise preflop when facing a limp and two players to act in the blinds. Additionally, the big blind would have to raise for value in an unraised pot if they have a strong made low worth jamming for three-bets on the flop in this spot.

So, this leaves both of their ranges to either made full houses or a deuce with a one-card draw to a low. Given that both had reraised on the flop, full houses seemed far more likely to me, especially given the passive play preflop.

Now, if both players had a full house or better, that would mean they MUST have at least an Ace in their hand as the only way to make a full house or better on this flop would be to hold A-2, A-A, or 2-2 in the hand.

If my read was correct here, this would render his typically weak King low to be unbeatable by either opponent. As such, I was anxiously watching to see if Hero made the same read and would make the unorthodox play of standing pat with a King low!

When it came time to declare, the big blind stood pat, and Hero discarded the king and drew one, finding a seven to complete an eight-low. The cutoff also stood pat.

The turn was a jack, and the big blind checked. Hero bet, the cutoff raised, and the big blind called. Hero three-bet, the cutoff four-bet, the big blind flat called, and Hero capped with both opponents calling.

The river was a seven for a final board of A-2-2-J-7, and this time it checked to Hero who bet, and both players just called.

Before the cards were tabled, I told my buddy, “You should have patted.”

“What? I had a King,” he replied.

“Yes, but they both have boats. Your king was already good. By drawing, you risked pairing your hand which would have got you none of the pot.”

Sure enough, the cutoff showed A-A for aces full, and the big blind showed A-2 for deuces full of aces. Hero got half the pot with his eight-low, and the cutoff took the Omaha half.

Now let’s assess if it would have been more profitable to stand pat, planning not to raise the King low, versus drawing and raising a ten or better.

Going into the draw on the flop, there were four small bets preflop, and 12 on the flop for a total of 16 small bets, or 8 big bets. If Hero had kept the King but elected not to raise because it is still a weak low, he would have gotten in 3 big bets x 2 for 6 big bets post-turn, making 14 big bets in the pot, and he would have won back half of that, yielding 7 big bets.

Of those, his investment was 2.5 bets predraw and 2 bets post-draw, for a total investment of 4.5 bets. As such, his profit would be 2.5 big bets. By drawing successfully, capping turn, and betting once on the river, he added 6 bets x 4 which is 24 bets bringing the total of big bets in the pot to 32. And since he won half, he got back 16 bets.

The total invested by him was still 2.5 predraw but now it is 6 post-draw, so he invested 8.5 bets, and thus profited 7.5 bets. This is 5 bets stronger than he would have gotten if he patted the king and elected not to play aggressively.

He made more money by drawing! But what were the chances in play on drawing?

As shown earlier, he would have 20 outs to complete a ten-low or better, but 2-2 was out on the flop, so that leaves only 18 outs amongst the 44 unseen cards. 18/44 = 40.9%

Hero could also make a low worth calling with by drawing a jack, queen, or another king here, which gives him another 11 outs, or another 25% of the deck. By adding these two, we get approximately 66%, meaning one-third of the time, Hero has to fold what was already a sure winner of half the pot.

So, the question left is, which approach is best?

Actually, both approaches could use improvement.

The best play would have been to have pat the King low and cap accordingly for value, taking the small risk that somebody had limped a monster low.

In this case, not only would it have accomplished maximizing the pot while minimizing risk by avoiding drawing, but because of the sophisticated nature of the play, and how crazy it would have looked to unaware opponents, it would have given free advertising of being a maniac while risking very little.

Mark Mazmanian has been a mixed-game specialist for more than two decades playing in games all over the country. The Las Vegas resident can be reached on IG maztastic1 or by email at markmaz17hotmail.com.

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