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How To Go All In Before the Flop

March 30, 2008

So you have been dealt a pair of aces and you are considering going all in before the dealer puts down the flop in order to make a splash with the hand and have a chance at a big pot.

But there are risks that you need to consider before you decide to go all in at the very start of the game.

First, when you go all in, there is a chance that you will be called either by someone who has a smaller pile of chips than you, because they have a chance to double up if they win, or by the chip leader, who has a chance to knock you out, while not losing many of his own chips. For you it will be the difference between getting out of the game or getting back in it. It is a high risk, high reward situation for you.

But just as there is a chance for you to hit big with a big pot, there is also a chance that everyone will leave you hanging. Since the chance of getting a pair of aces is so high and going all in before the flop is such a sign of a strong hand, the rest of the players might all fold, and all you are left is a pot with just the blinds in it.

If you have the best cards sitting in your hand, the betting game will change for the entire table. You are going to stop worrying about what the other players have to trying to figure out how to get the most chips you can into that pile in the middle. You you’re your all-in bet to be worth it. You know you have the best cards, no matter what happens - at that point. You want to make sure there are plenty of bets made before you go all in before the flop. The better you are at working this, the longer it will have to be before you have to show the cards are laid on the table.

This might be a tough move for you, especially if you are a player without much experience, who might not be able to read the other opponents very well. If you are one of the lesser experienced players, you may just want to go all in as soon as you can and leave it up to the deal of the cards to see if you can win, rather than trying to pump up the pile. You want to go for it and go for it quick, so you may be able to score eventually.

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

Tells: Does Your Opponent Have A Good Hand?

March 28, 2008

If you are always getting stumped during your poker game, one of the problems you may be having is an inability to read another players’ tells. This is the kind of advanced strategy that separates really good players from inexperienced ones.

But what should you be looking for when it comes to tells? There are a lot of body language secrets that you can learn that will determine how you bet and whether or not you can win your poker showdowns when there are big pots sitting in front of you.

Here are some of the tips which can tell you that the person sitting across the table from you has a good hand:

  • They act like they have nothing or are too disinterested in what is going on. This aloof move usually is a bit of overacting. They have a strong hand, but they are “slow playing”. Not acting exciting in this case, is a smokescreen for how excited they really are.
  • Nervous shaky and quick breathing. Maybe your opponent can’t really hand back just how excited they really are and they become really nervous. Watch their hands and their breathing, especially as they make a bet.  
  • Talking to themselves. This is another case of overcompensation on the part of your opponent. If they keep asking themselves why they are betting or why they are acting crazy, that means they are trying to throw you off the scent of what they really have in their hand. They probably have something big. 
  • Keeping an eye on the chips. If someone has a big hand, they will always be adding up in their mind what they can do to win. For some players this means looking at the chips they have, and trying to figure out their next big bet. If they have a good hand, they will be thinking ahead like that.

Now here’s the tricky part. If you are playing against someone who is really experienced, they may throw out a tell that is the opposite of what they are doing. They may have a weak hand, but tell like they have a strong one. That’s why it’s good for you to know what kind of player you are up against, so you can be ready for whatever they do.

If you are able to discern a true tell from a false one and when a player is holding something good or something bad, then you will be on your way to being a winning poker player.

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

To Slow Play or Not?

March 25, 2008

Some poker players think slow playing is among the best strategies for winning a big pot, but that may not always be the case. If you have a really great hand, you probably want to keep slow play at a minimum.

“Slow playing” is a strategy in which you don’t do much, if any, then you are putting your opponent in the position where they have to either make the big bet or bluff.

But the trap many players, especially inexperienced ones, fall into is that they slow play when they have really good hands and will legitimately win the pot if they play smart. There are other reasons why you should consider slow playing and not the smartest move when you have a good hand.

Many experienced poker players will see through your strategy, especially if you do it consistently and will fold whenever you start to check. Also, the pots you will play for when you slow play a good hand won’t be as big as they could be if you go for it and start to compete.

That’s why you should go against the strategy of slow playing big hands and instead concentrate on getting the most money in the pot as you can. If you know you have two aces and are playing the best hand, you don’t want to try to get the others out of the game, you want to keep as many in it as you can and everyone contributing to the pot.

Be sure you don’t scare people off by playing smart. You want to bet like you have a decent hand, even if you have a monster one. That will keep your opponents. Everyone will think they have something (a small pair, the start of a straight) so they will be playing for the pot and by not knowing that you have a home run hand, they will play along.

If you are slow playing your big hand, you will get a lot of bad bets from others and keeping some people in the game that shouldn’t be there. If you slow play, then that allows someone the outside chance to catch a lucky break on the river and sink you.

Finally, since the accepted strategy is to slow play on a big hand, you will catch your opponents by surprise. You are going to play your monster hand just like you would any other, which means you stay in the game, stay in the pot and for the rest of the game - people are on their toes wondering what you are going to do.

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

Knowing When to Fold Them

March 15, 2008

It may seem like the opposite of what you should be doing, but in the game of poker one of your best skills is to know when to fold.

That’s right, quitting so that you can rather play another round, is one of the keys to winning. Why? Because in poker, you don’t want to waste either your time or your chips on a bad hand, so the sooner you put it down, the better.

When you fold, you drop out of a chance to win the pot. Usually, a player just tells the others around the table that they are folding or they just throw their hand into the discard pile. Be care about what you do with cards, though, depending on the rules of the game you are planning. In some games, when you fold you are not allowed to turn your cards over.

An unwritten rule you need to be sure to follow is not to fold out of turn. This can hurt the balance of the table and give a player a competitive advantage when they shouldn’t have one.

The key, though, is to know why you should fold. There are many reasons why - all of which could benefit you in the long run. One of the biggest reasons to fold comes when you figure out some other player’s tells. If you know someone is bluffing and really has a good hand, then you should fold in order to save yourself some chips. Of course, the opposite is also true, in which you could figure out a players’ tell tendencies and decide not to fold and stay in the game.

Other reasons to fold are when you have a hand you should play - a pair lower than jacks, for instance, with nothing helping on the flop.

There are a lot of skills you need to learn in order to excel at poker. While bluffing and betting are two of the biggest, learning when to fold your cards is up there too. 

Written by Tom · Filed Under General Poker, Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

The Fine Art of Bluffing

March 10, 2008

There are many ways to tell your average poker player from someone who has the skills to win big pots consistently. It’s more than just a run of luck; it’s a set of abilities that few people understand who are just casually watching the game. One of those skill sets you need to acquire in order to become elite is really known when and how to bluff. Without it, you’re sunk.

It’s best to start out with some of the general guidelines for bluffing. The first is - beware of bad players. You may all the poker playing skills in the world and still be torpedoed by someone at your table who really has no idea what their doing. If you have someone like this playing with you, be careful about bluffing with nothing. If your opponent isn’t skilled with how or when they bet they will keep calling and calling until the end and you will lose with your no hand to a pretty sorry pair.

The second rule is - don’t be a One-Trick Pony.  If you are really good at bluffing, you can’t expect to live on it for an entire game. No matter your abilities, you aren’t going to bluff your way to a championship, so don’t try. And don’t always bluff in the same way. The key to poker is to make your opponents so unsteady that they are thinking about you more than they are thinking about their own cards. If they know you are an awesome bluffer, they’re going to see right through you. So, just like a championship boxer, you need to vary your punches. If you score a big win with a bluff in one hand, you need to go strong without a bluff in the next.

The next rule is a crucial one - bluffing isn’t for sissies! The best way to convince the other people at your table that you’ve got a great hand is to bet like you’ve got a great hand. There’s no better way to tell someone is an experience player than to see them go with nothing all the way until they’re called and them have them say they were bluffing. No, they were just playing badly, especially if they were checking each turn and only throwing in the minimal raises. For a true, skilled bluffer, you need to be laying out big bets on the table and daring the other players to figure out what you’re doing. Like any other poker prospect, it’s about controlling the table and you’re not controlling the table if you are half-heartedly bluffing. You have to go for the gusto with big, confident bluffs that put your decisions in the driver’s seat.

A rule related to this is - don’t bluff against sissies! If you are risking a lot with your bluffs, you need to be going after the big players at the table. It makes the stakes worth it when you are going after the players at the table who are competing with you to win, not someone who is on their way out. They will either lose, or you will try to bluff them with their chip stack is worth it. Otherwise, don’t waste your time or your bluffing skills on them.

Written by Tom · Filed Under General Poker, Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

No Foolin’ - There are Different Ways to Bluff

March 5, 2008

No matter how good you might be at playing Texas Hold ‘em, sometimes the cards just aren’t going to be dealt your way. But you still want to win the hand, right? You still want to keep up some momentum on your way to winning a tournament? Well, you still can. In fact, if you don’t learn to win with bad cards, you will never reach the big-time type of competition that you want.

So how do you do it? How do you win if you have nothing? The strategy is called bluffing. Sure, you’ve hard about it. But it’s not as simple as you think. It’s about exerting your control over everyone else at the table.

There are some specific ways that you can turn bluffing into another weapon in your poker playing arsenal. You need to learn not only the best time to do it, but the best way to do it. And you might be surprise that there are different kinds of bluff? Do you believe that? Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Ok, there really are different forms of bluffs. The first is what you know the most about. That’s when a player a player puts down a huge bet when they have cards that should give you no business winning. In order to pull off the Big Bet Bluff without someone calling you, you have to be in just the right spot. You need to be the last person to act and be the biggest better. If someone else has shown the tendency to throw down big, they’ll have nerves just as tough as yours. It’s best if your Big Bet Bluff follows everyone else checking, which would indicate they don’t have much.

Another way to bluff is when you are gambling big on a hand that could be huge or could be a disaster. This usually comes when you are waiting for a card to fill out a flush or a straight. This Hopeful Bluff will force you to weigh the chances that you’ll get your card with the chances everyone at the table will back down. But if they re-raise, the odds may be working against you.

The most skillful bluff you can pull off is the Flopmaster Bluff. With this bet, you have to start your bluff as soon as the game starts. You need to knock people out of the game as you are building up to the flop. You have to bet, act and sit like you have a solid hand from the deal and that the flop makes it better. Bet strong from the start and convince players that you have three or four of a kind and you will have a quick strike win.

Another benefit of the Flopmaster Bluff is it gets your opponents thinking about what you are going to do from the very start of the game. You are keeping them on the defensive, while you fit the role of the dominant player. Is there a better way to start a game than that? And when you win that hand, they will never have to know it was a bluff. When your opponents are thinking about what you’re doing, they aren’t thinking about what they’re doing themselves. That will add up to more winnings for you!

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

Crazy Pineapple

February 15, 2008

Crazy Pineapple is a variant of hold’em.

In Crazy Pineapple, players are dealt 3 cards instead of two. There is a round of betting. Then the flop comes (3 cards just like hold’em) and there is another round of betting.

However, after the betting on the flop, each player must discard one of their cards, so they are back down to the traditional two cards, then the hand is played out the same as a normal game of texas hold’em game.

- Thomas Hardy

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How to begin a tournament

February 13, 2008

Early on in a tournament, there are many different theories and methods on what hands to play in order to both survive and build your stack. Throughout this article I will give the various opinions that different people have, and then say what I believe is the best theory and why.

The main theories saying which hands to play early on in a big mtt are as follows:

1) Stay tight, for the first hour survival is our main aim. The less pots we enter the less we can lose all we want to do is wait for the lesser players to slowly get knocked out and we can then play poker in the 2nd hour. If we do play a hand we play it aggressively raising and reraising to get as little people left in the pot as possible. The hands we will do this with are as follows: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010. Raise and reraise to thin the field. We will also raise or call a raise with the following hands: 99, 88, and 77 AJs KQs (KQ and AJ suited preferably in late position). We may limp in late position with the following hands: 66, 55, 44, 33, and 22.

Then within this theory there are two ways you can play post flop. Because we have been raising before the flop every time we play, it is likely that we have the image of a solid player. We can if we like use this to our advantage by deciding to bet EVERY single flop when we have raised preflop, however good or bad the flop has been for us. This way we are just looking to take every flop down as quickly as we can, the theory behind it being we give ourselves as little chance as possible to be eliminated. Even if we flop a huge hand, we won’t ever give a free card so we cannot get ourselves in trouble with silly draws hitting.

The other way to play it is to play as if you normally would, trying to extract as many chips out of a big hand, through trapping, check raising etc and dumping a hand when we miss. The theory behind this is that when we miss we lose the minimum and when we hit we get the maximum. In a sense this can be a riskier way to play because you will win big pots but you will also get beaten in big flops when you let the flush draw beat your top set because he got a free river card.
I think the better method of these two is to bet every flop you raised and just try and take down all of the pots you enter as quickly as you can either preflop or post flop. Build your stack fast, and with minimal risk. This first method I call the survival method, after I explain the next method which I call the all or nothing method.

This theory works as follows:

2) Totally the opposite to the survival method. Our general is to get as many chips as we can within the first hour and try and become as near to the top of the leader board as we can, making the 2nd hour a lot easier. Hands to play are all as in the survival method except you can also play lots and lots of speculative hands. Suited connectors, one gappers, all pairs and suited aces.

Unlike the survival theory in the all or nothing theory raising is not something you will be doing so much, we will raise with big pairs and maybe AK, but with everything else, and especially with the speculative hands (suited connectors, etc) we are trying to get as cheap a flop as we can. The idea of these hands is either to get in and out cheaply or to hit your hand hard and win a big pot because it is so deceptive.

This means that with the all or nothing theory because your style of play will be recognized by the other players as being loose, you cannot make as many steals as with the survival theory as your table image won’t be what it would be if you were playing a lot tighter. Therefore you need to use a method of either “pump it or dump it” after the flop. In simpler terms this means if you miss the flop get out, and if you hit the flop bet and raise to take it down.

You continue to do this over the first hour, whilst the blinds are low and you can take cheap flops. The main problem with this theory is the fact that you can hit half a hand such as top pair with a hand like 89s and you end up losing a big pot to JJ. Also, your table image will mean that you cannot bluff or even semi-bluff as your opponents will keep calling you all the way down. This can however be used to your advantage, and when you do hit your hand you can count a big flop, hence the all or nothing in the name, you either win big pots or lose big pots, but the pots you play will be bigger than the ones you play in the survival theory.

I have now explained hand selection and how to play these hands in the early period (the first hour) in online poker tournaments. It can also be applied to live poker, but it will be a longer period and the blind structure will be very different.

The idea of these 2 theories is either to try and give yourself as much of a chance as you possibly can of getting through the first hour, or on the other hand to either get a huge stack early, or bale out. It all depends on the type of style that most suits your playing style.

-          Thomas Hardy

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Pot Limit Omaha: General Tips and Strategies for Beginners Part 3

February 11, 2008

Don’t play any double suited hand
I can’t stress this point enough. So many people see a hand that is double suited, they say to themselves “Boy, this hand has a lot of potential,” and guess what – the hand is junk. Let’s take a look at a few examples: 2 :-s 7 :-s 9 :-h 4 :-h . This hand belongs in the muck, period. “But I have 2 flush draws” – but chances are there is a strong possibility that if you make your 9 high or 7 high flush, you’re going to wind up playing against an ace high or king high flush. Besides that, your hand has little connecting potential, and not many straights can be made from 2479. Let’s look at a not so obvious DS hand that looks good: Q :-s 2 :-s 9 :-h 6 :-h . This hand looks reasonable. I might even play it in the SB, sometimes. But if you aren’t in a blind, I would probably not play a hand like this. You don’t have much connecting value, and your flush draws are marginal. Sure, if you hit a queen high flush it could win, but you could also end up putting in a large amount of money against the nut flush or king high flush. Although these hands look tempting, they are usually junk and will make you a losing 2nd best hand.

Don’t value bet often
In Hold Em and other forms of poker, it is often common to see value bets go in on the last card to try and extract a few more chips. In Omaha, however, it isn’t too common. You generally want to keep your bets pot sized, or close to pot sized. If a pot is $15.35, I would probably bet anywhere from $12.50-$15.35, depending on the number of opponents in the pot. See, in hold em, if you have a $100 pot, you might see someone throw in $15 or $20 in the end to try and extract a few more chips. In Omaha, though, this is bad for 2 reasons: it looks suspicious. If you bet strong the whole way and then bet a small amount, it either looks like you’re trying to get paid off, so you’ll probably lose a call or 2 unless they have a very strong hand. Second, if it isn’t on the river, you are letting the many drawing hands in cheap, which is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Sure, a flush draw with a wrap isn’t going anywhere, no matter how much you bet, but say he just has a flush draw – now you are giving him the right price to call and beat you. There are times when you can throw in a value bet, mainly against unaware players or heads up on occasion, but lean more towards pot sized bets than value bets.

Playing from a blind
In Omaha, you want to still remain pretty tight in the blinds, and use some judgment on the hands you choose to play. In the small blind you should still not be calling with junk:
2-7-9-6 is always junk, and you shouldn’t play it. However, you can call with some hands like Q :-s K :-s 5 :-h 6 :-h , as long as there hasn’t been any raises. This normally wouldn’t be a great starting hand, but you have some potential value so you might want to take a flop. Some dangler hands, such as J-9-8-2, or Q9106 can now be played if a few people have limped. In the big blind, and there has been a raise, you can play all the hands you normally would (high connectors, big pairs+connectors, etc) and you can add a few dangler hands, as long as the raise wasn’t huge. However, you don’t always want to call if you have a dangler hand, and no one else has called, you should probably just fold. You want as many people in the pot as possible if you are going to be playing junk so you have the opportunity to get paid off nicely.

Playing AA hands in early position
This is one last point I want to bring up. In early position with AA hands, you normally should just limp. The reason for this being is that the only people in the pot already are the small and big blind, so the pot isn’t very large. Your raise is accomplishing little to nothing, because your raise isn’t going to scare many people off who had the intention of limping anyways. In late position, there is some more money in the pot, so a raise can drive more people out. If you have a hand like AAJ10, double suited, you can stand a little more heat with it because it has strong connecting possibilities, 2 nut flush opportunities, and the pair of aces. With a hand like AA37, with no suits, your hand can’t stand that much heat. Your goal is to get the pot down to heads up. If you limp, there is an upside and a downside. The upside is that if someone decides to raise, you can now throw in a reraise, and most likely narrow the pot to the two of you, or win it right there. However, this will tip the strength of your hand, as most people will not reraise with out aces. The downside is that if everyone limps behind you, you don’t know where you stand in the hand. On the flop, you must use your judgment on where you stand. If you don’t hit a set or the nut flush draw, you are usually beat and should muck your hand if any decent action comes your way. Aces are not as nearly as strong as they are in Omaha as they are in Hold Em – in Hold Em, your opponent cannot have as many drawing possibilities as they have in Omaha. More often than not, someone will hit the flop in some way in Omaha, may it be a flush draw, a wrap, 2 pair, a set, a straight, or some other sort of hand. Therfore, your lone pair is not likely to be good and cannot stand action against several opponents. That is why it is best to isolate against one player with a big reraise preflop if someone raises before you. That way, you only have to beat out one person instead of several; not as many draws will be out against you.

Times to slowplay
Generally, you want to be betting your strong hands and folding your weak hands. However, there are times when you hand is strong enough where you can afford to slowplay your hand. Anytime you flop quads, you normally are going to slowplay the hand. The only exceptions are: A) You think your opponent has a strong hand, such as a full house, or B) You are an aggressive player, and therefore your opponent is going to be suspicious of your check.
Say you hold 10 :-c 10 :-d J :-h Q :-s . If the flop comes 10 :-s 10 :-h A :-d , and there was a raise preflop, and now your opponent is firing away at the pot, you can be pretty sure he either has a wrap, or more likely Aces full. Here you want to sit back and let your opponent give you his chips. On the turn or river, you want to fire in a medium to large sized raise to get him to put all his money in. Another example, is say, a straight flush. If you hold 6 :-s 7 :-s 5 :-h 4 :-d , and the flop comes 3 :-s 4 :-s 5 :-s , you may want to gear down and let them fire into you. But, if you believe they have the nut flush, you may be more inclined to fire away at the pot, making them think they have you beat. The last example is when you have Aces full of kings. Say you have AKJ10, and the flop comes AAK. Here you want to let your opponent try and take a free card to catch either a straight or a lower full house.

- Thomas Hardy

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Pot Limit Omaha: General Tips and Strategies for Beginners Part 2

February 9, 2008

A rundown of playable Pot Limit Omaha hands
Pair of Aces with a High Wrap DS or suited (double suited): A :-s A :-d J :-d 10 :-s
Pair of Aces with another face card pair, DS or suited: A :-s K :-s A:-d K :-d
High End Wraps suited or DS: 9 :-s 10 :-s J :-h Q :-h and 10 :-d J :-d Q :-s K :-s and A :-d Q :-d 10 :-c K :-c
Middle Wraps: 6 :-d 7 :-c 9 :-h 10 :-s
Middle Wraps with a pair: 8 :-c 8 :-h 7 :-s 10 :-s and 7 :-h 7 :-d 8 :-c 9 :-h
Low End Wraps: 3 :-s 4 :-d 5 :-c 6 :-d
Other Hands: Face card pair with connectors, K :-s K :-d 10 :-s J :-d , Face card 2 pair: J :-s J :-d Q :-s Q :-h , Bare Aces, preferably single or double suited: A :-s A :-h 2 :-s 9 :-h

Of course, other hands are playable in certain situations, but these are some of the most common hands you will be playing in pot limit Omaha. Here are some ways to play the different hands:

Aces are generally a reraising hand, not a raising hand. In PLO, the first raise is usually not very large because the pot isn’t very large. Also, by opening with a raise, you are generally tipping off the strength of your hand. But, if you let someone put in the first raise, you can isolate that player by reraising a significant amount .You don’t want to be playing bare aces up against multiple opponents. The Aces with the high wrap double suited can stand up against a few more opponents, but with aces, in general, it’s better to thin the field down to as few as possible.

High End Wraps: You can stand a raise with these hands. In position, you can raise with a hand end wrap.

Middle Wraps, Middle Wraps with a pair, Low Wraps: Try to play this hands as cheaply as possible. If there is a raise, consider limping if 3 or so people have already called the raise. What you are trying to accomplish with this kind of hand is to spike a low straight, or possibly a low full house. If you put your opponent on aces (many players will not raise preflop without aces in PLO), you can sometimes take a flop with a wrap to try and hit a straight and pick him off.

Two pair hands: Hands like 9988 are vulnerable, but you can take a flop to them cheaply. If you don’t flop a set, full house, or the nut straight with this hand, muck it. These hands are only good if you get in cheap, or got in through a blind. Hands like 2233 aren’t even worth playing in most situations, because if you hit your set, it will be bottom set, still leaving you vulnerable.

2. Determining what you have

Sounds pretty straight forward, doesn’t it? What I mean is, you have AA23, and the flop comes A-10-6, what do you have? You have a set of aces, easy. But there is a common mistake in Pot Limit Omaha that beginners usually get confused about. The number one situation I am talking about is if the board comes with a set on it. For example, you have AK35, and the flop board 10-10-A-10-3, what do you have? If you are familiar with hold em, you probably thinking you have a full house, 10s full of Aces. But in reality, your hand is garbage and all you have is 10-10-10-A-K. You have to use EXACTLY 2 cards from your hand. Another common mistake is when the board comes with a 4 flush. Say you hold As-Qd-10h-Jh, and the board reads: 9 :-s J :-s 3 :-s 2 :-s 6 :-h . You have a pair of jacks – not a flush. (We’ll later discuss how a similar situation could be used as a bluffing opportunity) The same thing is true for a 4 straight on board and only one in your hand – you don’t have a straight. Now let’s say the board reads: J :-h J :-c 10 :-d 10 :-s 2 :-d . You hold J :-s A :-s 9 :-c 3 :-h . You don’t have a full house. Your hand is A-J-J-J-10. The last thing I want to address is a 3 flush in your hand and a 2 flush on board – you don’t have a flush. You are using exactly 2 cards from your hand. Although this seems easy to understand, many people misread their hands and it leads to costly mistakes.

3. Times when you would fold the nuts or play them slow

In a hold em game, you would never fold the nuts at a given point, or at least not correctly fold the nuts. However, in Omaha, you can fold the nuts at a given point, correctly, too. Let me illustrate with an example where you could consider folding the nuts.

You are dealt JQ107. The flop comes 8 :-s 9 :-s 10 :-d . You don’t have any spades in your hand. Now, suppose there is a bet in front of you, and then a pot sized reraise. Now you are stuck in between 2 guys going to war with each other, but you have the nuts! Guess what – you’re probably a dog to win the hand. First, you have the nuts, but you can’t improve your hand to anything better. You don’t have a high end wrap, so you can’t make a straight 9-K. You’re likely up against top set (with or without a flush draw), and the nut flush draw with some sort of hand like a lower set or 2 pair. You really have to know your players when it comes down to a hand like this. You could also be up against another QJ, but he might be freerolling the flush or a higher wrap. If you decide to call this bet, and the original raiser pops in another pot size reraise, you will usually fold. You are probably up against the current nuts who is freerolling. Now, let’s say that the original better just flat calls behind you. As long as the turn doesn’t come a J, Q, a spade, or pairs the board, you can now play the hand strong. You are now the favorite against 2 players to win the hand with a set and a flush draw.

4. Bluffing in Pot Limit Omaha

Let me be the first to tell you, as much as you might think, Omaha is not a game of bluffing. More often than not, you are going to have to show down the nuts, so it is best to not get any funny ideas about throwing money into the pot you are probably going to lose. One reason you don’t want to bluff is that it is very expensive: By the river, the pot is probably quite large if there has been any significant action. If someone has been betting or calling down to the river, chances are, they will call the river either because of the big pot, or because they have the nuts. I’m going to give you 2 situations where you may attempt a bluff in Omaha.

Heads Up: In heads up play, you don’t have to show down the nuts nearly as often, obviously because there isn’t as many hands out that could beat you. So if your opponent is playing passively, or if he has checked to you once or twice, you may try to fire a bet at him to get him to fold.

2. I said earlier in the “Reading your hand” section about an opportunity where we could bluff with a flush draw out there. Suppose you have As-Jd-10d-Qh. The board comes 9s-3s-6s. You have nothing and no draw. You don’t have the Ace high flush draw because you have to use two cards. However, this could be used to your advantage. Because you are holding the card that is used for the nut flush, no one else could have the nut flush. So, by you holding the key card, you can represent you have the ace high flush. However, this bluff can’t be used against everyone. To successfully use this bluff, you have to be playing against fairly good players, capable of laying down a high flush. You also have to make sure a pair isn’t on the board, or you’re going to get nailed by a full house, most likely. Do not try this bluff against weak players, at low stakes (generally because of the weak players/calling stations), or against calling stations. If you have someone that would call you down with a 9 high flush, you’re not going to force them out of the pot. Don’t overuse this bluffing technique, but against the right opponent, if you represent significant strength, it can be used to your advantage.

One last point I want to say in this article is this: Very, very seldom show your cards. If you win a big pot with a royal flush, I don’t care how much you want to rub it in their face, don’t show your cards. You can’t afford to give this information away. You don’t want to give them any information you don’t have to. Definitely never show your cards if you win on a bluff; you want them to think you had that Ace high flush if you run the Lone Ace play. Keep them guessing, and don’t give information for free, make them call that bet on the river to see what you have.

Part 3 will follow soon.

- Thomas Hardy

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy | Leave a Comment 

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