Advanced Plays, Tricks and Moves

by Rolf Slotboom

An excerpt from Secrets of Short-handed Pot-Limit Omaha, by Rolf Slotboom and Rob Hollink.

One of the key aspects to successful shorthanded play is to avoid playing in predictable and exploitable patterns. In this chapter, I will discuss a few measures to ensure that you cannot be exploited that easily by the better players. Most of this analysis is done from the framework of my own play, including the inherent weaknesses that stem from the strategies that I am using. So, by no means do I expect that these same countermeasures or advanced plays are needed in your game too - as your game's weaknesses may lie elsewhere.

The delayed bluff/float

If you play according to my big stack shorthanded approach, you will try to be in control of the betting at all times. However, as your opponents will probably be trying to achieve the same, there are a large number of situations where you have to respond to your opponent's actions.

Let's say that two of you are heads up. You are on the button, having flatcalled a preflop raise by the under the gun player, with 100BB effective stacks. The flop comes 8 4 4 rainbow, and you have 7 6 5 3 single suited (a hand that with deep money and position I would definitely have reraised with, but let's say for the purposes of this example that you have just called). Your opponent fires a two thirds pot bet, with what very much looks like a big pair (J J A A), with a decent chance of a standard continuation bet with even less than that (say, just ace high) and a slight chance of an absolute monster like 8 8 x x. (Slight, because with top full not many players would come out making such a big bet with a hand that's clearly looking for action.) In this spot, many players would automatically raise with their inside wrap to bet the preflop raiser off his holding, while usually still having up to nine outs if called. However, this is not always the best option - in fact, it is rarely the best option.

What you should do here is look at your hand through the eyes of your opponent and how in his view you would have played the hand if you really had the big hand that you are now representing. Your opponent knows that if on this board you've got a hand better than kings up or aces up, you are probably not all that worried about getting outdrawn. Your opponent knows that you know that in all likelihood he has not raised UTG with a four in his hand, and that a more likely hand for him to have is just a big pocket pair that he is trying to protect. In other words, he knows that if you have him beat, he probably has two outs only - and thus you may not be all that eager to take the initiative away from him or try to make him fold. He knows that most opponents with 4-4 for quads or 8 8/8 4 for a full house would be happy to just call here, hoping that he will fire at least one more time - or, if he checks, will still call at least one more bet. What's more, he also knows that even with hands like 7 6 6 4 (three fours/no kicker) or even A 4 x x (three fours/top kicker) you now have a very high probability of being best, you still might not want to build a huge pot on the flop. Given the depth of the money, you realize that if all the money goes in, you are almost certainly trailing, whereas if you raise here you will often induce folds from exactly those hands that you want to keep in.

So, as your opponent knows that on this type of board you would often flatcall with three fours of better, and given that you can actually have hit this three fours or better just a rather small percentage of the time, he might view a flop raise with suspicion. There's a good chance that he might plan to go all the way with just K K or A A here, simply because he "just doesn't buy it". In fact, if your opponent is a good player, he could three bet here even with total air, knowing that given the betting it is unlikely that you have a hand that can comfortably play for stacks. And this means that a semi bluff raise with your (probably) nine outer may have some clear drawbacks.

Therefore, you should usually not raise in this spot; I would prefer a call most of the time. Given this board that looks perfect for slowplaying a big hand, your opponent will definitely fear a call those times when he only has a big wired pair like queens, kings or aces - and if he has a weaker hand than that he will like this call even less. What he may do on the turn is:

Option 1:

Fire a second barrel to show that he is serious about winning this pot. This way, he may get rid of the marginal hands like medium pairs or draws (say, the hand that you have) that were good enough to call one barrel, but not two. Betting a second time will allow him to get a better feel as to where he's at - or at least, that's what he might think. Almost certainly will he fold any of his marginal hands if you choose to raise here, simply because he would expect you to possibly bluff or semi bluff on the flop - rather than on the turn, after two bets by him.

Option 2:

Simply check, to see what you will do. This is usually done with hands of medium strength like the A A/K K/Q Q mentioned. The goals: make you bet a lesser hand, give room for a possible float, avoid losing too much when his big pair is no good. The intention: check calling any moderate sized bets on the turn, to then re evaluate on the river.

Assuming that this is the way your opponent thinks, it is imperative that you use this logic against him! These are some good ways to counter or exploit his thinking...

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Rolf Slotboom is the author of the classic Secrets of Professional Pot Limit Omaha, along with numerous poker lessons which can be found on his Poker Pages Free School bio. In Rolf's first attempt in 2007 at the World Series of Poker, he cashed four times, including the $10,000 Main Event.

For more on Secrets of Short-handed Pot-Limit Omaha, by Rolf Slotboom and Rob Hollink, click here.

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