no reads, apart from not doing anything out of the ordinary.

PokerStars, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $121.24 (242 bb)
MP: $37.12 (74 bb)
CO: $62.15 (124 bb)
BU: $14.15 (28 bb)
SB (Hero): $69.55 (139 bb)
BB: $53.83 (108 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with T♠ A♦ A♣ 9♠
1 fold, MP calls $0.50, 2 players fold, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, MP calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) J♥ A♥ T♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $2, MP calls $2

Turn: ($8.50) 2♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $6, MP calls $6

River: ($20.50) 5♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $7, MP raises to $27.12 (all-in), SB (Hero) does what?

Hi think you put yourself in a poor position here. You hold a good hand with the 2sd nuts. However, KQxx is most likely in the range of villain because he cold called twice preflop.

Flop: Very wetty flop! It hits your range (by raising preflop), and his range perfectly. I don't get the move of betting 2$ in a 4.50$ pot. Villain doesn't need much equity to call you. Any kind of 2 pairs, made straight, flush draw will call you. You are out of position, and the 2sd nuts here is not as strong as usual because KQxx is likely. I would check/call here. 2sd best option I think would be a pot-size bet to see how serious your opponent is. However, I prefer pot control, because you are in bad shape if he calls.

Put yourself in his shoes, if he hit the nuts here, he will most likely bet on the flop, because you can likely have a set and/or flush draw. His straight is good on the flop, but there's good chances that it won't be good anymore on the river. He must make you pay the price. If he is running draws, I believe he would have checked. You bet out of position preflop, the board hits your range very well, and he wants to avoid any type of check/raise situation (you could have slow played KQxx).

With your small bet on the flop, he can have anything, you are just throwing chips away without any real gain value.

Turn: Brick, again you charge with the 2sd nuts. I like the play, you bet big, and you want to see how serious your opponent is. Villain is calling, in my head, I would be in alert mode. You don't hold any heart, and KQxx is likely. Imagine if he holds the straight + Flush draw to the King. Anyone would call here not being too scared of the river, especially in position.

River: Just like the flop, you bet small. The problem is that you are out of position (once again), and I feel you are just feeding your opponent. I would have simply check.

I don't think you played the hand that bad, but that small bet on the flop was the worst mistake I believe here, and impaired the rest of the hand.

sup 5th suit played with you for a bit the other day, dont play much rn tho.

I disagree with the post that your flop bet is bad for a couple reasons. I think you get value from lots of two pairs that may not 100% cbet (although will still bet pretty high). It saves you from check calling 3 times(bad) because if he c/r his range is narrowed and we can make some judgment calls. Betting is good for your range and the flop is obviously bad for his range, PLUS your getting value from whatever other sets and stuff from a limper.

As played I like the river bet but to me just to reduce variance I like a turn check. It hides your range, and gives him the opportunity to check with his two pair maybe, therefore narrowing his range for the river. I get that you can get huge value from lesser boats on a paired river so I dont mind it too much :P

Thoughts?

and for the river... You have the ultimate bluff catching hand but hes probably not shoving anything but the nuts obviously. Player tendencies rule here but for me id probably fold given your line in a vacuum. IN a vacuum no player tendencies...this is obviously the nuts. I mean given the backdoor wheel id say fold, no wheel id say call

If the turn was a non wheel card id bet turn tho

checking the flop and letting a heart come off is terrible lol. we have top set. I like a bigger bet size for this reason as it gives us larger fold equity, bigger spr for full houses, and defines the hand a bit. :_)

Hi floppedaset2,

In position, I would agree with you, if villain checks, you must 100% bet here. However, Hero plays Out of position.

The problem here, as I said, is that Hero blocks AATx, no heart, on a AJT board with heart flush draw. You talk about getting value from 2 pair which is quite unlikely due to the fact that you remove a lot of possibilities. If he likes the flop, he most likely hit the straight (we can assume KQxx is in villain range since Hero blocks AA, also there's an As on the flop), or he has K/Q high flush draw.

The flop is kind of locked down here. The nuts won't change on the turn unless a heart comes or the board pair. There's 13 cards that would change the nuts on turn, and 6 of them gives us full house. So around 70% of the time, the nuts won't change, and when it does, it might turn in our favor. Yes, checking on the flop might make you lose a bit in value, but it will make you save bigger losses in my opinion. The value potential is thin, the loss potential is bigger.

By checking first, we control the pot, and we get the info that we want. In position, a guy with a straight will not slow play on that board. I also believe that a guy with flush draw would be super scared to bet since the flop hit Hero's range perfectly (betting preflop Out of position = strong range). Someone with naked flush doesn't want to get re-raised.

The goal is to adjust once we get the info. Again, the second best option on the flop would be a pot size bet. I just don't get why he bet less than half of the pot here.

hey guys, thanks so much for the detailed input.

i feel pretty comfortable with the flop and turn cbs.

OTR i sized down for value but i wonder if i triggered a bluff jam by showing weakness / sizing down. i wasn't sure if the odds warranted a call.

I don't get how you still believe that your flop play was good. You bet less than half of the pot on a super wet and static (locked down) board that hits the villain's range perfectly.

By betting half pot here, the other guy only needs 25% of equity to call you profitably. The only two thing that you can value here are bottom two pair TJ or a set of JJ, cause you block a lot of possibilities. It is way more likely that you will get call by someone with a made straight, flush draw (you have no heart), or straight draw.

If you want to bet the flop here, it is fine, but at least bet a pot size. I would have used your bet sizing on a dry paired board.

checking, your first choice, is the worst, most disastrous option imo. i would never ever give a free card to some random fd or 987x or broadway gutter. you flop top set after raising pre from oop, u need to go for it. it's not a big deal between hf pot and 2/3, 3/4. i went lower so i can bet with a wider range on other boards when iso'ing limpers.

villain's limping range whiffs this board outside of lower sets without backup and naked flush draws. i don't see many people open limping strong broadway rundowns in 6max, but i do see a lot of open limping pairs. so this is where our value is coming from, sets and fds. I think i am the biggest advocate of large sizing in plo that i know of and even i do not like a large sizing on the flop in this spot. i think on a locked down board a large sizing polarizes you and forces villain to play fit or fold. I don't want to rep kqxx when i have a strong made hand and a strong draw. I don't want to bet myself out of the pot and I don't want to give free cards. I feel i bet halfpot even tho i'm short .5 i don't like frational or funky bets. i bet for value and for protection.

5th suit I see what youre saying about him thinking about your river bet being too small therefore bluff jamming, but my question is with what balanced range is he doing this with? if he a crazy mf and would do this with anything then hes obviously terribad and free money and not much else to talk about.

If hes jamming anything we only need to call 37% of the time to break even. Any amount of overbluffing here seems suicidal because your bet range could be like 7-14 on average here and you could have just picked a lowball randomized number, since you should change your bet sizings to stay balanced. If HE knows this, and if he knows YOU know this...eh its too trite to go on.

Point being... 37% being right to break even I dont know if hes bluffing 2/5 hands here so idk. thatd be some crazy ****.

in my op i said must be the nuts, but it could be a wheel too. Wheel and the nuts hahaha. the whole board covered.

ya i think the turn u gotta bet and try and snap off the pot right there. I thought about checking to take away his jam, bc if he jams turn i dont think i have odds to call. he can make it 26, pot is 34, 20 to call, i'm like 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 against filling up. it's not always that bleak, sometimes he has set plus flush draw and maybe some air (famous last words).

do you agree with bet/fold on rvr, and if so which sizing? or do you prefer a check? i did end up folding.

hmm to me turn bet just gives you weird decisions in my mind, but I dont think I am correct in any objective sense. Maybe you're better suited (haha) for this exact scenario and have been in it more times. Just my perspective ig.

If you bet the turn betting the river like 10$-13.50$ sounds ideal math wise. Leaves you like 4-1 odds which are better. I think this gives you odds to call with the wheel there, which is important. Plus you make his shove less attractive.

Im just digressing but, What would your turn checking range be? With your exact hand I like betting but If you get raised your just throwing away a turn bet and if he calls on the river your not too excited with a heart, wheel card. If neither just call lol.

Aggro way to play it so balancing out with SOME turn checks, i agree betting here for me 40% is what I would do

Imo blocking our own outs, not holding a heart this hand is a check on the flop. You could probably get away with Cbet range on like AK9 but I think on AJT it's useful to have some strong check call hands. Especially when somebody can start to turn KK or QQ with hearts into a bluff.

As played I think you probably need to be folding river. A lot of Kx hearts will be raising flop, because if they aren't the nuts with flush draw they are probably nut flush draw with a gutter or pair + gutter. And will likely try to force you off one ace. Which means that when he calls flop calls turn he's going to either have a bluffcatcher or a strong hand. And I don't think he's turning something lke JTQ into a bluff on the river that often.

Essentially I don't think you run into missed hearts enough to justify calling.

Why not? By betting yes you lock up your 70% on average or whatever of the pot, but you prevent him from turning any of these into a bluff.

you answered your own question. our equity is so high why would we give away a free shot at the pot to a hand that can't stand a bet? why not make hearts pay? u iso a limper pre and flop top set oop on a locked down board, i'm not checking and having him take me for 3 streets bc i say otf i dont have it. that's not pot control that's insanity. i'm not preventing any bluffs by any action, he can bluff at any time. if you check flop and he bets, are u calling 2 streets or 3? i hate that ****, if he wants the betting lead he needs to take it from me like he did on the rvr, i'm not going to give it to him here. i'm not going to fear a limping range. that said, kkxx or qqxx are a threat, but i think like a kqxx with backup, they likely take action on flop or turn. i think only naked kqxx plays like this.

I think you're overvaluing how strong your hand is. Versus specifically flush draws + straight draws + 2pair & gutter, essentially his continuing range, your equity isn't high. You're 70% versus his entire range otf. You say why would you give a "free shot" which doesn't really make sense, but what I'm saying is why narrow his range to hands we are behind or flipping with. You're building a big pot out of position with a hand that won't want to put a lot of money in on the river very often.

it is important to narrow his range bc our only defence against a flush card or a gs or a sucker straight card is a bet and a brick or board pair. you protect your equity, protect the pot, and charge him for a draw with a bet. it should also be noted a combo draw wouldnt give action on a locked down board like this (unlike 987ss where the straight can go higher) so the only raise i fear is from kqxx.

i don't think this constitutes building a big pot with no 3b pre and no flop or turn raise.

if i limit betting on this flop to only kqxx, how horrible would that be? if i iso pre and check all flops that would be better.

i am aware of the maxim of betting the top and bottom and air of your range and checking everything in between but sometimes you need to use common sense.

by betting the entire range i can bet weaker or with air next time. the strength of top set allows me to check but your'e not going to see many draws spazz out later on this locked down board and you run the risk of giving a free card to beat you.

I want to bet with most of my top sets, one pair + heart type hands. I want to check top set with nut flush draw and top set blocking own outs + no heart.

i was being rhetorical in your above quote.

after further thought im betting my whole range on this board after iso'ing a limper pre.

I’m probably going for a check raise on the flop to make it easier to play on later streets..

As played you could be up against a made straight that was playing it cautious because of the flush draw or a missed draw.

LOL you just got a bad situation. He played it perfectly and if the board paired, he doesnt lose his stack. You're first to act. LOL

Looking at this hand again I would take the passive line being out of position and just check call the flop.

This is one of my least favourite positions. Holding non premium AAxx in the sb facing a limper..

Checking JJ but betting AA here. Betting smaller seems best. Yes he has some nuts but we're mostly curbstomping with a narrow betting range on the straight enabled board.

I found this gem in Jeffs advanced PLO.

It's all starting to make sense now - do you seriously think that book is remotely relevant for current 6max online?