…so full of action, his name should be a verb

OK, my least favourite PLO spot is flopping top set versus two undersets and getting one-outed. I don’t like that at all, but it’s hard to do anything about it. This hand history illustrates a far more complicated situation.

(I say hand history – this happened on iPoker, which, for some inexplicable reason, doesn’t do histories in text format, so I’m going to have to describe the action, rather than copy paste it…)

It’s a $20 full ring game, 10c/20c blinds. I have $29.33, my opponent in the hand has me covered by a couple of dollars. I’m dealt QQ73 rainbow in second position, and limp in. There are two limpers behind me, the SB folds, and the BB checks.  And up pops my nightmare flop – AQJ rainbow.

Middle set against three opponents, on that board… it’s horrible. There’s a strong chance I’m behind to the broadway straight already, and I’m not exactly chuffed if I improve to a full house, as it’s not going to be the nut full, and I know from bitter experience how weak Queens full can be in a multiway pot with an ace on board. If I don’t see the case queen on the turn, I’m going to be uncomfortable.

So I check. So does everybody else.

The turn brings an offsuit nine. T8 just joined AA (which I’m not too worried about) and KT in the list of hands that beat me. All things considered, though, it’s a pretty good card, which does minimal damage to my holding. Time to find out where I am! So I bet the pot, and get one caller.

The caller is on the spewy  side, and not known for slowplaying. I’ve just seen him dust off twenty dollars with bottom set, and find it hard to believe that he’d check the nut straight on the flop and then coldcall with it on the turn. So now, I’m scared of one thing, and one thing only – T8.

The river brings a five. Should I bet out? Probably. Do I? No. I check/call, or at least I would have done, had he bet. Instead, he checks behind with AJ for two pair, and I win a tiny pot.

So, on the face of it, not a momentous hand. I flopped a set, mislaid my balls, and won two dollar. I mention it here for two reasons; firstly,  it’s a nice illustration of the perils of Omaha, and secondly, I’m trying to work out if there’s any way I could have played it better. Maybe I should pot the flop? But I’m first of four players to act and could easily be dead to one card in the deck, and I’m trying to play smallball at this limit, particularly when out of position. So I think I like the check.

The pot bet on the turn is fine. It’s a fairly innocuous card which only improves one specific holding. (This is often enough to kill you in Omaha, of course). If I get reraised and call, I have a whole new set of problems on the river. If I fill up, do I check/call or bet/fold? Check/call, I think; a donkbet on a paired board is unlikely to be called by a straight, and I may end up folding to a weaker full house. And bet/call is horribly spewy, even if the river is another nine.  And what if I get reraised on the turn and miss the river? I have to check/fold to anything but the weediest value bet.

Of course, I don’t get reraised on the turn, and so to the river, which is where I’m really unsure about my line. There’s $3.14 in the pot… should I bet out?. Against a different player, I could well imagine that they’re playing the broadway straight cautiously; a lot of players will check/call nut straights to the river, and then jam it if it’s still the nuts. Against this opponent, that simply isn’t happening; I just saw him throw twenty dollars in the pot with bottom set on a flushy flop. So, should I put him on two pair and try and value bet the end?

On reflection, I find it hard to believe that he’d just call with T8 on the turn either, and feel I should have bet half the pot. If I’m reraised, I can give the hand up without too much difficulty, but nothing about his line suggests that he has me beat.

Ah well. One thing’s for sure. Omaha is hard when you don’t have the nuts…