I’ve got another two beautiful hands for you which I played the other day to show you some interesting insights into the marvellous game of Pot Limit Omaha. Later on I show you how to induce a bluff, similar to Texas Hold’em, but first I’m gonna teach you how to make a straight flush. Or how to play a hand and hope for a straight flush .

So let’s watch the hand first:

As you see, I minraise on the button in this hand, for reasons I told you earlier: IF you make a hand, it’s most likely a big hand and/or a draw and it’s easier to protect it this way. Now on this flop this is not even the case: I’ve got the OESD and the flushdraw, but I would have preferred two pair with the OESD. That’s exactly why I don’t raise the flop. However, i catch the straight flush on the turn and am lucky to be paid off by only the J high flush.

Just like in NLHE, it’s sometimes a good tactic in PLO to show weakness on the river in order to be paid off maximally by someone who missed his draws and isn’t likely to call another bet from you. I applied this tactic perfectly in the next hand:

I see a free flop from the BB and the flop is quite good: toppair with a double bellybuster, as a 4 and an 8 would make me a straight. So I lead out immediately and get two callers, most likely flushdraws. Turn gives me top two with the same draw so I keep betting the pot. One caller and a totally harmless river: IF I was against a straight draw on the flop, it was most likely against the OESD (42) and in that case he would have made the straight on the turn and would certainly have raised me on the turn because of the double flushdraw. So I check, knowing he’s not going to call another bet, with the purpose of getting him to bluff at this pot. Worked out perfectly.

More lessons next time, for now the song of the day:

Brian Wilson - Roll Plymouth Rock (SMiLE, 2004)

Let’s say I don’t play Kings in the hole anymore today… I played a session of PLO a few minutes ago and it was not a winning one, thanks to some sick things that happened to me. Let’s watch the first one:

So I just sat down on this table and get rather crappy kings on my first hand. There’s a pot bet preflop in early position from a deepstack player (so most likely it’s a good player), so I already figure he might have Aces. But I give it a try, hoping I might catch a King or some clubs. My dreamflop appears: I flop the nut flush and as a consequence there’s also an Ace out there. This is an easy play in PLO: wait for the preflop raiser to bet his trips and come over the top to make a big pot right there. This is exactly what happens and I’m ready to win 100+ big blinds on my first hand. But my opponent makes quads on the turn… Like an half an hour later:

Those kings are really crappy so I just limp because there’s no reason to raise here: I basically only play my Kings here. Life is good when you flop the second nuts. Except for those moments that you’re against the nuts… With that suspicious bet on the turn I’m a 100% sure my opponent also has a full house (63 or 6K, maybe 33). Well, I wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

Well I sure needed this powerful song of the day to get me going again:

Monster Magnet - Negasonic Teenage Warhead (1995, Dopes to Infinity)