Top and bottom pair in Omaha

Pot Limit Omaha / Marcus Bateman / 20 February 2011 / Leave a Comment

Omaha is a very relative game, and nowhere more so than when we deal with hands like top and bottom pair.

This is one of the true devil hands in Pot Limit Omaha, and one which can get you into more trouble than perhaps any other. It's difficulty arises from both how strong it sometimes is, but also how hugely weak it can be against certain ranges, a state of affairs that can lead to many players being completely bamboozled by the hand when they get involved. As with most poker spots, careful player observation, board texture and bet analysis is crucial to staying on top with this hand, and below I want to look at two different examples of how to play this hand.

Situation one:

You min-raise Jc10c5h6h on the button, and get re-raised pot by a tight player in the big blind. Stacks are 40bb effective. You elect to call, and the flop comes out: Jd5c8s. He leads pot into you, leaving himself about 20bb back. What should you do?

Situation two:

A loose and tricky player raises 3x under the gun, and gets two callers before you elect to call with Jc10c5h6h on the button. The big blind also calls. The flop comes out: Jd5d8s. The big blind leads out for half pot, the under the gun raiser folds, and the second of the two callers raises pot after the other folds. You are all playing over 100bb deep. What should you do?

In situation one, we have a pretty easy all in. The board is pretty dry, we have a tight player whose range is basically over pairs, the odd set, and some complete air - which is a very easy range for us to get all in with our hand. Any two pair plays well against just an over pair, and even if they end up having any set other than jacks, we still have two outs to make a better full house, and some vague runner runner quad possibilities (slim obviously, but worth considering in the context of their very weak range).

In situation two however, our hand has changed dramatically. We not only have a lot more players to the flop, but we also have a much wetter flop with the flush draw out, and a lot more dangerous looking action in front of us. Two players who were passive pre-flop have just kicked off a raising war in front of us, and despite having the same hand we did in situation one, we have a pretty easy fold here.

We are invariably up against sets and huge draws at very best here, and often we will be as close to drawing dead as is possible in PLO vs our opponent's likely ranges. Against many of their ranges, we have just two outs, and sometimes none (just imagine how badly we play against two hands like middle set and a flush/straight draw here, or worse - top set and a draw, where we will need running quads to win).

Omaha is a very relative game, and nowhere more so than when we deal with hands like top and bottom pair. Good players are masters of sniffing out value with this hand when it exists, but also in having no qualms simply throwing their hand into the muck when they are obviously very far behind - a point it is crucial to master when attempting to get your hand around this action packed game.

Show me more Marcus Bateman Poker Articles