Pot Limit Omaha is a truly sick game.
Even when you hit the third best possible hand on the flop, you can find yourself in a nasty spot by the turn or river.
That’s exactly what happened to Ryan Fee in the hand we’re analyzing today. He flops the second nut full house on a 6-6-6 board, but his opponent bets three times, representing the few hands that have him beat.
We’ll start by quickly breaking down the action on each street, comparing Ryan’s play to what Monker Solver likes to do.
From there, we’ll talk about a hyper-aggressive tactic that basically all human players are missing from their games.
This is part 3 of Dylan Weisman and Chris Wehner’s new Pot Limit Omaha strategy series! Go back to part 1 here and part 2 here. Part 4 will be published on this blog next Friday (February 28th).
Both Dylan and Chris are PLO pros who crush games as high as $25/$50 and $50/$100.
If you want to take your PLO game to the highest level, keep an eye out for their Advanced PLO Mastery course, which comes out on March 2nd.Let’s dive into the hand.
The game is 3-handed $25/$50 PLO.
The Villain in the hand raises to $150 on the button. The small blind folds and Fee 3-bets to $475 out of the big blind with K♠ K♥ 8♠ 8♥. The Villain responds with a pot-sized 4-bet, making it $1,450 to go. Fee calls.
The Villain’s stack to start the hand was $5,369; Fee covers.
Preflop AnalysisWhen a player on the button raises, Fee should 3-bet with all of his double suited KK hands.
Versus a 4-bet, Fee should call with around half of his double suited KK hands that do not contain an ace while folding the other half (pictured below).
Double suited and double paired KKxx hands, however, are all calling the 4-bet (you can see all of them listed in the right column above). Note that double suited KKxx hands that do contain an ace shove all-in over the 4-bet.
Fee’s preflop play was perfect. Let’s see a flop.
(The info in this section is based on solver-generated preflop ranges for high stakes PLO.)
The flop is 6♦ 6♠ 6♥.
Fee checks and the Villain bets $400 into $2,925. Fee calls.
Flop AnalysisAfter Fee checks (as he should with his entire range), the Villain can leverage his huge range and nut advantage to c-bet small with his entire range.
This 15% pot-sized bet may seem way too small, but it’s fairly appropriate considering how often the Villain has AAxx. Monker Solver prefers betting slightly larger (25% pot).Fee has an easy call with his exact hand versus this size, but it’s interesting to note that Monker Solver likes folding a massive 79.5% of the time against this small c-bet (pictured below).
Note this high folding frequency in your mind — it’s going to come up later in this article.
The turn is the (6♦ 6♠ 6♥) 7♥.
Fee checks. The Villain bets $750 into $3,725 (with $2,769 behind) and Fee calls.
Turn AnalysisThe Villain should be betting small very frequently here, so his play is likely good with whatever he has.
With his KKxx hands that don’t contain an ace blocker, Fee should lean towards continuing versus this bet. (KKxx hands with an ace blocker always continue.)
With his double paired KKxx hands, Fee should always continue if the pair is above the 7. Should his opponent have pocket aces, this extra medium-high pair gives Fee more two outs to take the lead on the river.
Speaking of the river, let’s see what it brings.
The river is the (6♦ 6♠ 6♥ 7♥) 2♣.
Fee checks and the Villain goes all-in for $2,769 into the $5,225 pot.
Before opening the river analysis, take a moment to think about what you would do here. When you’re ready, click below.
River AnalysisVersus this river shove, the hand class of KKxx with no ace blocker can go either way. Monker Solver likes folding with a hair under 60% of such hands, calling with the rest (pictured below).
When it comes to Fee’s exact hand (outlined in red), Monker Solver folds.
Let’s see what Fee decided to do, and what happened.
Fee calls and runs into a bluff (A♠ Q♦ J♠ T♦).
Fee drags the $10,760 pot.
As previously mentioned, Fee is at a huge disadvantage throughout this hand due to the preflop action and the static nature of the board.
By implementing a couple of cutting-edge tactics, Monker Solver mitigates this disadvantage on the flop and flips the script on the turn. Expand the sections below to learn how it manages to do that.
Tactic #1: Overcoming a Range Disadvantage on the Flop(Fee will be referred to as “Hero” in this section.)
Hero’s range is doing very poorly on this flop versus his opponent’s range. This equity graph visualizes just how poorly his range is doing:
A huge portion (~70%) of the Villain’s range has Hero’s range absolutely crushed with around 90% equity — this represents the Villain’s AAxx hands. The rest of Fee’s range doesn’t fair so well either (which is why the blue line is below the red line at almost every point in the graph).
To quote Chris:
I think it’s easy for all of us to understand and identify when we’re at a big range disadvantage like this, if we’ve played a fair amount of PLO.
One thing that may be less clear is how to respond whenever we’re at that range disadvantage.
…when [Monker Solver] faces a small bet and it knows its in such a terrible position, it’s immediate priority is to rid itself of that awful position as quickly as possible — because the worst thing that can happen for it is finding itself in the same quandary on the following street.
[Monker Solver] is at this terrible range disadvantage, it’s facing this very small bet, with very great pot odds [to call]. And nonetheless, it’s still folding 80% of its range because it really wants to reposition itself so that, on future streets, it doesn’t have to deal with being in such a bad position.
In other words, the solver chooses to over-fold on the flop, even versus the tiny 15% pot-sized bet, in order to reduce its range disadvantage going into the turn. By looking at the equity graph on the turn, we can see that it’s successful in doing that:
Hero is no longer getting crushed everywhere. In fact, he’s now winning at the top of the ranges quite a bit (pointed at by the green arrow). That’s the portion of Hero’s range that can beat pocket aces with either quad sixes or pocket sevens.
By folding so often on the flop, the solver has narrowed its range to the point that over a third of its hands now beat pocket aces on this turn. This makes the hand more competitive going forward — the Villain no longer has an absurdly massive range advantage like he did before.
Let’s wrap this section up with some advice from Chris about this and similar spots:
Tactic #1: Overcoming a Range Disadvantage on the FlopSo that’s one heuristic:
When you find yourself at a range disadvantage, don’t worry about “fighting back.” Don’t worry about making sure you don’t get pushed around or anything like that.
Rather, try to reposition yourself as quickly as possible so that on following streets, you’re much more competitive.
(Fee will be referred to as “Hero” in this section.)
Hero’s range is doing very poorly on this flop versus his opponent’s range. This equity graph visualizes just how poorly his range is doing:
A huge portion (~70%) of the Villain’s range has Hero’s range absolutely crushed with around 90% equity — this represents the Villain’s AAxx hands. The rest of Fee’s range doesn’t fair so well either (which is why the blue line is below the red line at almost every point in the graph).
To quote Chris:
“I think it’s easy for all of us to understand and identify when we’re at a big range disadvantage like this, if we’ve played a fair amount of PLO.
One thing that may be less clear is how to respond whenever we’re at that range disadvantage.
…when [Monker Solver] faces a small bet and it knows its in such a terrible position, it’s immediate priority is to rid itself of that awful position as quickly as possible — because the worst thing that can happen for it is finding itself in the same quandary on the following street.
[Monker Solver] is at this terrible range disadvantage, it’s facing this very small bet, with very great pot odds [to call]. And nonetheless, it’s still folding 80% of its range because it really wants to reposition itself so that, on future streets, it doesn’t have to deal with being in such a bad position.”
In other words, the solver chooses to over-fold on the flop, even versus the tiny 15% pot-sized bet, in order to reduce its range disadvantage going into the turn. By looking at the equity graph on the turn, we can see that it’s successful in doing that:
Hero is no longer getting crushed everywhere. In fact, he’s now winning at the top of the ranges quite a bit (pointed at by the green arrow). That’s the portion of Hero’s range that can beat pocket aces with either quad sixes or pocket sevens.
By folding so often on the flop, the solver has narrowed its range to the point that over a third of its hands now beat pocket aces on this turn. This makes the hand more competitive going forward — the Villain no longer has an absurdly massive range advantage like he did before.
Let’s wrap this section up with some advice from Chris about this and similar spots:
“So that’s one heuristic:
When you find yourself at a range disadvantage, don’t worry about “fighting back.” Don’t worry about making sure you don’t get pushed around or anything like that.
Rather, try to reposition yourself as quickly as possible so that on following streets, you’re much more competitive.”
Tactic #2: How to Leverage Your Advantage at the Top of the RangesWhen the Villain barrels the turn on the 6-6-6-7 board, most PLO players probably react like this:
But the solver plays this spot much differently.
After repositioning itself on the turn, it’s not folding very often anymore (just 16.4% of the time) because it is no longer at a huge range disadvantage. It’s calling fairly often (60.5% of the time), but most surpisingly…
…the solver shoves all-in with almost a quarter of its range on the turn.
Because [Monker Solver] has so many of these hands that can beat pocket aces — with like a third of its range — it’s able to shove some amount of those. It also puts some [of those hands] in its check-call range.
And then it [shoves all-in] with a lot of its low equity bluff-catchers [as a bluff]…
…that brings up the question “which bluffs should we use?”
Chris goes on to explain the two hand classes of bluffs with which Hero can shove all-in on the turn:
Chris sums up the overall turn shoving strategy and its benefits towards the end of the video:
Tactic #2: How to Leverage Your Advantage at the Top of the RangesWe’re shoving some of our quads and sevens full, and also adding in a lot of semi-bluffs.
Semi-bluffs being hands that have some amount of equity, like T-T-8-8 or T-T-9-9.
And then [we’re also shoving] some good bluffs that have removal to our opponent’s value range — hands that have an ace blocker that are not a full house.
So, the solver finds this really aggressive response here on the turn that all of us are missing as humans. That helps it to force the [Villain] — who is trying to bet small and take advantage of [his edge] in the middle of the ranges, where his pocket aces are doing well — to interact with this top of range area, where we’re doing well.
That’s very important, because if we don’t play this turn aggression here — if we play just a pure fold or call strategy — then our EV actually plummets. (For the other solver nerds out there, this means we lose about 1.5% of the pot if we don’t play any turn check-raises.)
When the Villain barrels the turn on the 6-6-6-7 board, most PLO players probably react like this:
But the solver plays this spot much differently.
After repositioning itself on the turn, it’s not folding very often anymore (just 16.4% of the time) because it is no longer at a huge range disadvantage. It’s calling fairly often (60.5% of the time), but most surpisingly…
…the solver shoves all-in with almost a quarter of its range on the turn.
“Because [Monker Solver] has so many of these hands that can beat pocket aces — with like a third of its range — it’s able to shove some amount of those. It also puts some [of those hands] in its check-call range.
And then it [shoves all-in] with a lot of its low equity bluff-catchers [as a bluff]…
…that brings up the question ‘which bluffs should we use?'”
Chris goes on to explain the two hand classes of bluffs with which Hero can shove all-in on the turn:
Chris sums up the overall turn shoving strategy and its benefits towards the end of the video:
“We’re shoving some of our quads and sevens full, and also adding in a lot of semi-bluffs.
Semi-bluffs being hands that have some amount of equity, like T-T-8-8 or T-T-9-9.
And then [we’re also shoving] some good bluffs that have removal to our opponent’s value range — hands that have an ace blocker that are not a full house.
So, the solver finds this really aggressive response here on the turn that all of us are missing as humans. That helps it to force the [Villain] — who is trying to bet small and take advantage of [his edge] in the middle of the ranges, where his pocket aces are doing well — to interact with this top of range area, where we’re doing well.
That’s very important, because if we don’t play this turn aggression here — if we play just a pure fold or call strategy — then our EV actually plummets. (For the other solver nerds out there, this means we lose about 1.5% of the pot if we don’t play any turn check-raises.)”
Come back next Friday (February 28th) for the final part of this PLO strategy series.
And remember, the Advanced PLO Mastery course will be here on March 2nd.
Until then, take care!
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