The Fear Factor – Utilizing the intimidation factor in pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better

While playing in an online $55 buy-in pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better tournament, I picked up the A J Q 3 in middle position. There were two callers in front of me. Although I normally don't raise with A-3 hands, it is generally correct to raise before the flop with A-3 and two facecards in games in which a raise figures to narrow the high action. However, I did not raise on this occasion because there were two loose players sitting on my left whom I did not wish to discourage. But, they both folded anyway.

In five-way action, the flop came 4 2 2. The small blind bet the pot, $250. There were three folds to me. What would you do in this position?

Holding the nut-low draw, many players would automatically call here without adequately considering their lack of high potential. When playing pot-limit, you often have to fold a nice draw after the flop if a pot-size bet makes the odds prohibitive. If you have very little high potential, it is certainly not odds-on to draw for even the nut low, since even if you make the low, all you win is half the pot. But if you don't make a low, you lose a very large amount. And even if you hit your nut low, you might get quartered or even counterfeited.

For example, in this hand, if you call the $250 and do not make your low on the turn, you might find yourself facing a $750 bet. If you call the $750 and miss your low on the river, you will have lost $1,050 on this hand. If you make your low on the river and split the pot, your net gain on the hand would be only about $75. Do you really want to get involved in that kind of situation?

Well, actually, yes – but only to a limited extent. Although the above win/loss facts are quite true, there is yet another consideration – the "fear factor." If you do make your nut low, you might be able to frighten your opponent out of the pot.

I called the $250. If I didn't hit one of the 16 low cards (fives through eights), I would probably have to fold the next big bet. However, the turn card was a 7, giving me the nut low. Note how this changed the situation: There was a new sheriff in town.

My opponent (who was the small blind) now bet a very confident $500 at me. So, I even more confidently raised the pot, a $1,750 raise, which was just about the size of both of our remaining stacks. Although there was a slight chance that my low would be tied or counterfeited, it was much more likely that I would get my money back if he called. You can call that negative thinking, the "glass half-empty" perspective.

But consider the "glass half-full" perspective. My opponent might not be able to take the heat! He mulled over my $1,750 raise for a full minute, and then folded. He probably had two pair (using his high pocket pair) and didn't want to risk all of his chips against my having a deuce or a better high hand than his.

Note that if I had been first to act after the turn, there would have been two ways to play it. I might have bet the pot, at that point a $750 bet, which might have folded my opponent. However, it probably would have been even more effective for me to check and play for his momentum, which might well have led to a much larger pot-size check-raise.

Thus, when you play pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better, there is a whole new dimension of intimidation and scare tactics. Almost anytime you have a lock in one direction, or sometimes with the second-nut holding and a decent holding in the other direction, you should consider betting the pot in order to fold lesser hands that might otherwise back in to winning the other direction.