Playing Aces in Pot-Limit Omaha: Part 2
Poker strategy can be discussed, dissected, and studied, but it can only make you money when it is applied appropriately. Yesterday’s article discussed the strategy behind playing aces in pot-limit Omaha. Di "Urindanger" Dang illustrates a few of these concepts with a hand he recently played during a session of six-handed $300/$600 with a $100 ante.
First, Dang gives some background information and then breaks down the hand further for us:
"Isildur1" has been killing it lately at the highest stakes games, taking on anyone, any stakes, and any amount of tables. Sometimes he'll play three tables against Tom "durrrr" Dwan, three against Phil Ivey, and three against Patrik Antonius at the same time! He's super aggressive, often fearless and definitely not afraid to gamble. Also playing is Phil "OMGClayaiken" Galfond who is, what I consider to be, in the top three PLO cash-game players in the world.
Lineup and Stack Sizes:
Di "Urindanger" Dang (Small Blind): $230,985.50
1sneaky (Big Blind): $71,722.00
Patrik Antonius (Under The Gun): $84,110.00
Isildur1 (Middle Position): $151,094.00
SxMxF (Cut Off): $31,146.00
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond (Button): $298,523.00
Dang has been dealt: 4♥A♣J♦A♦
Preflop Action Begins: Patrik Antonius folds. Isildur1 raises to $2,700. SxMxF folds. Galfond raises to $9,600. Dang calls $9,300.
Isildur1 opens in early position and Galfond three-bets him, which he would do with a wide range of hands here. He knows Isildur1 is opening pretty loosely and Galfond has a deep stack in position to Isildur1. He wants to create a big pot and use his position to smash him postflop.
Having said that, a four-bet reraise here to about $37,000 is a big mistake. It would turn my hand almost face-up and force me to play a huge pot out of position with about two pot-sized bets left versus Galfond. Calling here disguises my hand somewhat because I'd call with a lot of suited and connected middle-type cards. I also know that Isildur1 is super aggressive and there's a decent chance he'll put in a reraise.
Preflop Action Continues: 1sneaky calls $9,000. Isildur1 raises to $48,600. Galfond raises to $165,600. Dang raises to $230,885.50 all-in. 1sneaky folds. Isildur1 calls $102,394 all in. Galfond calls $65,285.50
Awesome! Isildur reraises and then Galfond repots. My all-in is very standard. Unless you're really unlucky and sharing outs and suits or both with another player, when all the money goes in preflop, aces (even bad ones) should pretty much always have their required equities to be profitable. In this case, where Galfond knows Isildur1 is aggressive, I'd expect Galfond to have big cards or good kings a good percentage of the time. And who knows what Isildur1's range is when he shoves?
Outcome: Dang shows 4♥A♣J♦A♦. Isildur1 shows 10♥Q♥9♠K♦ Galfond shows 3♥8♣A♠A♥. The board runs out 3♠5♠2♠6♠10♦. Dang wins $622,965.00.
Even though Galfond and I were unlucky that we shared each other's outs, I ran great here to win this huge pot.
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