ITH Poker Forum

[jeffnc]

Everyone who has studied a little knows that the 9, 8, 7, and 6 cards in O/8 are sucker cards in general, and Jeff Hwang makes this point in his excellent Omaha book (the first one with the O/8 sections). But I’ve never read anywhere, including in that book, that those cards can sometimes be good.

Most combinations with those cards tend to be weak, but in combination with A2, those cards can make great hands. The only example that shows a 6 in a good hand in Hwang’s book is A246, but hey – are there any A24x hands you wouldn’t like? (A249 is the worst one I can think of, and I’d definitely play that.) I think the advice is a little misleading in this regard, and I think it’s a mistake to only talk about middle cards as a group in the book (absolutely great book though, don’t get me wrong.)

I’m talking specifically now about A298, A287 and A276 (let’s say “A2mc” for middle connectors). I think the A2mc hands are special and deserve a special category in the literature. To a lesser extent, also A3mc hands and A265 (the 6 can sometimes dominate alone). A234 and A254 don’t count (good hands anyway but doesn’t make dominating straights). The point is, the power of the wheel tends to be a little bit overrated, and the power of the A2mc hands seems to be not only underrated, but not even specifically mentioned. I think A276 with a suited ace in a limt game is a monster, and I’d raise and call raises with it. The more other people like their hands, the more money this hand makes because you’re in a dominating position. The less other people like their hands, the more money this hand makes because it’s more likely to be the nut low and the more you can freeroll with straight draws as well. If no one has raised, it’s a good hand to raise with, and if others have raised, it’s a good hand to call or reraise with.

(I'm thinking specifically of limit O/8 right now - I think this is probably a good hand in PLO/8 too, but I haven't thought it through much - opinions requested on this.)

In fact I’d call a cap cold with it in a limit game and be really happy about it (if it were 4 cold to me, I’d probably cap it – you know you will be at least 4 to the flop!). Why? Because of the specific situation you’d be in. To call a 4-bet or cap cold in a normal O/8 limit game with a few decent players and the usual mix of bad players, the following would need to be true:

- Somebody probably has AA in their hand (some O/8 players just love to raise as much as possible with AAxx, even though they don’t really understand what’s going on. They just……. have AA. The fact that it does them little good after a 6-way flop in a limit game hasn't occurred to them yet.)

- At least one other person has A2 in their hand, or there are 2 people with A2 in their hand if no one has AA

- Some person has a high-only hand like KJT9 or AQJ9 (some O/8 players love to raise decent high-only hands)

- Someone probably has something like T877

- You are in late position (how else could it be 5 bets cold?)

If those things are true, you’re in such good shape it’s almost unfair. Why? Well, first of all, the guy with AAxx is now putting his money in bad (unless he has AA2) and wasting a lot of his potential, because the AA is now a big disadvantage, not an advantage (he might now prefer the second A to be back in the deck so it can counterfeit a low or maybe even make him a dominating 2 pair). It has little chance of holding up by itself. He has little (or maybe 0) chance of making a set or full house with his AA (you have one A and someone else probably has the other). If he has AAJT, then he has low average implied odds when he flops a high only hand. There are no low flops he can like (except for possible flush potential, which can’t scoop) and there are few high flops that he can both make a good hand with and get paid off with by the type of hands he’s up against (he’s against low hands, or high hands like KJT9 or KQJ9, where his A might help him dominate, but he could also be in a dominated position for a straight). In fact many high hands can put in a ton of money postflop on a draw to win a quarter or half the pot, or miss altogether.

You are in very good shape against the other A2xx hands as well, and if you don’t see a flop you like, you won’t be investing any money on a bad draw. If you do see a flop you like, it’s hard to get your money in bad if you’re on a draw. If you hit the flop hard, it’s virtually impossible to lose much or any money with your hand (the reverse implied odds are near 0). If you have A276 and the flop is 398, this is where the guy with AK76 loses money and you make money, because you play better hands than him. Yes you’re on the sucker end of the straight, but for you it’s only backup and gravy if you win, because it’s incidental to your nut low draw. Even if the turn is a T, you still have the nut low draw! The guy with AK76 is going to lose all his investment and still lose yet another bet on the river to the guy with QJ or J7, but as long as the river is a 4, 5, 6 or 7 you win half the pot. Yet no matter what the river card is you won’t pay off and lose (might be some rare exceptions where you pay off a bet with just your bad straight, but I really doubt that). And you can still quarter someone with the bare 76 in their hand, and remember you will still scoop the pot with your weak straight sometimes if someone else was just on a low draw and misses. You can also bet the river for value if you hit your low without fear of losing much if any if you get raised, while no other one-way hand is in as good a position.

Consider Hwang’s “miracle flop test”. OK, let’s say you have A276 and the flop is 543. What exactly can happen on the turn and river you don’t like? If the hands are what we think they are in a raised and reraised pot, then counterfeiting your ace is going to range somewhere between impossible and very unlikely. Counterfeiting your 2 is going to be unlikely. About the worst thing I can think of isn't even a complete disaster: turn pairs the board, river is a 2 (an unlikely parlay with only one or two 2s left in the deck). Here you could still split the pot with someone who has a full house for high, or get quartered in the worst case with someone who also has A2 or A3 (and the guy with A3 might not make it to the river anyway because he’s already counterfeited on the flop, so you still can win half). Getting quartered in a 5-way limit game can still be profitable anyway.

The implied odds are great though because of the possibility of making the nut low and also having the high straight. Now you are going to win 3/4 or more of the pot depending on who else has A2.

Aside from “miracle flops”, there are lots of great flops you’d like to see – 983, 456, 376, 856, etc etc. It’s hard to imagine many combos of cards 9 or below that you wouldn’t like, and these kinds of flops are very common. You’ll be flopping the nut low plus 2 pairs or straight draws all the time. Even a paired flop like 885 isn’t too bad (your straight draw for a scoop could easily be live), and we haven’t even mentioned flops like 774 or 663, which are pretty fantastic looking (although this is the rare scenario where you might lose money, too – miss your low draw and lose to a full house, or make a full house and lose to a bigger one). And since we started with a suited ace, we haven’t even mentioned the flush draws. You can imagine lots of those flops we just mentioned with 2 of your suit on them which would be monsters.

You will also like lots of flops with only one broadway card. In other words, you are probably going to like about 2/3 of the flops you see with this hand.

On the other hand, broadway flops and broadway draw flops are super easy to get away from, while losing only the preflop investment of small bets. (Don’t forget your possible nut flush draw even on broadway flops though.) It’s very hard to concoct scenarios where you lose much money with this hand, but it’s very easy to imagine winning a lot or scooping. You will always get paid off by hands that are getting quartered, and you will often win at least half the pot if you like the flop.

Hands like A286 or A275 aren’t too far behind, but they start requiring specific cards for you to love your hand (for example flopping a 7 or 6, respectively. In addition to another low card). But when you get into hands like A275, you start liking it for other reasons anyway (the 5 is a now a backup low card and a wheel card.)

You like A2mc hands when there is a lot of raising preflop because of the kinds of hands you’ll be up against, because you’re in a dominating position and less likely to be counterfeited. If there isn’t raising preflop, you still like your hand because while you’re more likely to be counterfeited, you’re also more likely to win a whole half of the pot with the nut low against weaker lows. If you are counterfeited there are still scoop scenarios with straights or 2 pairs (e.g. A287 scoops against A357 when the board is A85TK). And don’t forget – 7s and 6s and 8s aren’t the best low cards, but they’ll save you with an emergency low every once in awhile too.

I’d limp with A2mc in early position, raise A2mc with a suited ace after several limpers in late position, reraise with it in late position after raisers, and also raise with it in early position with a suited ace in a loose game where I’d get callers with weaker hands.

A2mc – play it!