3-betting in Pot Limit Omaha

I'm writing these series of articles in an attempt to discuss all aspects of 3betting in PLO. What hands should we 3bet with, how should we react when someone 3bets us, how position and stack sizes factor in, postflop play in 3bet pots, and how all these change depending on our image or the opponent we're playing. 95% of my experience is playing 6-handed mid stakes PLO so that’s the situation I’ll be focusing on. If you have any questions or wish to discuss things further then there is a thread set up here for deeper analysis and discussion:

To begin, let's work backwards and start by discussing what happens postflop when the pot is 3bet preflop. By having an understanding of this we can better analyse our preflop play. I'm going to assume HU pots, 100bb stacks and pot sized rases pf from here on in unless otherwise stated. Anytime a flop is seen in a 3bet pot there will be approx 25bbs in the pot with each players having 88bbs left. This means that if either player has hit the flop even moderately then they should be looking to get the money in. I'm going to look at 4 scenarios: Being the preflop 3bettor, and being the one who called the 3bet, both out of position and in position.

As the preflop 3bettor OOP
When we 3bet oop and get called, we have multiple options on the flop. We can bet/call a shove, bet/fold, check-raise, check-call or check-fold. All options have merit in certain situations which now mostly depend on the board texture and our hand. I could go through what I think we should do with various holdings on various flops with all these lines but that'd go on for pages and pages. Instead I'll just throw out some generalisations which are meant to stimulate further thought on the matter.

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With the majority of hands that I'm willing to play for stacks with I'm going to bet-call. This means sets, 2pair hands on any but the drawiest of boards, overpairs on dry boards, and most of my big draws.

Example:

$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG JoleneWhite ($400.00)
UTG+1 PimpNinja ($420.50)
CO coinflip22 ($413.84)
BTN resilientplayer ($400.00)
SB ad3bay0r ($787.10)
BB GodlkeRoy ($473.20) [Ac] [Qc] [Jh] [9h]

Pre-flop: ($6, 6 players)
2 folds, coinflip22 raises to $14, 2 folds, GodlkeRoy raises to $44, coinflip22 calls $30

Flop: [4c] [3h] [9d] ($94, 2 players)
GodlkeRoy bets $90, coinflip22 folds

Final Pot: $177

GodlkeRoy wins $177 ( won +$43 )
coinflip22 lost -$44.00

I decided to use this hand as an example as it's pretty marginal. Everyone knows that if you flop middle set you should bet/get it in, but top pair is a little murkier. In this case we need to look at the board texture - 943r is pretty dry. It's unlikely that we got called by someone with 33 or 44 in their hand, and us having a 9 makes it unlikely anyone has top set, so there are almost no realistic hands that we're behind by much too. Something like 3456 is a bit of a favourite but not by a lot. We also have two back door flush draws going for us and a bit of a back door straight possibility so we're not completely dead even if they do have a set.

The exception to this rule is when I go for a check-raise. I do this only under certain circumstances, the most important being that I'm confident my opponent will bet if I check. If I have a decent draw that has little current showdown value, I'd probably go for CR. An example of this is bottom pair + a non-nut flush draw, or bottom 2 + an oesd on a flush draw board (ie JT68 on a 986ss flop). The reason I go for a CR is that if i bet and get called, there are going to be a lot of bad cards for my hand, and if i bet and they shove, I'll be behind their range (but have to call due to pot odds). It also allows me to pick the pot up right away all the times they bet with air. Another big incentive is to protect my checks for the times I would check-fold the flop. I think the only other time this might be ok is if we have an absolute monster of a hand, say AKK7ss on a K72 board with top set and the NFD.

Example:

$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG xpurelucky ($401.30)
UTG+1 fiddlelads ($200.40)
CO 3434SCARED ($641.66)
BTN Jefferzon ($560.60)
SB GodlkeRoy ($443.00)
BB Jailbird1 ($262.00)

Pre-flop: ($6, 6 players)
3 folds, Jefferzon raises to $14, GodlkeRoy raises to $46, 1 fold, Jefferzon calls $32

Flop: [9s] [3s] [8h] ($98, 2 players)
GodlkeRoy checks, Jefferzon bets $96, GodlkeRoy raises to $384, Jefferzon goes all-in $418.60, GodlkeRoy goes all-in $13

Turn: [9c] ($1009.60, 2 players)

River: [3h] ($1009.60, 2 players)

Final Pot: $1004.60
GodlkeRoy shows: [Ks] [4s] [6d] [7d]
Jefferzon shows: [9d] [8c] [Qd] [7h]

Jefferzon wins $1004.60 ( won +$444 )
GodlkeRoy lost -$443.00

This is pretty much the perfect example for this CR. It has everything. A 983ss flop is super draw heavy and he knows that I'm never bet/folding this flop, and he knows that I'd never bet/call without having a pretty big hand. Overpair + flush draw or AAJT or top 2 or something would be required for me to bet-call here, so if I do bet, he would fold his marginal hands and only shove his big hands/draws (which I'm probably behind to, but am priced in to call). If I check however, my hand now looks like a naked overpair giving up or some other hand that didn't connect and it gives him free license to bet at the pot. Most people will bet in this spot for the mere fact that it IS true that 85% of the time when I check, I'm check-folding. This allows me to put in a CR and get them to fold whatever junk they bet with netting me the pot + their bet, and if called I have a tonne of outs to win anyway.

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Hands that I will bet-fold are those that have missed the flop too much that I want to play for stacks for but the flop texture is favourable enough that I think a CB will pick the pot up. These are basically limited to a-high flops and low-paired boards such as 22x, 33x, 44x, where I think it's unlikely that they've hit trips and won't be able to continue even if they have top pair (ie someone sitting on QT98 on a 922 board is in terrible shape against AAxx), so we should get enough folds. Again, by bet-folding these draw boards and check-raising the draw heavy boards, we cover our basis to get action when we do have big hands.

Check-folding is something you're going to have to do quite a lot when you miss the flops, or the board texture is likely to have smashed your opponents range. An example of this is holding AAxx on a 986ss flop -- there's no line we can take other than check-folding that is good in this spot. Pretty much any flop that has a flush draw and 2 or 3 cards to a straight between 4 and K should be check-folded unless we have a pretty strong hand (2pair, pair + fd, set, NFD). The exceptions are the flops we might want to bet-fold as discussed above (something like A96ss or 228ss can still be bet). If you notice someone starting to bet 100% of the time you check to them, you should start CRing some of your bigger hands/draws.

Check-calling is something pretty rare but there is still a place for it. I think you should check-call with any hands that you want to see a turn with, but don't necessarily want to play stacks for yet. Hands like those which have two backdoor flush draws and some backdoor straight possibilities and maybe bottom pair. The other situation to c/c is with a made hand that you want to see showdown with but one that can't stand a raise. For example, AAxx on a 882r board. If we bet and get raised and the money goes in we're never good, but a lot of the time our opponents might make a small bluff raise putting us in a really ugly spot. Against very aggro/good opponents we would want to make our decision on the flop whether we want to check-call down and pick off a bluff, or just check-fold. Against more straightforward opponents I think we can c/c the flop with the intention of c/f the turn knowing that they might take 1 stab at the pot but won't usually follow it up on the turn. The last situation I think merits c/cing is when we have a super monster. This is something like KKxx on a K77 board, or quads, or the nut flush and top set, etc. This protects against the times we c/c with marginal hands and makes us harder to play against.

by GodlikeRoy