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Jeff Hwang
Jeff Hwang is an expert blackjack player, player, a semi-professional poker player, a columnist for Card Player magazine, and the best-selling author of Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy and Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volumes I, II, and III. (Published by Dimat Enterprises). He also contributes to the Omaha Strategy Forum here
Click the link below to read more about Jeff and his books
Website URL: http://pokerbooks.internettexasholdem.com/jeff-hwang
How good is your game?
What follows is a five-question diagnostic test that covers a wide range of topics. For the full 50-question test, you can pick up Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha, Volume III: The Short-Handed Workbook.
1. It’s a $1-$2 game online.
Seat 1: $500
Seat 2: Open
Seat 3: $150
Seat 4: $200
Seat 5: Open
Seat 6: $400
You plan to buy in for the $200 maximum. Assuming that all else is equal — you know nothing about the players at the table — which seat do you take?
a. Seat 2
b. Seat 5
c. Neither
Playing from the Mississippi straddle, bottom set, value-betting the river
Preflop: It’s a $5-$5-$10 game with a Mississippi straddle. You ($4,100) are dealt the A
4 3 3
on the button straddle. Both blinds fold. A middle-position, tough player ($2,500) limps in. The cutoff ($500) limps in.
1. You should:
a. Check
b. Raise
Action: You check.
Flop ($40): K 7
3
. The first player checks. The cutoff bets $40.
The check-back range and the float
What follows is an excerpt from Jeff’s books, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play. and The Short-Handed Workbook.
In past columns on variable-ratio reinforcement and continuation-bet frequency, I have discussed the importance of checking behind with regard to LAG [loose-aggressive] play and deflecting check-raises on the flop. That said, once you have checked behind on the flop, your control of the hand on the turn and river is a function of two things:
- Your check-back range on the flop
- The float
Randomization is in the cards
What follows is an excerpt from Jeff’s books, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play. and The Short-Handed Workbook.
You want to discourage your opponents from check-raising you when you have taken the preflop initiative, while encouraging them to bet when they flop strong and check when they don’t. And in order to do so, you reinforce the “no check-raise” and “bet when they have it, check when they don’t” behaviors by checking behind from time to time; how often depends on the opponent.
A 20 percent reinforcement schedule might look like this:
It depends largely on your opponent
What follows is an excerpt from Jeff’s books, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play. and The Short-Handed Workbook.
Here’s a typical pot-limit Omaha (PLO) situation, one that represents the majority of the hands you will encounter when playing against the blinds. You open with a raise from the button before the flop, and only the big blind calls. The flop comes X-X-X (any three cards), and your opponent checks. The SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) is greater than 8.
The question is this: How often do you follow through with a continuation-bet (c-bet)? 50 percent of the time? 75 percent? 100 percent?
A low SPR situation
Excerpt from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play. and The Short-Handed Workbook.
Regulating opponents’ behavior
What follows is a special preview from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play.
Once you get to a certain point in your development as a poker player — you’ve learned hand valuations and acquired the necessary technical skills to play the game — the next big step to opening up your game is figuring out how to regulate your opponents’ behavior in such a way as to make them easier to play against. That is, the next step is founded in large part on psychology.
Enter variable-ratio reinforcement.
Big-blind-versus-small-blind play, small ball, floating, and the bluff-raise
What follows is a special preview from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play.
It’s a 50¢-$1 pot-limit Omaha (PLO) game online, five-handed. You ($125.15) are dealt the K 10 8 6 in the big blind. Everyone folds to the small blind ($76.90), who opens with a raise to $3.
Playing with the initiative
It’s a $2-$5 pot-limit Omaha game, and you ($2,500) are dealt the A J 10 5 in the hijack seat. An early-position player ($1,000) and middle-position player ($800) limp in, and the action is up to you.
1. You should:
a. Fold
b. Call
c. Raise
Action: You raise to $25. It then is folded to the big blind ($1,000), who calls. The early- and middle-position limpers both call.
Flop ($102): 9 7 2. Everybody checks to you.
The ambiguity of the bet
This is an edited excerpt from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
One of the built-in features of positional advantage lies in the ambiguity of the bet. When you bet into five people from one of the blinds, you usually have either a strong made hand or a strong draw, but you are rarely bluffing. In contrast, when you are on the button, and everybody checks to you and you bet, your bet is a lot more ambiguous, as every bet that you make is viewed as a possible steal.
This creates natural deception, which keeps your opponents off balance. In fact, just routinely playing with positional advantage and utilizing the button yields plenty of deception, because if most of your bets come from late position, where you are naturally betting light much of the time, your opponents will get the impression that you never have anything.
