Module 22: Six-card Omaha. Fifteen combinations, and the thresholds that move again.
Module 13 gave a 3-bet three jobs: value, isolation and shape, and said a hand needs at least two of them to qualify. All three jobs still exist in six-card Omaha. Two of them have got harder, and the arithmetic that decides the third has not moved at all.
Start with the part that has not moved, because it is reassuring. Blinds 0.5 and 1 with 100bb stacks: an open is 3.5, a pot 3-bet is 12, a pot 4-bet is 37.5, and the SPRs those leave are 11, 3.5 and 0.8. Those are pot-limit facts about the betting rules and they are identical in every version of Omaha. The commit price is still S divided by (2S + 1), so a 3-bet pot still asks for about 44% and a 4-bet pot for about 31%.
Now the part that has moved. Isolation barely works. Module 13's argument for 3-betting aces was that the raise buys you a heads-up pot, and heads-up is the condition their edge depends on. In a six-card game the players behind you hold hands with fifteen combinations each, and 65.5% of them contain a pair. They call more, so you isolate less often, and the pot you were trying to buy arrives four-handed with your extra money in it.
And the value half has shrunk, which is the measurement worth seeing. Below is what happens to a hand's equity against one random hand of the same size, moving from four cards to six. Everybody gained two cards, so what the figure tracks is the change in a hand's standing relative to the field.
Against one random hand of the same size, measured over 6,000 deals per cell.
Every hand at the top of that list is built around a pair. Every hand at the bottom is built around connection or a nut suit. Nothing in the list is a coincidence: a pair is worth less when everybody holds more pairs, and the nuts are worth more when second best is punished more often.
So the 3-betting list gets shorter, and the hands it loses are the ones a four-card player would least expect to lose. A double-suited double pair is a genuine 3-bet in four-card Omaha and is not one here. Aces with two rags, which are already marginal in Module 14, fall out entirely.
Still a clear 3-bet: Ace of spades, Ace of diamonds, King of spades, Queen of diamonds, Jack of hearts, Ten of clubs
Aces with connection and two suits. Down 6.2 points and still the best hand you can hold. All three jobs, and the only holding that does all three.Still a 3-bet, in position: King of spades, King of diamonds, Queen of spades, Jack of diamonds, Ten of hearts, 9 of clubs
Kings with connection and two suits. Down 8.9 points, which is most of the gap between kings and aces in the four-card game. In position it still qualifies. Out of position it is a call.Now a call, not a 3-bet: King of spades, King of hearts, 8 of spades, 8 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 4 of clubs
The double-suited double pair. Down 11.2 points, the biggest fall in the list. It flops sets and its sets get outdrawn by a field where over half has two pair or better. Call, see a flop, and fold it when the flop is wet.Now a fold, not a 3-bet: Ace of spades, Ace of diamonds, 7 of spades, 4 of diamonds, 2 of hearts, 9 of clubs
Aces with rags. Down 10.5 points. In four-card Omaha these are aces with a flaw. In six-card Omaha they are one pair in a game where one pair is the baseline.Rising, and a 3-bet in position: Ace of spades, King of spades, Queen of hearts, Jack of hearts, Ten of diamonds, 9 of clubs
The broadway rundown. Down only 2.3 points, and it has climbed past the double pair and past aces with rags in the ranking. Its equity arrives as the nuts, which is exactly what this game rewards.4-betting narrows further still, and for a reason worth stating plainly. Module 16 argued that a 4-bet runs your whole stack against a narrow range in a game where the best preflop edge is around 67 to 33. In a six-card game the best preflop edge is smaller than that, because the hand you are up against has more ways to catch up. A 4-bet is aces with connection, and it is very close to nothing else.
3-betting in six-card Omaha. 3-bet the hands whose equity arrives as the nuts, not the hands that hold the most pairs. Aces with connection, kings with connection in position, and premium broadway rundowns. Everything a four-card player 3-bets for its pairs alone is a call here, or a fold.
Which of these figures is identical in four-card and six-card Omaha?
Answer: The commit price at a given SPR. Right. S divided by (2S + 1) is arithmetic about the betting rules, not about the cards. Every pot-limit figure in this course transfers untouched.
Which hand loses the most standing moving from four cards to six?
Answer: King of spades, King of hearts, 8 of spades, 8 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 4 of clubs. Right: about eleven points against one point. Pairs are what the extra cards devalue.
Why does isolating with aces work less well in six-card Omaha?
Answer: Opponents hold fifteen combinations each and call more, so the pot rarely gets heads-up. Right. The raise still builds a pot; what it no longer reliably buys is the heads-up pot the hand needed.
A player 4-bets in a six-card game. What should your default reading be?
Answer: Aces with connection, and very little else. Right. At an SPR of 0.8 the 4-bet commits the stack against a narrow range, and the preflop edges available are smaller than in four-card Omaha.