It’s a simple credo to remember in No Limit Texas Hold’em and, during the recent marathon running of the Durrrr Challenge, it became a code to live by in Pot Limit Omaha. Holding 2-A-A-9 double-suited, Patrik Antonius raised to $1,200 pre-flop and Tom Dwan, armed with 10-7-A-A, pushed the action to $3,600. A series of raises and re-raises led Dwan to be all-in with a $180,000 pot up for grabs. The board ran out 9-5-9-6-8, giving Dwan a ten-high straight for the win despite both players holding aces pre-flop.
DurrrrChallenge.com sat down with PokerXFactor instructor Chris “Fox” Wallace to learn more.
DurrrrChallenge.com: If you have pocket aces in Omaha, is it to your advantage to push all-in similar to what happened here?
Wallace: The reason people talk about them not being good is that because there’s always a flop and, once there’s a flop, pocket aces are typically losers. If you run pocket aces against 7-8-9-10, they’re not that big of a favorite.
In this hand, it’s 51% to 49% in favor of the double-suited hand. If you can get your chips in pre-flop with aces, you’re ahead, but not that far ahead. If I could spend all day getting my chips all-in with aces in Omaha, I would. If we take A-A-9-2 double-suited against a hand like A-K-Q-J, it’s a 71% to 29% favorite. Against 7-8-9-10, it’s 61% to 39%. Against the top 5% of hands, it’s a 65% to 35% favorite. In a cash game, you should take any advantage you can get.
DurrrrChallenge.com: How often is this hand chopped?
Wallace: When they’re double-suited, you’ll see flushes sometimes. Out of one million trials, almost exactly half of the time, this hand was chopped.
