Semibluffing in paired boards can be interesting sort of topic. In holdem when we semibluff and improve to what we draw we very often have strong enough hand to value bet. But how often is that the case in omaha especially on paired boards?
So I had this spot in previous session.
Game #2248161191: Table €50 PL - 0.25/0.50 - Pot Limit Omaha - 17:49:01 2025/04/21
Seated players
Seat 1: Teturia (€113.77)
Seat 3: Megaladon (€84.30)
Seat 4: Kjuingf98 (€192.86)
Seat 5: 6gramzfora1r (€70.26)
Seat 6: DUNZ4LD0 (€51)
Blinds and button
6gramzfora1r has the button
DUNZ4LD0 posts small blind €0.25
Teturia posts big blind €0.50
Hole cards
Dealt to Teturia 9♦:5♥:7♣:A♥:
Preflop
Megaladon folds
Kjuingf98 folds
6gramzfora1r folds
DUNZ4LD0 raises €1.25 to €1.50
Teturia calls €1
Flop 6♥:8♦:8♣: (3€)
DUNZ4LD0 bets €1.15
Teturia raises €3.80 to €3.80
DUNZ4LD0 calls €2.65
Turn 2♣: (10.6€)
DUNZ4LD0 checks
Teturia bets €7.95
DUNZ4LD0 folds
Uncalled bet returned to Teturia: €7.95
Teturia wins €10.23
Summary
Total pot €10.60 Rake €0.37
Preflop I would say call is standard. Though lets check as BvB we are supposed to be very aggro. Ok seems like both options have similar EV.
Anyway on flop we get wrap and bdfd. I think both options are ok but I would imagine raise to be preferred with this strong combo. Well I did check similar spot on COvsBU and there on 776r raises came more from oesd and wraps mainly called. On other hand ranges are very different there and CO only cbets 20%. In reality I think pool tend to overcbet heavily on this spot even though my BB range connect more into 886 flop. I dont think its big mistake at least to range check these mid or low paired boards in SB shoes as default line.
On flop villain does call so he probably has some overpairs, some draws and some trips+. But I did use only half pot raise on flop so he should still continue fairly wide. Which is good for my turn barrel. Now I did get fold but what would be our plan if villain call? Do we bluff river ever? Do we value bet straight? What if villain leads big after we hit straight?
My approach would be to mainly check river with this combo whatever I miss or hit. Problem is that when we raise flop we already start to tell story of having mainly trips+ for value. So once we come to river after big turn barrel ranges are pretty strong. So straight value betting river is very thin I think even in gto. Most likely some straight with trips or other good boat blocker might still bet but lets try to check e.g. on BBvsBU spot bit later.
Anyway the concept of semibluffing turn to just check river unimproved was bit weird for me for a while. Like in holdem side this kind of option is very rarely a thing. But idea in this example hand is to get better hands to fold. Overpairs, some 6x and maybe some of weakest trips (might be tough). But of course if action goes different and there has been only one street of betting before river then value bet threshold is lot lower. In this case its not just three street of aggression but also raising flop cbet. So straight by the river is just quite mediocre hand. But lets see:
So here we x-r flop oop and half pot turn so thats smaller sizing than I used. On river nut straight would block bet and on some safer river like 4♥: it was actually potting. I think thats also because boats are less likely on such low board than this 9. Versus shove nut straight is folding 60% of time. Calling always with two boat blocker and mixing with one blocker. But yeah here we are oop so we dont have option to check back.
PS: If we hit straight and villain lead big on river I would very often fold. We dont have much of boat blocker and villain is usually not looking to lead if he hits straight as we can easily have boats as well.
