[Buzz]

Bohunkas - You played fine here.

Following is the procedure for figuring if you should call or not on the third betting round when you are drawing to make a full house.

(1) You need to reasonably know how much you stand to win if you make your draw. (2) You need to know the odds against making your draw.

(1) There are 8 small bets = 4 big bets in the pot from the first betting round, and another 4 small bets = 2 big bets in the pot from the second betting round.

(1) That's a total of 6 big bets already in the pot.

Put Villain on the flush and it's hard to tell what UTG+2 and Button have - maybe low draws, maybe also flushes, even possibly higher flushes than Villain, maybe lower sets than yours. (Since you, yourself have the top set, it doesn't really matter exactly what they might have unless one of them rather than Villain has the nut flush and thus might raise). At the point when the action gets to you, you don't know what Button or UTG+2 will do. That's one disadvantage of being in a hand when you're not on the button yourself - you don't have as good an idea of how your opponents will bet.

(1) I'd guess Button will call and UTG+2 will fold on the third betting round. As it turns out it's the other way around but for the purpose of estimating the pot size on the river it doesn't matter which of them calls.

(1) I'd also guess that at least one opponent would call on the river if the board pairs.

(1) Thus when it is your turn to act on the third betting round - there are 6 big bets in the pot from the first two betting rounds, and in addition you estimate 3 more big bets will be added <font color="white">_</font>by your opponents - not by you on this betting round and the next. Count that all as a grand total of 9 big bets you'll win if the board pairs.

(1) Assuming nobody behind you raises, you're only gambling one big bet to see if the board does pair. If the board does pair, assume you'll scoop. (There's some oblique chance your queens full will lose to quads, but forget that because mostly that won't happen - and the times it does will be cancelled by the possibility of getting paid off by multiple opponents instead of just one).

(1) So at any rate, when the action gets to you on the third betting round, assuming no raise from Button, you're basically getting nine to one implied pot odds. (If Button does raise, you'll only be getting 5.5 to 1 implied pot odds, but that will still be more than you need to call).

(2) And from your vantage point, 10 unseen cards will pair the board while 34 unseen cards will not. From your vantage point the odds against the board pairing are 34 to 10 or 3.4 to 1.

Now you compare your implied pot odds to the odds against making your hand. If the implied pot odds are greater than the odds against the board pairing (called "hand odds"), then you have favorable odds to call. Otherwise you don't.

It gets a lot more complicated than this in high/low split games because often some of your outs are for half the pot while other of your outs are for the whole pot. But in this particular case it's relatively simple. You do the above math in your head, compare your implied pot odds to your hand odds, and make your decision accordingly.

Then when you get to the river, you need to fold if the board doesn't pair. You were assuming an opponent had a flush and that you'd need the board to pair to end up with a winner. You need to have been correct about your read on your opponent. Your opponent has to actually have the flush. You can't be wrong about that. You can't look down at your set on the river and decide to call because your opponent might not actually have a flush after all. (Otherwise you should have added the expense of calling on the river back when you calculated your implied pot odds back on the third betting round).

It may seem incredible to you (or maybe not) but some opponents, especially recent Texas hold 'em converts who at playing a low levels, will try to bluff that they hold the nut flush after the flop. You need to know who might make that sort of bluff. That bluff might work well in Texas hold 'em where nobody probably holds the flush - but with four cards instead of just two, in Omaha-8, the odds are that somebody probably does hold the flush. (Bluffs obviously don't work when a player actually holds the cards the bluffer is representing with the bluff). Indeed, the odds are so great that somebody does hold the flush that you don't want just any flush - you want the nut flush. Thus a bet after this flop doesn't represent any old flush. A bet after this flop represents the nut flush. (But Omaha-8 players will sometimes bet a non-nut flush here - and Omaha-8 players will also generally call with a non-nut flush here).

Whatever. Anywhow that's the general procedure for figuring if the odds are on your side to call or not. (Note there is a different procedure for figuring if you should raise or not).

Buzz