Strat: SOHE

There's a variant I've played several times now at a home game that I think could make for some interesting strategy discussion. It's quickly become one off my favorite games, and I've mentioned it a couple times in the open thread during post-game recaps. The game is called SOHE: Simultaneous Omaha and Hold'em.

The Game: Each player is dealt 6 hole cards. Preflop, in addition to a fold, call, or raise, each player must split his 6 cards into a 4-card Omaha hand and a 2-card hold'em hand, in turn with the betting action. These hands must be placed on opposite sides of the player's stack and capped with chips, and they must remain split this way throughout the hand.

The rest of the hand plays out like a standard flop game: flop, turn, river, showdown. At showdown, the pot is split between the best Omaha hand and the best hold'em hand.

Where I play, betting is pot-limit, so that's how I intend to focus this discussion. I think fixed- or spread-limit would play very differently.

Basic Strategy: The key factor in this game, in my opinion, is recognizing the split-pot element and how it drives action. Like any split-pot game, the Holy Grail in any hand is to have two hands that will allow you to scoop the pot, or to have a lock on one side and a "freeroll" to the other.

However, in SOHE, this is a bit different than in a high-low game. A high-low game has you going for two hands that are usually very different. In particular, flushes and straights that include aces and low cards are key. It's also very noteworthy that a SOHE showdown will always be awarded in two halves, whereas high-low pots can go high-only, giving more value to high hands and making it very clear sometimes that the pot will not be split.

In SOHE, you're playing two high hands against the same board, so you want your two hands to have similar characteristics, or to use cards that are close to each other so that you can hit a pat-type hand one way and a pair-type hand the other way. Even though it eats up some of your outs, playing the same suits in both hands to hit simultaneous flushes can be very valuable, as can be playing something like JJ in hold'em while you have 789T in Omaha.

As in most forms of poker, there is also a great deal of value in playing aggressively. In SOHE, especially when pots go multi-way, which they often do in my experience, everyone is wary of what could be out there. Even having the nuts on one side may not be enough to proceed if it's vulnerable and your other hand is unlikely to win.

This brings me to the second point of profitable play, aside from scooping: buying out equity. Unless you have a specific reason to play passively (e.g., trapping with an unbeatable scoop or seeking overcalls with a one-way lock), you should be taking the lead as much as possible and trying to take down uncontested pots. I suppose this is an extension of the idea of scooping.

Let me conclude these opening remarks by throwing an example out there and seeing how y'all think you'd play it. All dollar amounts refer to the total bet.

Six-handed. Hero is dealt A♥K♣T♥T♦3♥3♣.

SB ($500): $0.25 post
BB ($400): $0.50 post
UTG ($250): $1 straddle
UTG+1 ($500): $4 pot raise
CO ($600): $4 call
BTN (Hero, $400): ?