🛡️ Playing against an open: call, 3-bet or fold
Why kings usually call and rundowns 3-bet — the logic of the chart · Advanced
Against an open, Omaha decisions are counterintuitive: some very strong hands do better calling, and some "speculative" ones 3-bet. This lesson walks through the chart's logic using the button against the CO, explains why a 3-bet almost always has an ace, and what changes in the blinds.
Three options and one main idea
Someone opened before you. Your options: fold, call or 3-bet. The key is where the open came from: UTG's range (18%) and the button's range (48%) are different games. Against UTG you're up against strong hands, and hands that look decent are often dominated.
For example, according to the chart the button against a CO open plays 19.6% of hands: 7.9% as a 3-bet, 11.7% as a call. The other 80% is a fold, even in the best seat at the table.
Who 3-bets and who calls
The BTN vs. CO chart shows an unexpected picture:
— double-suited aces — always 3-bet;
— connected double-suited broadways with an ace (A♠K♠Q♥J♥) — 3-bet 93% of the time;
— double-suited rundowns (10♠9♠8♥7♥) — 3-bet 66%, call 25%;
— but double-suited kings and queens — 3-bet only 18%, call 77%.
Why do kings call? Without an ace they handle a 4-bet in response poorly: a 4-bet in Omaha is most often aces, and K♠K♥Q♠J♥ against aces A♦A♣7♠2♥ has 43%. Calling in position preserves their strong postflop play. Rundowns, on the other hand, fear nothing: against aces they have about 50%, and a 3-bet in position gives them the initiative and a pot where their straights and flushes are worth a lot.
From the blinds it's different
SB against a button open, per the chart: 3-bet 9.8%, call only 2.6%. After the flop the small blind acts first against a player in position — calling in that spot almost always loses. Either 3-bet and take the initiative, or fold.
For BB against the button our chart gives only calls — 31.3% of hands. This is an incomplete chart: 3-bets for the BB aren't given in the source data. So everything that isn't a call here is "fold or 3-bet": the chart doesn't tell them apart. In the trainer and tasks this spot has two buttons — "Call" and "Fold" — and under fold there's a note that the chart doesn't distinguish it from a 3-bet.
How to think against an open
1. Define the opener's range: UTG is tight, the button is wide.
2. Ask whether your hand is dominated: kings and queens against UTG often run into aces, gapped broadways into higher broadways.
3. Choose your action by how the hand handles a 4-bet: if a 4-bet back is unpleasant for you and the hand plays well after the flop — call; if a 4-bet doesn't scare you or you have an ace — 3-bet.
4. From the small blind — either 3-bet or fold: calling out of position almost always loses. The big blind is the exception: it has already put in 1 bb, calls at a discount and closes the action, so against the button it calls with 31.3% of hands.
Practice: 10 hands against an open from different positions.