The full court press in basketball often induces error at the start of a play. In Omaha, a raise after the flop usually puts overwhelming pressure on dubious holdings and often has a substantial impact on the course of the river. Playing limit high Omaha in second blind position I “crawled” (a thin call - thanks for the term Al Aikens) a raise before the flop with 8,7,6,3. The “mother” flop (a junk flop that “only a mother could love”) was a 9,5,2 with two clubs. But for my button hand, this flop was one of the “mother-of-all-flops”.

The first blind (on my right) bet. Experience teaches that when you hold a big straight draw (here I had 13 “outs”, three 8s,7s,and 6s, and four 4s), in a big pot (that has been raised before the flop), it is certainly correct to pressure the would-be “crawlers”. As you will see, this is especially true if there are (the frequent) two-of-a-suit in the flop.

There were only two callers. I hit a six on fourth street, bet it, and they both called. A third club spoiled my fun on the river (last card), so I checked, fully expecting to have been “last carded” once again. But they also checked, and my straight was the winner.

As I was scooping in the pot, a meek voice mentioned how he had folded his two lowish clubs because of the raise (normally the correct play). Thus that one extra chip I raised, swung over twenty chips in my direction.

What happened there against the low flush draw was only one of three main benefits of the raise, in addition to getting more money into the pot. In Omaha it is often correct to pressure “crawlers” (there goes that term again) out of seeing the critical fourth card.

The fourth card often turns a ho-hum hand (eg. a “combination hand”, see my book for examples) into a better hand than yours, or at the least creates a good draw (examples: second card of a suit, a higher straight draw, a second pair, matches a hand-held pair).

Almost any good draw against a made straight (ie. not duplicating an existing draw) will demote your odds of winning on the river (as a rough rule-of-thumb, a typical draw beats you around one-fifth of the time), clearly more risk than the extra money in the pot is worth.

The third benefit of the raise after the flop is that it puts you in excellant drive-bluff position, best when two “bricks” hit the board (I have had bad luck attempting to bluff out the “nuts”).

So if there is a raise(s) before the flop, and you are fortunate enough to have a great straight draw after the flop, press those crawlers (clearly this term is invaluable)! Of course, if you do not raise and some crawler bombs you on the river, you can always complain about your bad luck in Omaha.