Hey, how's it going? I thought I'd make a quick video about bomb pots. Essentially, the strategy you want to employ in bomb pots on Americas Card Room (ACR).
In addition to ACR, these types of pots are also available on other skins like TruePoker, YaPoker, BCP, and PokerKing, which are essentially the same site but branded differently.
1. PokerKing and other WPN rooms. Bomb pots are played at tables marked with a bomb symbol in the lobby (Hold'em and Omaha). They are played four times per hour, at a 9-max table each player puts in two blinds, at a 6-max table – five blinds.
2. WPT Global. On average, 5 bomb pots are held per hour, with 8 bb taken from each participant in the hand.
3. Mobile applications. Bomb pots are available at PokerBros and PPPoker, specific rules are set by the club owners.
So, in bomb pots, you're basically starting with a multi-way hand from the flop. The pot is about 30 big blinds pre-flop for nine-max tables, possibly less for six-max, depending on the specific setup.
In bomb pots, you need to treat your starting hand like a nutted hand. If you play Omaha, this concept will sound familiar. For instance, with a rainbow flop like A-7-3, whether you're six-handed or nine-handed, the game dynamics remain similar, though six-handed bomb pots are rarer because fewer players are participating.
The main idea is that you can start value betting somewhere starting at a queen for these bomb pots. Six-handed: okay, this is rainbow by the way. Six-handed it’s kind of tough to bluff. It’s like six-handed or nine-handed. Generally, when I talk about bomb pots, I talk about both. Obviously, six-handed is a lot rarer chance for somebody to have two-pair and stuff. But it’s still pretty big. Six or nine-handed: it’s kind of tough to block opponents’ hands. You can make some bluffs maybe with blockers. Let’s say there’s three spades down there, and you have the ace of spades. That can be a pretty decent blocker bluff. But other than that, it’s kind of tough to get opponents off hands
So the main strategies I use in bomb pots are bet sizes. On the flop, if the pot is like 30 big blinds, I would bet 10% of the pot or three blinds. I’m using pot size for example. It can be different, but usually it’s like 30 big blinds. 10% pot or three blinds. I use 27% pot, okay? Or whatever this is. Not like eight blinds. Then I use geometric on the turn. So essentially, just bet 75% on the flop, all-in on the turn. They’re pretty close when you have 30 blinds and you have 95 behind. 70%, 75% is very close to geometric.
So when do we bet each size?
Generally, 10% pot I will bet when I have a gutshot.
The thing is in bomb pots you have to think about your hand how it relates to the other five or eight opponents. 10% pot: if you’re betting 10% pot, generally I would do this when I’m early-positioned. The idea is that if you’re late-positioned, there’s a big chance you can check down. Early position I will do this with top pair that has mostly top pair with a lot of potential overcards. Let’s say you have a 10-X-X board, 9-X-X board, Jack-X-X board even. Queen-X-X: you can do this with top pair. Queen-X-X maybe slightly less top pair that has a lot of potential.
It will get checked through actually pretty often. If it does get checked through, it’s a big problem because Jack-X: you have 12 cards that are overs. Six-handed or nine-handed, the probability is almost 100% that somebody has that overcard, so protection is important. 10% pot will actually fold sometimes. It will actually pick it up, which is amazing. I use this in early position. This is the idea: either you have a top pair that needs protection, or you have maybe pair plus backdoor flush draw. Not backdoor flush draw, so you’d want to see a cheap turn. It’s hard to raise nine-handed or six-handed. It’s hard to raise super multiway. Let’s call it super multiway with whatever versus bet. It’s very, very hard, so by betting, nobody will min-raise. Bet raising will have to be very significant, if that makes sense.
These 10% pot bets are really, really good because you get to see turns very often, especially if you have nut backdoor flush draw, open-ended straight draw, or gutshot. Maybe you have an open-ended straight draw and want to see the turn for cheap. Then you can do the same thing on the turn by the way. .
27% pot is generally overpair or top pair top kicker.
Not lower than that in general. This is to get value from top pair. Generally, or protection. You get a lot of folds for this. Sometimes you maybe get heads-up very often, three-way extremely rare. Somebody will actually shove.
The good part about bomb pots not being solved: you can’t really solve nine-way or six-way to the flop. Even with 100% range, it’s very complicated. Yeah, it’s impossible. Even like the simple three-way would take a ton of RAM to do that. Anyway, you’ll get a lot of folds otherwise. I don’t usually use this. So this is kind of the thing. Yeah, sure, you can argue you have to use bluffs. It’s really complicated to figure out which bluffs you’re going to put in this category. Nine-handed, to be honest, just picking the pot up with top pair is amazing. You can do that. Then, generally, re-evaluate on the turn. The idea is not to go all-in but to cheap showdown or pick up the pot.
Geometric is very important.
This is nutted usually. Rarely use it on rainbow boards by the way. An example for a rainbow board would be when a recreational is in the pot and I have two-pair plus. On rainbow, geometric example: let’s say rainbow with a straight draw. Straight draw board and I have a set. The requirement is a bit higher by the way. Let’s talk a little about boards with straight possible, flush possible. You need to pay a ton of attention on these boards because it’s very possible somebody will have a straight. Think about it. Even if a board is something very weird like : is very possible. ? Extremely possible for somebody to have a straight like . You have , . All these straights. That’s very likely, extremely likely.
So essentially, you need to be very wary of boards like , because remember 100% range. That’s what it means. and . There are straights that mean on these boards, two-pair are worse. Sets are okay because you have basically 35% equity versus straight or flush. Middle and top: very important. Middle and top. If you’re bottom set, you’re like somebody might have top set or middle set. You get a lot of set-over-set, so life sucks.
So on a straight board, you play it this way. If you have a straight or middle set plus, (middle set, top set) geometric, or if bet into, raise all-in. Simple. On a flush board, bottom set: check or call. Check if it goes to you. You can check if it checks around and you’re in late position, remember people will generally be very face-up. People are very face up. Remember that very much. If you’re in late position, you can start betting now. If it gets checked to you, like seven people check to you, or five or four even, you can start betting if you’re in late position. Power position, baby. Yeah, if you get shoved on, you’re calling. You’re not folding bottom set ever on a flop in Texas Hold'em. Let’s leave it at that.
On a flush board, it’s more likely someone has a flush compared to a straight board. There are a lot more combos. Expect someone has a flush. Very important. On a flush board, expect somebody has a flush. Now, top pair only call small bets. Top pair good kicker. We need to set some boundaries also:
On bomb pot boards, anything lower than top pair good kicker—like ten plus—the kicker doesn’t call a half-pot bet or bigger. Very, very important. Super important. Top pair lower kicker doesn’t make sense to call that. Generally, we’re going to see how we play different hands on different boards. The idea is anything lower than top pair good kicker doesn’t call a half-pot bet or bigger. Expect when people bet geometric or 75% flop: they have top pair at least, strong draws at least. This is just a half-pot bet.
When people bet geometric, expect them to have two-pair plus. Very important. Top pair good kicker only calls small bets. That’s the whole idea: maximum one-third, one-quarter. Remember, people are very face up. You can only call a small bet with top pair good kicker. Otherwise, if they bet half-pot or more, they have at least top pair good kicker or better. You can’t call their bottom range. You need to beat some hands.
It’s very face up. You’re playing versus face-up ranges. On a flush board, two-pair are way worse. You only have like 8% equity on the turn. Middle/top sets are okay because you have 35% equity. Don’t shove ace of spades on three-spade boards. Don’t do that. Expect someone to have a flush. Very important. Don’t shove sets on three-flush boards. Expect someone to have a flush. You’re basically shoving into 35% equity. Need a bit more.
The flop comes with three spades and you have singles , or ? Don't count them as draws, they are useless cards. Even if you have top pair! Avoid the trap of second nuts and fold to bet.
What else? Two pairs – don’t play for stack, fold to raise. We get flushes up to queen and higher. Flushes up to jack and lower – ONLY check-call, this is also very important.
Straight flops like , which have 48 straight combinations, can be treated the same way as flushes – consider a straight almost inevitable.
Take a close look at the strategy on straight and flush boards – that's where I see a lot of mistakes even from regs.
Rainbow boards. Example: .
With we bet 27%.
With / / – this is a rainbow board. Go geometric, okay? You can go 75% on jam turn. if you have only river strength (RS). If you bet smaller, let them call. Imagine they play the same strategy as you. How do you play against them? If you just bet big, your opponents might raise or fold better hands. If you have strong hands and there are recreational players in the pot, use geometric immediately on rainbow boards. Otherwise, use smaller sizes. Not the 10%, maybe the 27% is better.
With / / – 10%. This early position, okay? Late position check, take the free card. Very important.
Generally rest is check. That’s kind of it. It’s very, very simple. It’s a very face-up game.
Second flop – – / / . With these gutshot draws, 10% from early position, check from late position. And we play ready hands by analogy with the previous example.
Don’t slow play, especially when there are straights possible, and most boards have straights possible. If you slow play something in bomb pots, there’s a huge chance the next card will give somebody a better hand. The board is very dynamic, okay?
If you have an overpair and you’ve bet the 27% size, get raised—fold, okay?
Finally, boards with flush draws . Let's take KQ4ss as an example.
Don’t expect regs to be aggressive even with flush draws. Alright, so on this board—let’s say King-Queen with two Spades—don’t expect. If we have Kings: anything two-pair plus geometric, okay? Now it doesn’t matter so like on flushboards it doesn’t matter if there’s regs or not. If you get shoved on, you’re still calling. Shove-raised all-in with two-pair plus, not top two-pair this time. You can go all-in with any two-pair sometimes. You will see nut flush jaws, for example. Nut flush jaws work very well. Don’t bet; check-shove the flop, okay? Very important. Don’t bet it; just check-shove the flop. You’re good. It’s fine.
Just check-shove any sort of combo draw you have, okay?
