Strategy Snapshot: Second Nuts, but Second Best

Heads-up, deep stacked and with the second nuts, Cole South thinks he's in for a huge pot in this edition of strategy snapshot. Except Steve Sung's top set gets in the way.

(Hand history and stats from PL.com MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)

Players: Cole South vs. SteveSung

Game: $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha, heads-up, Full Tilt Poker

Stack Sizes: SteveSung $112,196.50; Cole South $85,399

The Setup

The hand begins with Steve Sung raising 3x the big blind to $1,200 from the button/small blind. Cole South in the big blind makes the call.

The flop comes 3 2 7. South checks, Sung fires a continuation bet of $2,000, South then check-raises to $8,000 and Sung puts in a third raise to $24,000.

South, not one to back down, re-re-reraises to $74,000. Sung then shoves all-in and South calls off his remaining $9,799. Sung turns up 7 6 7 T and his top set is ahead of South's 3 A 3 4.

The Breakdown

Heads-up in Omaha is similar to heads-up in Hold'em: position is a huge advantage. Sung makes a raise with his 7 6 7 T because he is on the button. South, with 3 A 3 4, decides to smooth-call rather than reraise.

The flop comes 3 2 7. This flop looks to be excellent for South. He has flopped second set on one of the driest boards imaginable, and to go with that already huge hand he also has a gut-shot straight draw to the bike. He makes the smart decision to check with the intention of raising.

Unfortunately for him, Steve Sung has made the unlikely higher set. He continuation bets $2,000 and South follows through with his check-raise. This check-raise is 100% for value. South believes his hand is good and would like to make the maximum from it.

Here's where the hand gets a little tricky. Each player obviously believes his hand is stronger than his opponent's. Each player is also wary of a hand like 4 6 5 A, which has a robust draw. Neither player would want a hand similar to that see a cheap turn card.

This is why we have both players pushing their near nuts so hard on such a dry board. What seems like a drawless board in Hold'em is a potential disaster waiting to happen in Omaha.

So both players raise and reraise all-in here. South was very unlucky to hit second set on a board where second set is actually the second nuts. This is rare enough in Hold'em; it's extra rare in Omaha.

South cannot fold this hand in one million years and unfortunately is destined to go broke with it. Sung, on the winning end of this sick cooler, finds himself $170,797.50 richer.

To see more hand histories between Sung and South, or more of the Top 100 biggest pots online over the last day, week, month and year, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.

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• Strategy Snapshot: (Urin) Clear and Present Danger