Your Intuition is Costing You Money: Luuk Botter on The Art of the Triple Barrel

In Pot Limit Omaha, your intuition is often your worst enemy.

The human brain is wired to preserve equity. When we hold a hand with “showdown value”, like weak Aces or a bottom two-pair on a scary board, our natural instinct is to check back, realise that equity, and pray we are good.

According to Luuk Botter, coach at PLO Mastermind, this instinct is exactly why many intermediate players struggle to crush red line (non-showdown) winnings.

In his latest strategy breakdown for the PLO training site, Botter dissects a common Triple Barrel spot where the difference between a “standard check” and a “GTO blast” is the difference between breaking even and printing EV.

Here is a deep dive into the art of the Triple Barrel, and why you should be turning your “made hands” into bluffs.

The Scenario: The Polarized River

Let’s set the stage. You are in the Cutoff (CO) against the Big Blind (BB) in a single-raised pot.

• The Flop: Q-J-T (Rainbow). You c-bet.
• The Turn: 6. You double barrel. The BB calls.
• The River: 2 (Blank).

The BB checks to you. It is a massive spot. The board is heavy on straights (AK, K9, 98), and sets (QQ, JJ, TT).

As Luuk Botter explains, your range here is extremely polarized.

1. The Nuts: You have a lot of straights (AK, K9).
2. The Air: You have a lot of missed draws or one-pair hands that barreled the turn.

Because your value range is so strong (the nuts), your bet sizing needs to reflect that. If you bet, you should bet Pot. This extracts maximum value when you have it, and puts the maximum pressure on your opponent’s bluff catchers when you don’t.

But here is the problem: If you only bet your straights, a thinking opponent will simply fold everything but the nuts. To get paid, you need bluffs. And this is where intuition fails us.

The Blocker Paradox: Why You Want “Bad” Cards

To build a balanced bluffing range, you can’t just bet your random air. You need to select hands that mathematically increase the probability of your opponent folding.

What is the opponent folding? If you fire a third pot-sized barrel on this river, the BB has to fold very strong hands. Specifically, they are likely folding Top Set (QQ) and Middle Set (JJ), unless they hold specific blockers to the straight.

This leads to the Blocker Paradox.

The Intuitive Thought (Wrong)

“I have Q-Q-x-x. I have the top blocker! This is a great card to have.”

The Solver Reality (Right)

If you hold a Queen or a Jack in your hand, you are blocking the hands you want your opponent to have. You want them to hold Q-Q or J-J so they can fold them to your bet. If you hold the Queen, it is less likely they have a set, and more likely they have a weird straight catcher that might look you up.

Instead, the best bluffing candidates are hands like Dry Aces (AAxx) or Dry Kings (KKxx) that do not contain a Q, J, or T. By holding these cards, you unblock the sets, leaving your opponent with a range that is heavy on “foldable strong hands.”

The GTO Solver PLO Trainer from PLO Mastermind helps you find these profitable bluffs. Check it out now:

The “Invisible” Bluff: Turning 2-Pair into 0-Equity

This is where Botter’s analysis moves from “standard strategy” to “crusher territory.”

We have established that AA and KK are good bluffs because of blockers. But what about hands that actually have showdown value?

Consider a hand like: A-A-T-2 or K-K-T-6.

On a board of Q-J-T-6-2, you have technically made Two Pair.

• Intuition says: “I have two pair. I might win at showdown if he has a missed draw. I check.”
• Botter says: “Bet Pot.”

Why? Look at the reality of your showdown value.

• Do you beat a Straight? No.
• Do you beat a Set? No.
• Do you beat Q-J or Q-T? No.

Your “Two Pair” is effectively dead water. It beats nothing but a total bluff, and since the opponent checked the river, they rarely have a total air bluff that you need to catch.

However, your hand has powerful properties for a Bluff:

1. The T Blocker: You block the straight (K-T, T-9, A-T).
2. The Unblocker: You do not block Q or J, meaning the opponent can still have Top Set/Middle Set to fold.

By turning your “made hand” into a bluff, you transform a hand with near-zero EV (checking and losing) into a hand with positive EV (betting and folding out a Set).

“It definitely can feel weird to turn a ‘made hand’ into a bluff,” Botter admits. “But when you realize your showdown value is basically gone, it becomes a powerful hand to bet.”

🛠 Tool of the Trade: Train Your Intuition

Let’s be honest: Finding the A-A-T-2 bluff in a blog post is easy. Finding it 4 hours into a multi-table session when you are stuck two buy-ins is incredibly difficult.

This is where the difference between a “feeling player” and a “studied player” becomes obvious. The human brain will always default to the safe check-back. To see these spots, you need to train your brain to recognize patterns that are invisible to the naked eye.

This is exactly what the PLO Mastermind PLO Trainer is designed for. It doesn’t just show you the answer; it allows you to drill these river nodes until betting AA on a straight board feels as natural as betting the nuts.

Furthermore, poker isn’t played in a vacuum. While GTO provides the baseline, profit comes from deviation. PLO Mastermind recently released a massive update to the PLO Trainer featuring Exploitative Simulations. These new sims allow you to see how these river bluffing frequencies shift when your opponent is a “Nit” (who overfolds) or a “Station” (who never folds a set).

👉 Read about the new Exploitative Sims Update here

🧠 The Mental Game: The “A-Game” Requirement

Botter concludes his analysis with a crucial point on mental focus. Triple barreling with marginal holdings requires “A-Game” focus.

If you are autopiloting, you will miss the blocker interaction. You will see “Aces,” see “Scary Board,” and check. You will lose the pot, and you won’t even realize you made a mistake.

“If you’re autopiloting, you’ll just check these back, take your loss, and move on. But when you’re locked in… you see the situation for what it really is.”

Being sharp enough to pull the trigger on these bluffs does two things:

1. It salvages EV from pots you were destined to lose.
2. It balances your range, ensuring that when you do have the A-K nut straight, your opponent looks you up with Q-Q because “this guy is capable of bluffing.”

📉 It All Starts Preflop

There is one catch to this strategy.

You cannot profitably triple barrel the river if you arrive there with a garbage range. If you are playing too many hands preflop, your range will be full of wek hands that block nothing and beat nothing.

To reach these profitable high-level river nodes, your preflop baseline must be solid.

If you are unsure whether you are opening specific combos from MP, or if you are bleeding money by defending too wide in the Big Blind, you need to fix the leak at the source.

PLO Mastermind offers a PLO Preflop Pass that gives you free access to their GTO preflop charts. It is the prerequisite for playing deep-stack, high-level river poker.

Summary: How to Triple Barrel Like Luuk Botter

1. Identify the Polarization: On runouts like Q-J-T-6-2, you either have the nuts or air. Bet Pot.
2. Unblock the Folds: Don’t bluff with cards your opponent should have. Fold Qx/Jx. Bluff AAx/KKx.
3. Turn Pairs into Bluffs: If your Two Pair beats nothing but air, it’s a bluffing candidate—especially if it blocks the straight.
4. Train the Spot: Use PLO Trainer to rewire your brain to see these counter-intuitive plays.

Stay focused, and see you on the river.

Stop guessing and start printing.

Lebi (Head of Content)

With over 12 years of Omaha Poker experience, Lebi is the Head of Content at PLO365. A dedicated PLO specialist, he bridges the gap between complex GTO theory and practical street poker. He leads our review team, stress-testing PLO solvers, HUDs, and training courses to ensure they meet the demands of the modern grinder. When he isn’t auditing poker room RNGs or writing strategy guides, you can find him grinding mid-stakes PLO cash games and Turbo MTTs.