Home game PLO8 hand

[River2Pair]

Dealer's choice. My turn to deal. I call 1/2 PLO8. I have to explain the concept of pot limit. They go along with it. We had played limit O8 pretty regularly for the past few months.

Lineup--


Eric-- The only opponent at the table who is capable of making decent reads. Frustrated by his inability to beat me. Can lay down a big hand, and is bluffable. Will take a shot at a decent pot once in a while.

Billy-- Maniac. Likes to jack it up preflop. Hates to fold, unless he suspects he has zero outs. Bets and raises with decent draws. Calls with bad ones.

After a few rounds of this, I am dealt J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif T /images/graemlins/spade.gif 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif in the BB.
(5 handed)

UTG folds. UTG+1 calls. Billy makes it $5 to go on the button, as usual. Eric calls from the small blind. I call.

Flop is J /images/graemlins/spade.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 6 /images/graemlins/club.gif

SB checks. Hero checks. Button bets $10. SB calls $10. Hero raises to $55. Button calls. SB calls.

Turn is 7 /images/graemlins/club.gif.

SB checks. Hero bets $100. Button calls all-in for $72.50. SB goes into the tank then folds, muttering something about the nut-low draw. We both had deep money at the table.

Button shows Q /images/graemlins/diamond.gif Q /images/graemlins/club.gif 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif.

River comes K /images/graemlins/spade.gif, and MHIG.

SB says he held AA23.

Comments on all streets please, especially flop and preflop.

[Big O]

Only one comment, this is a garbage hand to play even from the BB into a raise. I can see if it a free ride. You just got a miricle flop and made your hand.

[CrisBrown]

Hi River,

A few brief comments.

First, this isn't "deep money" as you say. As I read it from your bet amounts, you had about $160 in front of you, and the opponents had less. That's only 80xBB, which is actually pretty shallow.

Second, you shouldn't have called pre-flop. You have a trash hand for PLO8 -- weak straight and weaker flush draws for high, at best an 8-low -- and you're out of position. PLO8 is a game of position and starting hand selection. The worse your position, the better a starting hand you need. If you are in the BB and faced with a pot-sized raise, you need a hand that can scoop (win both high and low) to justify a call.

In short, as Big O said ... you got lucky.

Cris

[River2Pair]

How can you tell how much money I had from my bet amounts? I was at no point all-in. I said button called my $100 bet all in for $72.50. BB and I each had over $500 in front of us at the time, I'm not sure the exact amounts at this point, because everyone was having big swings over the course of the night.


A few minutes after the hand though, the position problem occured to me. What do I do if I miss my straight on the turn?

I didn't bet more on the turn, because I knew button would be all-in if he called, and I wanted SB to be tempted to make a bad call.

So in terms of the PF call, you guys don't think that its a good idea to defend my blind against a guy who raises almost every hand, and has very poor postflop skill?

I know I got lucky to flop here, but results-wise, my call of $3 gave me a chance to net of over $200.

[Big O]

I still feel it was just a lucky call. The hand is garbage hand. And in the long run of the hand will never pay off like that. It doesnt really matter what the guy does before the flop, the hand has -EV.

[Big Dave D]

Its not insignificant that you have a solid player here with you. If you want to play junky hands in plo8b they should be in position, and with either a lot of drawing potential (high wraps) or hit hard/pass easy (pairs from 99 up). I am a very loose player and i wouldnt play that holding. Even if he raises with garbage, he is likely to have better than that and will have position for the hand. That's a big edge.

Lastly, thinking about the game in terms of defending your blinds is limit and/or tournament thinking. Sometimes the blinds make a difference as to whether I play a hand, such as calling from the SB or calling just a miniraise. But normally I'm not thinking of the hand in that context at all. And I'm fairly certain its a mostly irrelevent factor in most PLO or PLO8b games.

gl

Dave

http://internetpokerpro.blogspot.com/