PL Omaha H/L Hand

In a PL game last night a decent player played the following hand. I wonder how others would play it? The game is $2 ante and one $5 blind on the button. Hero has all covered at the table, which has several short stacks (although when I asked the player after he didn't consider that as important for this hand). Game is loose and quite aggressive right now.


UTG hero calls with A-4-5-7 no suits. 2 call when the pot is raised to the max. of $50. 2 cold call, hero calls and the raise drops one so they take the flop 5 handed. 3 players are almost all in but I'd like to disregard that for this discussion as hero would have played it the same had he been up against big stacks.


Flop is 2s-3-Js. Hero bets $280 into the field. One player calls all-in, next player to act raises $200 more all in and last 2 call all-in. Hero calls (and says he would have re-raised anyone all-in had he the chance).


My Thoughts- I don't like the $5 call pre-flop with this hand UTG (from around back I may make it) and I hate the call of the raise. Without a suited ace, I usually won't see the flop unless I have a strong low.


On the flop I see the spades draw as being a serious problem. While I agree that you have a good chance of getting half the pot, you have little chance of getting it all. The aces are probably spoken for, and any spade ruins your high draw. Anyone with the A-4 spades has you in deep trouble.


I would have probably checked this flop into 4 opponents and guaged the action when it came back to me. If it was heads-up against a big bet, I may just dump it there. Am I playing too conservatively?


Thanks, TJ

Hands were turned over and hero was in as good as shape as he could be. No one had the same low draw, no one had a set, no one had an open str8 draw and 5 spades were spoken for. Pre-flop/flop raiser had As-3-7s-7.


Turn brought a K, river the 5h for the scoop. I think hero got lucky a) to be up against garbage and b) to hit what was a very limited out (I think he had 3 outs for the scoop when the hands were turned up).

I agree. This hand seems like utter garbage to me.

It's not clear to me where Hero is sitting, so I can't comment on his pre-flop calls, but I do think they might be cause for concern. I will say that in PL and NL O8 I play a lot of eyebrow-raising hands on the button. An A and 2 other wheel cards is hard to put down in the right situation.


On the flop I love it. Hero's only problem is that his opponents are running out of money. With so many callers, they must have each other's outs. The 2,3 on the flop must have ruined a lot of low draws. If he catches a 6 or a card in the wheel house, he takes it all.