PLO: Sweating the short stack

Very loose dealer's choice, PLO 2&5. UTG Bracelet wearer, who professes to hate omaha, makes it $30, the max raise. Blufferman calls, fold, call, call, fold, fold, call, BB calls $25 and raises $30 all in. $210 in the pot and it's $30 to Bracelet, the original raiser.


Bracelet looks distressed and proceeds to count down Blufferman. Not sure he has it right, he asks the house man for a count. Blufferman has $186. I feel that Braclet is staging a performance and that some king of move is in the offing. Bracelet thinks and thinks and thinks, then folds! Blufferman calls $30 and Bracelet collapses. He obviously thought that Blufferman would go all in for an add. $150, and didn't want to commit. Personally, I didn't think that Blufferman would go all in. What kind of bluff would that be? If Bracelet was afraid of a trap, it wasn't an intentional trap.


What could Bracelet have had? A dry AAxx?


I' ve used short stacks to trap, e.g. betting $20 at a short stack's $42, so that if he goes all in it comes back to me as a legal raise. But I've never used it as a threat in omaha. I've always thought of a short stack's dead money as honey rather than vinegar.


One reason I find this hand remakable is Mr. Peterson's posts about pot limit draw brought back memories of old draw moves. Using a short stack as an attraction, a trap or a threat was much more a part of the draw 'culture,' but this is the first time I've seen a laydown like that in Omaha.

Just some random thoughts and questions;

What where the other stack sizes? And did UTG have everyone covered - there are more players to act.


The BB was already in for 60. There was the potential for three different pots if the UTG player reraise enough to put Blufferman to the point of commit or fold (depending on the stack size of the other players of course).


He obviously did not like his hand enough. But why the laydown. He raised UTG so he must have something that he felt could take on a number of players if people called.


Maybe he had KKbig,big suited? I have a feeling the UTG player ended up "outthinking himself" when it came back to him after the BB raise. The long pause suggests this. I have noticed this to occurr in pot-limit omaha a number of times.


In one large hand a few months ago in an Omaha-hi game I was in, a player thought and thought and ended up calling a river bet that everyone else on the table was 95% sure was the nut flush. He pondered too long and ended up making a foolish $1,200 bet. After the hand we all kidded him about how he convinced himself that he had the best hand and that the player was bluffing. He admitted as much after he calmed down and reflected on the hand. I think this happens in Omaha more than in hold'em for obvious reasons.


-Zeno

What where the other stack sizes? And did UTG have everyone covered - there are more players to act.


UTG was inthe game 500 and had 1200 in front of him. He had been getting beat up for a couple of hours, then had recently won (fluked) a couple of nice pots. He was within 100 of having everyone else covered.


Maybe he had KKbig,big suited?


I think he might have moved in with a hand that good. It occured to me that he was afraid of being put all in before the flop. The real maniac was BB and he was already out of the picture. There was only one of the players left who had more aggression than sense, but I can't see him making such a move in this situation.


I have a feeling the UTG player ended up "outthinking himself"


when it came back to him after the BB raise.


A very good explanation. He might have thought his first raise would have given him a degree of control on the flop, and saw it slipping away if the pot got too big.


I also agree that this happens more often in PLO.

> Bracelet thinks and thinks and thinks, then folds! Blufferman calls $30 and Bracelet collapses.

> He obviously thought that Blufferman would go all in for an add. $150, and didn't want to commit.


If he already has commited $30 by raising _himself_ from early position he should have a real hand? Even with the threat of Blufferman coming over the top he must be ready put in 30 more in what is now a good sized multiway pot? He could not be stealing from that position. So he must have changed his mind with regards to the strength of his hand and done an early release of his hand.


> What could Bracelet have had? A dry AAxx?


Possibly: and with all the callers thinking that his Aces are dead. Another guess would be hands like

QQxx or JJxx with at least 1 dangler or a broken run like 5689.


So he needs to flop his high card or get that

magic 7x and that was enough to put him off the pot ...


OmaHal