PLO - deck crippled, what to do?

[Guy McSucker]

Terrible situation to be in. $1-2 PLO game on Stars, I am UTG with $180. I make a loose call with ATT4, A-4 hearts.

Several others call, flop comes TT3, two hearts. What to do, what to do?

SB bets out for $6. BB folds. Naturally I just call to see who will come in behind, and naturally, nobody does.

SB has been a bit of a nut player so far, or seemed so anyway, so this bet is a surprise to me.

Turn is an offsuit Q. SB bets $10.

Do you raise a bit now to see if he likes his hand, or let him see the river, or what?

Guy.

[crockpot]

even though you have bad position, i wouldn't mind playing this hand if the game is pretty passive, or if a few players are around that might draw to lower flushes and pay you off. a flop of two hearts including the 10 absolutely clobbers you over the head. (of course, the third card on the flop could always be the case 10.)

the turn is a tough decision, actually. in hold 'em, i would put in a raise here, in case my opponent is on a draw. in omaha, he is almost surely bluffing, especially if he is a "nut player" as you say. even if he has a draw, a nut player is not likely to call a raise to get there, plus you have the ace-high flush draw. even though i believe raising is the better play if he has pocket threes (if he has queens i assume you will get his stack either way), i think the probability that he is bluffing is sufficiently high that your play is to call along and hope to get another bet out of him at the river.

if you play like you have trips and are drawing (with this hand you would surely call here), you might induce a strong player to make a pot-sized river bet to try to get you to lay them down.

[ohnonotagain]

The bitter truth is that it is hard to get paid much in these situations. Very often, the maximum you get is the size of the pot on the flop. Either the other player bets it and then shuts down, or you bet it on the river and get a call. You did better than that at least.

I usually just go for it on the flop. You're probably not going to get much anyway, and at least by starting action early you have a chance of getting paid big if the other player does by chance have the second nuts. The other guy may also get stubborn and reason that you would never raise the flop if you DID have quads.

In the present case the fact that the flop is TT3 is in your favour; you called in early position before the flop, so the chances of you having T3 in your hand are small. if you raise, you have to have TT or a hand like AKQT. A player in the SB with 33 in his hand might opt for the latter and pay you.

I don't think in this instance anyone sensible will come in behind you; what could they have? Slim chance they will call with aces or something.

The Q on the turn really kills the hand. If the other player has 33 he will now be terrified you have filled up. You were very lucky he bet again! Something funny is up. I would suspect that he was doing the old "bet as much as I'd call and fold if I'm raised thing". So I would expect him to fold if raised and I would therefore call the turn and hope he hits an overpair or something. But basically you amost certainly will not get any more from him whatever you do.

Oh no!! Not again!

[Guy McSucker]

Thanks for the responses. Like you, I fully expected SB to shut down after his flop bet and was hugely surprised by his bet on the turn.

The betting just got weirder from here on. I decided to find out if he'd just "got lucky" and hit pocket queens, or if perhaps he wanted to play the underfull a bit too hard. I made my first ever minimum raise, $10 more on the turn, and he flat called.

This convinced me he had the underfull and wanted to get to a showdown if he could. What would you be thinking at this point?

River is the jack of hearts, giving me the nut flush to go with my four tens.

He of course checks. I bet something, can't remember how much. $15 or so, looking for a call from the underfull... but he raised me! What can he possibly have to warrant flat calling my raise on the turn and then going for a check-raise on the river? Weird.

I check the board for straight flush possibilities, which aren't there, reraise all-in (about $100 more), and he calls.

Turns out he hit queens full on the turn, bet them, presumably looking to milk my trip tens, and decided to slowplay when I raised. I still don't understand not betting the river if he's going to check-raise and then call $100 more all-in.

Ah well. Lucky me.

Guy.