PL Omaha 8: How badly did I play it?

[clovenhoof]

This isn't so much "did I play it right" as "how much do I completely not understand pot limit Omaha split?"

Paradise, 1-2 blinds, I sit down with $40. First hand, 7 players, (8 9 & 10 absent), seat 7 has the button. I post in seat 5, and get A-6d, 2h, Ks. 3 calls, 4 folds, I raise $5 more, seat 6 (good player with $104) calls, all others fold. $19 pot.

Flop comes Js, Q-4d, giving me 8+1 for the flush, 3 T's for nut straight. I check, 6 checks. Turn is 5h. I bet $6, 6 calls. Last card 9c. I check, 6 bets $5. We'll say I fold and 6 kindly turns over A-4h, 5s, 8c. (I actually just gave him $5 to see what he had, recognizing that I'm just learning the game.)

So. On the flop I have 11/45 for the nuts, another for a flush, plus backdoors. Had I made (say) a $5 bet, I suspect #6 folds and I pick up the pot right there. Following the FToP, if I know his hand, I want to just win the pot right there and not risk losing money to a lesser hand. But pot limit seems to be about going for the big kill when you can, even if it means losing the lesser pots. Is this a "win it now" hand, a "try for the big kill" hand, or is my hand too weak to even be thinking such things?

More to the point, is this an answerable question, or is this just a "uh, yeah, that's sort of what poker is all about - pay your money and learn the hard way like the rest of us" kind of thing?

Thanks,

'hoof

[thebroker]

For starters I assume you normally buy-in for $40. With a small stack like that there is no reason to raise it preflop. Your stack isn't deep enough to not get it all-in later in the hand. Just limp in play the hand with many opponants for cheap. As for your hand I agree that you may have been able to pick it up from this player with a flop bet. I won't mention the payoff call because you realized that was a mistake.