New post-er to this forum, and new to the game, please correct my missteps in form.

US player playing CARBON lowest stakes. I’m going to start on 4th because my question is pretty straightforward I think.

POT = .55
Villian ($5.93) xx 4s5h
HERO ($13.65) Ac8h 2h8c
Player 1 ($1.39) xx AhQs
Player 2 ($12.29) xx JdKs

Action on 4th:
villain bets .36, HERO raises to .72, two folds
villain raises to 2.71, HERO???

Obv he’s willing to play for stacks, and I’m behind against his likely range.
My question is, just about where am I against his range right now?

His best hand (likely) is OESD, 4 to a low, maybe backdoor flush draw. I have an overpair with a backdoor low.

I can get it in, I see no reason to call, but I probably have little FE, where am I? 40/60?

obv fold? or close?

(duh - propoker tools has a stud8 simulator, I'll start there, but welcome comments)

Yep, use propokertools.

So first question is, what is his range when he leads? He can't make you play for stacks if you don't let him.

2nd is, if he has what you think he has, how often does he complete it on 5th vs bricking? If he bricks, can you be happy getting it in? This is the crucial part here, since if your read is right you can fold 5th when he hits. So the question is, what if he misses? You can pretty much figure out your EV for the hand from there.

Do i miss something or is 4th a fold to a single bet without further info? We draw to both a very mediocre high and low hand.

I thought this was stud high for some reason, while reading this, but it doesn't change the questions you need to ask.

Here's where I had his range:

4 low cards definitely, no question, the top of that range would be OESD with 3 flush...which is actually what he had.

here's what propokertools says (actual hands):

ProPokerTools Stud Hi/Lo Simulation

600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Pot equity	Scoops	Wins Hi	Ties Hi	Wins Lo	Ties Lo
Ac, 8h, 2h, 8c	51.59%	232,495	309,509	142	120,468	198
4s, 5h, 3s, 6s	48.41%	213,389	290,349	142	124,511	198

so I was thinking I was behind, when actually I'm marginally ahead.

3rd was a 4 way limped pot. Entering 4th and facing villians open I figured a raise would push out the other two, which it did.

Villians reraise was unexpected. I do have an overpair and I would have expected villian to respect that and just call. Thats why I said I thought he was willing to play for stacks, the only thing that stopped him at that point was being limited to pot size.

My plan was: get to heads up, and push him off his hand on 5th if he caught a brick, when he would have enough stack left (had he just called on 4th) to not be pot-committed.

But with his raise, can I really push him off with a brick on 5th when he has so little behind? My thought was I have a better chance pushing him off here, given that if he catches 5th, his low is made and he may have a straight as well, so Im buried.

I don't think he's ever folding so I see no reason to get it in. I'd call and fold any sufficiently lopsided 5th.

You're doing it wrong. I think propokertools is interpreting "Ac, 8h, 2h, 8c" as "any hand containing Ac or any hand containing 8h or...". Ac8h2h8c vs. 3s6s|4s5h is 61.5% for him.

You're doing it wrong. I think propokertools is interpreting "Ac, 8h, 2h, 8c" as "any hand containing Ac or any hand containing 8h or...". Ac8h2h8c vs. 3s6s|4s5h is 61.5% for him.

WOW. Well that certainly makes more sense, and quite a difference...Thank you. I ran a few O8 hands last night as well that also left me scratching my head.

As I look thru ProPokerTools I keep seeing references to hand rankings. Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of starting hand rankings for Stud8 or (O8), a list much like the Sklansky list for NLHE? I can't seem to find it.

in stud8, the strenght of you hand depends too much on other open door cards to create a precise startinghand chart, i think.

Makes sense

You're right that dead/live cards make a big difference but that doesn't really make it difficult to rank the hands. You simply rank them in order with no/random dead cards and then adjust from there. The starting point isn't any more difficult to figure out than any other poker game though.