This villian will open shove and 3-bet shove for as much as 400bb.
my guess would be that he's doing it with something like the top 15% of hands.

I tried to reduce my raise sizes to 2.5-3x. should I start limping?

I'm not quite sure what should I be calling him with... i'm not feeling comfortable putting 200bb or so, even if I should be a slight favorite.

The high rake alone will often make this all-in fest unprofitable (it's 10 NLO8).

Thoughts?

Did any of his all-ins get called?

I think maybe it depends on how often Villain shoves as a three bet after you raise.

I know the only possibilities are not either he raises and you fold or he folds and you win the blinds, but assuming those are the possibilities, you win B if he folds and if your raise is to 3B, you lose 3B when he shoves. If he only shoves 15%, then you win B 85% while losing 2B 15%.

Your gain is 0.85*1B while your loss is -0.15*3B. Your net is thus +0.40B.

If the only possibilities are either he raises and you fold or he folds and you win the blinds, and if he's raising 15% of the time, then your cut-off for raising is
0.85*1B=0.15*XB.
Solving, X=0.85/0.15=5.67.
In other words, if those are the only possibilities, so long as you keep your raises down to 5B, you'll show a profit. But if you raise to 6B, you'll show a net loss.

I realize there's more going on than the simple picture I painted above, but maybe that simplistic equation I formulated helps you.

Keep track of how often Villain shoves and keep track of whether he shoves more often against some opponents than others. That will perhaps give you a better idea of why he's shoving or what types of hands he shoves with.

Me neither.

Buzz

thanks guys!

as I mentioned, this player will open-shove and 3-bet shove hands around the top 15%. Stuff like AA**, many A2**, good A3**, great A4**, the better high hands (like AKQJ and AKKQ).

These are the hands he'd show down, and this is the range that makes the most sense when we estimate someone's shoving 15% of his hands. he should at least pick the top 15%, right?

he does it when i'm at the table, open shoving whether it's my blind or not, 3-bet shoving whether I opened or someone else. he just doesn't seem to care much about it.

at times he'll "calm down" and take flops, but what I usually see from him is this push or fold mentality...

He's your opponent. You know him better than I do, but it seems more logical for someone to shove when he'd be happy his opponent folded than with the top 15% of his starting hands, assuming he even can identify the top 15% of Omaha-8 hands.

There are 16,432 possible uniquely different hands. 15% of 16,432 hands is a lot of hands, something like 2,500. That's a lot to keep straight.

Hmm... that does make it seem like he's shoving with particular types of hands. I can see why you might suspect he's raising with top 15% hands.

I may be unusual because having a good time playing Omaha-8 is more important to me than making money.

I personally don't enjoy being forced to react to an opponent's shoves.

I get no thrill from taking a risk.

But I know people who do enjoy risks, who get a thrill or a rush from taking a risk. Maybe this guy is one of those who enjoy taking risks.

Coping with an occasional shove from an opponent is certainly part of the no-limit Omaha-8 game, but if it happens too much, it interferes with my enjoyment of the game.

When confronted by a no-limit Omaha-8 cash game opponent who likes to take risks, I either
• (1) allow him to steal from me
• (2) take some risks myself, or
• (3) quit the table.

If you continue to play against this guy, at least get seated so that he's on your right.

Buzz

It's zoom, so I don't get to choose...

Even though I saw him shoving many many times, I didn't get to call him yet because I never got dealt a hand against him which I consider to be a good all-in hand.

I guess the good all-in hands would be the likes of AA76, AAW, AKK4, AK53, AKQ3, AKT2, AQ42, AJJ2, preferably suited...

Still feels awkward to call a 250bb all-in getting 1:1 odds with AK53...

I'd rather play a deepstacked 4-street game in position, where I can outplay my opponents.

Perhaps i'm looking at it the wrong way... if so, i'd love to be enlightened...

Instead of planning to fold when you open, just raise big or limp and don't fold.

Ah. I see.

Those wouldn't be my choice for an all-in hand if I had a big stack, but I don't want to tell you what my choice would be because I think it's better if you just stay out of the guy's way. I know that sounds cowardly, but I think you do best playing poker when you park your ego at the door.

If the guy is to be "taught a lesson," I'd let someone else teach him.

That's just me. I don't get a thrill taking a risk. I don't want to play "chicken." If I go "all-in," I prefer it to be on my terms, at my initiation, not as a call at an opponents dare.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Me too.

Buzz

Top 15%? What's that? PF in O8 it's like top40% vs bot60% IMO. With some hands performing better vs range than others.

I'd suggest doing whatever it takes to get the desired result from your competition, if this villain loves shoving over raises do so with hands you want to call with mixed in with a slight few you don't.

Everything HU, & less Multi-way IMO. Other options include: Don't play deep, don't play micro NLO8, & nit it up considerably when this villain is at the table especially when OOP.

Thanks for getting the song 'Love Machine' stuck in my head with slightly modified lyrics.

--
I miss the days of going down to micro NLO8 & shoving every playable hand for a few orbits