Disclaimer: I suck at this game. I have no feel at all for pre and I barrel too much into quads post . Sometimes I have to play it though (usually as a mix) and I think I'm actually pretty close to realizing a fairly decent edge late in hands against what are typically very capped ranges and super fit or fold betting/stack off thresholds. Plus it's kinda fun just to say, "pot," over and over...

Anyways, I'm on the button with AAK9. Tilts Magee (just lost a 12k+ pot, broke cards, etc) Mississippi straddles to 100 in the co. He is in go mode/this is his first big straddle. He's rich but plays bi-polar/super nitty when things are going fine, super wide open when they are not. The hand he just lost he got it all in with bottom pair + nfd in a spot where it didn't seem too chill (he was surprisingly only up against top and bottom fwtw), so it seems the wine he is drinking might be kicking in or whatever/he is headed towards the wide open pole fast. He has ~5k and I cover.

1. Is it best to flat or raise here first to act? Flatting certainly wouldn't set off any alarm bells given my image, etc. And there are a few people in the game who might raise good hands oop even with the big straddle on. But the most predictable scenario imo is a few/bunch of people limp the 100 and villain either breaks the table with his knuckles or with a stack of white.

(more questions to come once this one is addressed...)

Raise

if this is fullring it seems like an easy call, figures to be multiple limpers coming along and if you're not experienced in this game then either a) its a limped pot pre and you can play snug on flops or b) a great limpraise opportunity presents itself. fewer scenarios where you light money on fire due to inexperience.

its not like raising is bad either, but theres probably gonna be more spots postflop that you're liable to screw up by raising pre (figuring that its either hu or 3handed with hero OOP a majority of the time)

I think that if you have enough rundowns/KKxx/double pair hands in your raising range, ie when you raise people don't automatically put you on Aces then a raise is better than a call. If you haven't raised before at all or you are very tight preflop (doubt it) then calling is better.

hero has bu so it's actually a decent spot to raise, comes down to how often you think he exercises his option, if it's even 25% I'd limp cause that basically prints a 2K bill

also, how much you can open for?

Do you think you can get it HU or 3-way by raising pre? Or is this the type of table where a single raise only serves to bloat the pot and you end up taking the flop 5 ways for $500 each? If the former, raise; if the latter, call.

My image is ****. Despite not knowing how to play this game really, my vpip is highest at the table (trying to learn, gotta get reps lol). And a raise or a limp by me can be pretty much anything in perception (we are playing half plo/half nl and I'm straddling almost every hand in NL/turning over some real garbage). I just don't know if people wanna call 300 or whatever oop with anything with 2 idiots in the co and button. And I don't see a 3bet coming from less than AA (unless co spazzes).

Game had just filled up, so yeah fr.

Depends how aggro the game plays pre. The more aggro the more attractive calling the 100 becomes.

Usually you can open 4x the bb, so up to 400 I suppose.

I think it's gonna be hu a lot if I raise. And in nl I'm the one player villain doesn't like playing pots with. Prob in plo he's a lot more happy to tho lol.

It was the first 100 straddle, so I wasn't sure. Kinda felt like he would squeeze often though if enough people limped.

Seems like a pretty easy pot pf and go from there
Not sure where the ancient plo wisdom of limping pre came from. Esp w the extra 100 in you can make the price pre much worse for rest
Of the table
Pot it pre and play post flop

I don't usually like to raise with AA hands first in out of position in PLO, but in this case you are in position post flop with the straddle in the cut off.

I'd raise full pot hoping to get heads up with the tilting straddle, and if there are calls between you and the straddle, the straddle may re-raise allowing you to get a lot of the money, if not all, in preflop with the best of it .

If somebody else re-raises before it gets to the straddle they are marked with the other aces most likely but you should not be much if any behind their hand. And if they happen to re-raise with a premium DS rundown hand you are a solid favorite against their hand

Of course if the straddle is really off the rails he may call your raise and any subsequent re-raise or put in his own re-raise with any four. But even if he happens to pick up a reasonable hand, and you are up against the other Aces in a third hand you are not in bad shape equity wise.

In short, this seems like a good time to have fun and say "pot".

Of course I've not played a lot of PLO in recent years so this may be totally bad advice

Would like to know more about the 3 guys to your left, namely stack sizes & play style preflop. The more aggressive & short they are, the more I like a limp/raise as we set up a powerful squeeze when one of them opens.

As long as stacks aren't mega deep with anyone, I'm definitely good with limping. We don't really have any "big play" or cooler type of floppability outside of set over set, so we should focus on getting a good portion of stacks in with CO pre, or seeing the flop for the minimum in position multiway

I've never played in a Mississippi straddle game, but the way to calculate pot is to put in your call (100) and then match what's in the pot (its typical to count sb as 10) so I would assume put would be 320, which I would limp in shallower games (5k) and raise in deeper games. If they were dry aces then I'm limping no matter what. Limp raising AA in deep games is generally worse in Plo then He.

I was pretty tired and had a splitting headache, but I think the lineup looked like this: to my left, tight solid with like 6k, then asian girl with good body who was in culture shock being in an la casino and was playing fairly aggro/confused and had like 2k, nit pro who is in the process of opening his game up with like 3k, limon playing good with like 6k maybe, some dude who was loose/bad and about to triple up his 1k stack and quit in a few hands, some drunk spewy reg who was getting pelted by the deck with like 12k+, and then some v loose dude who recently shipped a tourney with like 5k, then tilts Magee and me.

Np man that's good enough. In general, this over straddle, especially being the first one, is probably going to make the players, esp the shorter stacked/lesser experienced ones, play tighter and more passive pre. As such, raising and isolating T. Magee seems a lot more ideal, not to detract from the other reasons I gave for limping in my post above (namely disguising your hand IP multiway). And if T. Magee is steaming hard enough to 3b you you can get over half his stack in preflop. I don't really dislike either option pre though tbh.

This is like a fist pump flat for me. Very confused at all the "iso'ing" talk, does anyone here play FR PLO?

I mean, if the players behind are "solid" and good, tight, nitty, with only one spot other than Magee, they're not going to play a ridic wide range OOP, right? Especially in such a bloated pot. That's in my idealistic fairy land though. The reality is, as you imply, live FR PLO is LOOOOOOSEE. And the value of initiative is generally overrated too. I'm going to jump the fence back to my original post haha

flat for me. if a couple people call and he pots it with a lot of hands (which he will) then you repot youll have like 3k behind in a 4k+ pot. its all going in on almost any flop cuz tilt and its basically printing money. If it just gets limped around you still have the hand and position to win a monster pot so no big loss.

I don't think a raise by DGAF would automatically signal AA to most of his regular opponents, but I'm persuaded it may be better to limp and hope someone else raises (most likely the straddler if anyone). The only way that would not be true is if the straddler (or other player) would be likely to 3 bet the initial raise by DGAF.

this isnt fair but i know the straddler. if dgaf raises he reraises VERY rarely its not really his tilt game.

really my advice is sorta w/e in general because ive played so many hours with the villain so this is really just for playing with him.

strange off topic observation. i dont play well at all against people i dont know, im sorta "pot controlly" and just want to see showdowns to develop a gameplan. but against people i have a ton of hours with i win at a ridiculous clip. i think its the opposite of most winning poker players.

so what happened next?

Sounds like a fun game. Is this the Bike?