3 handed, part of a mix, 22/44 with a 5.50 ante.

Predraw: I raise btn 8542A, sb and bb call
1st draw: 3/3/0
Flop: blinds check, I bet, sb calls, bb folds
2nd draw: 0/0
Turn: sb bets, I call
3rd draw: 0/?

So I used to auto-discard any 8 on the 1st draw but I've seen reasonable players keeping them in this high ante format so I wasn't sure here. My plan when opening pre was to discard it if there were a 3bet or against anyone drawing 2 or less but keep it against 1 d3. I wasn't sure against 2 d3's, or the other scenarios either really.

When the sb just calls and pats, what's their range? I was thinking mostly 8s (of which I'm almost always ahead) but occasionally a bad 7. If sb had raised and pat, I have an easy break. I don't think it's correct for sb to ever flat call with any pat hand here?

So then when sb leads, that saves me from having to decide whether or not to bet (I think I would've?) but is even more strange. Any merit in raising here to try to get a 7 to break and/or for value? And then what to draw when we call?

Result:

Patting this is such a waste of a premium.

I'm pretty sure drawing is best - I don't think it's particularly close.

If I had 96532 in a 2-7 game with no antes, I would pat here, but it would be close-ish. Here you've got 50% more outs to improve than in that scenario, your opponents are more likely to get there too (no straights), they're more likely to stick around because of the antes, and actually your hand is a bit weaker than 96532 in 2-7.

By my calculations you're 59% to improve over three draws (any improvement is a vast improvement), and 68% to at least end up with the same hand.

On the turn I honestly don't know. His line is weird. Don't think I'd raise. Seems close between patting and breaking.

Against two draw 3s, pat might actually be a little better, but not by too much.

I might raise sb to see what happens, its a pretty sketchy line.

I suspect those players didn't have a wheel draw with their 8s. If they did, maybe they're not all that reasonable? Or at least they have a leak in this instance.

Given the strange line by SB, I probably stay pat and just call them down. Too much FPS (fancy play syndrome) seems to happen in these games. But that would depend a lot upon what I know about this specific villain.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)