I'm new to Omaha and am trying to get a sense for what to do with a draw like the one below. $0.25/$0.50 blinds, I'm new to the table, this is my second hand, no reads on anyone.

Is this an obvious call? Is it ever worth raising on the flop? Or would we ever fold here thinking that we're almost certainly behind, often to a set, and therefore 8 outs (since I'm taking down 3 hearts) isn't enough to justify paying a pot bet to chase?

If I do call, am I folding to a blank on the turn? Or does it depend if anyone else has made the call and the pot justifies chasing to 8 outs? And if I catch two pair or a gutshot or something on the turn, now I'm hooked to call another pot-sized bet on the turn?

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.50 BB (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($31.25)
Button ($25.50)
Hero (SB) ($49.50)
BB ($38.85)
UTG ($126.80)
MP1 ($60.35)
MP2 ($112.65)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, Q, 3, J
UTG calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, MP2 calls $0.50, CO calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.25, BB checks

Flop: ($3) 6, 7, Q (6 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $0.50, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.50, MP2 raises to $4.85, 1 fold, Hero should do what??

All your heart outs are good, since none of them would pair the board (lucky you, you've got the queen).

I'd consider repotting, and firing any non-pairing turn. If you can get the money in before the turn, so much the better.

But he also holds a heart blocker so he's only got a max of 8 heart outs. I guess you can call the raise, I wouldn't like to repot as this could end up in a stack off situation and then you're looking at sets and T987 sort of hands. The best play is folding pre-flop, this hand's pretty bad to be playing, especially out of position. The next best play is to fold flop. 3rd best is to call the raise (if you call the raise and heart hits, how much more money is villain really going to put in with a set/straight draw & what if you miss turn?) and worst is to re-raise on flop.

A thread only gets fun when complete disagreement arises. So apparently this isn't an obvious situation?

As far as folding pre-flop, I was the small blind. Would you really fold for 25 cents there? That never entered my mind.

If u had a better card then the 3 or double suited then I'd complete but I think completing w/ your hand is a leak

As I said before, this NEVER crossed my mind. There were four callers already, and I'm looking at a flop for a quarter with $3 total in the pot.

Maybe I'm way off on this aspect of Omaha... *shakes head*

Would love more thoughts from others.

Definitely a fold on the flop. There's all kinds of set/straight draw combos and they might have a heart draw too reducing your outs. Preflop I'd probably call but it still might be a leak with the extra heart and dangling 3.

I would make the call 100%.

Grunch
I may have missed it, but was this Omaha Hi or Hi/Lo? I would probably throw it away pre, but I am tighterr than most in Omaha-would fold most triple suited hands. But considering the line you took, I would throw it away on the flop to the raise and find a better spot. There will be plenty of better spots than this one.

Don't try to learn Omaha at .25/.5 unless you hate money.

But it is only .25 cents is already a leak right there.

Its not a leak.. its a fire hydrant!

There is a reason why Omaha has a lot of variance.

SHOVE THE SHOVEL out of this hand. Fire the whole way like you are Tony Montana (Scarface) and the feds have just kicked in your front door.

With 4 players in the hand, you have more than enough equity. Get it in, and let the gods of Omaha decide who is worthy enough to win this pot.

lastly, folding flop is ridiculous advice . Seriously people, do you even play omaha?

Omaha is all about equity, draws, and shoving. Its not holdem, its omaha FFS

oh yeah, learning omaha 50PLO is a great way to donate money to the poker pool. If you are new to the game, definitely need to drop to 5PLO and work your way up. Omaha IS NOT hold-em. You're going to have to unlearn a lot of holdem tendencies (as shown by some of the posting in this thread)

SO. I went to Cardplayer and entered this hand into a omaha calculator.

I gave villain JT98 wrap. Would anyone care to guess the equity here?

Hero is at 66%
Villian is at 33%

In the case of villain flopping a set, equity is reversed

Hero is at 32%
Villain is at 67%

Similarly, many villains would overvalue a flush Draw + straight draw combo here.

Add everything up, hero has more than enough equity to feel good about getting it all in here on the flop. AINEC

Couple of points I'd add:

* Not all of your heart outs are good. This is Omaha.
The 4,5,8,9,T could give someone a straight flush.

* If this was a 3-bet pot I'd be happier sticking it in and riding the variance train, but in this limped pot, you're pretty deep on the flop.

* If you're sticking it in with this draw you need some kind of fold equity and once MP2 raises in that spot you probably don't have much if any.

* I don't mind the limp pre, but ONLY if you can get away from hands you need to get away from.

Too many monsters under the bed here.

Fact is, there are a lot of hands that Hero dominates here. Take a hand like

KT98

doesn't that hand look great on this flop? Wouldn't you 3bet the hell out of this flop if you had this hand?

ANd guess what, OP beats that hand equity wise 56/44!!!

This is the problem with omaha and why there is a lot of variance. I can't even concieve of folding this hand on the flop. You should never feel bad shoving with nut flush draw in Omaha. The range of hands that you beat or are ahead of is bigger than you think.

Yeah, you're right.

If we put villain on any set OR any 98 with two hearts, Hero's a 57% favourite. (If anyone wants to play around with that range, here's the link.)

Depends on the table and the way the game is going really as to whether I call or raise. Call here keeps people involved with the pot and may even improve profitability if you hit your flush. Raise in this spot might increase your chances of winning the hand should you miss the flush. All depends how I felt about the table and the other players as to my play here.

I was going to mention this point but as it's already been mentioned i'll just re-iterate. Unless you've got the money it's a really bad idea trying to learn the game at these stakes.

So far we've seen everything from fold preflop to fold on flop to call on flop to raise/shove if possible on flop. Wild.

I am going to rethink how widely I complete the small blind based on the replies here. I was basically completing any playable hand (not a three of a kind, not four of the same suit, not Q722 rainbow, but anything like A Q J 3 with one flush draw was MORE than enough for me).

I appreciate the people warning me to play lower stakes. I am up a few hundred on this little Omaha experiment, so I guess I feel like I'm playing with house money. I'm willing to take this shot.

Position is very important in PLO, you should be aiming to play tighter out of position and you can open your range up a little in position. But really it's generally a bad idea to play a bad hand in position just because you have position. The best play for this hand is folding pre-flop. You should try the SSPLO forum as those guys regularly play PLO and apart from 1 or 2 contributors in here, I suspect not many play PLO on a regular basis, let alone PLO50 (myself included in not playing PLO50.)

The OP didn't fold pre-flop because he got a very cheap hand with the possibility of holding the nuts and got a very good flop. He should now take advantage of the situation. He is holding top pair with the nut flush draw, and he has the possibility of dictating the tempo of the rest of the hand...

I've worked my way up from 2PLO to 25PLO, take regular shots at 50PLO and plan to move up to 50PLO next month.

And I can say unequivocally that folding preflop is about the worst advice i've ever heard.

Seriously. AQ3J is a decent hand and easily is worth calling. In fact, raising OOP with this hand would not be terrible.

Omaha is not hold em and most of the advice in this thread feels like it is coming from hold-em players pretending that they play PLO.

So there is no point discussing this further. Post this hand in SSPLO and see what advice you get.

Will do so right now.