[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Omaha Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. View Hand #28408011

Hero (BTN): $5.10 (255 bb)
SB: $0.32 (16 bb)
BB: $6.74 (337 bb)
UTG: $10.77 (538.5 bb) - PLO2 grinder, low fold to cbet, not many hands
MP: $1.83 (91.5 bb)
CO: $1.74 (87 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with A 9 A Q
UTG raises to $0.06, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.21, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.45) 7 5 4 (2 players)
UTG bets $0.06

Happens so often in donkland, (paired boards, flush boards etc) so far I have either gone crazy and donated a buy in, or just folded anticipating more bets. I know we have Ah and could be 3betting more than just AA...but it's PLO2 and no point outlevelling myself.

What do good players do in these spots and what are they looking for? Do we just give up AAxx on bad boards? when villains keep throwing out small bets (putting us on AA and hoping we pay off)?

Trivial call, anything else is spew.

Just call when you have missed until you have seen him play like this too often and then start raising his small donk bets.

I'm folding

ugly flop, and my hand just can't improve
calling down is like calling down with A high in holdem

Are you aware he's getting over 8 to 1?

You mean something you should do a ****load of the time?

And yeah call flop op

It's actually quite interesting you know, in taking villains line regularly on low boards on 3 bet pots because of the double barrel, we have to start calling with most of our range. It's a cheap way of getting some position back. Ultimately we win in the long run, but there is space near the start to totally throw someone off. Villain can also elect to not do this on safer boards for the aggro rep range.

It seems that my usual take ont his is done more so through check raising, but there is also b/3b options (or we 2nd barrel). Going in between these two pseudo randomly, but which is best to start on? Check raising or donking your 'thoust shall fold your high ranked hand' range. Depends on depth but not really because you can just do a 'baby board bet'

.... Just treat it as a check

that means you raise/bet or check behind if he checked? The call is the equivalent of the check behind then. Just make it your c bet amount in the raise then? As I assume we cbet here as we are opening lower cards

depends on how tight your 3b range is

As a 3bettor this board shoud not hit us often at all, so we should have a low 3bet frequency on it.
Thus as a 3bet caller oop I have a pretty wide donking range on this board and all other connected low boards, and I think you should too.

yes but of 1/8 pot haha? Id make a small raise/fold, its super exploitable but hes prob not trying to get super cagey with you hes just a fish being a fish

Except it's not actually inherently fishy (if there is some kind of selection going on)

well at 2plo it is and he describes him as a grinder which means hes prob not thinking on close to that level

Obviously we are not folding for 1/8 pot... I mean were certainly atleast calling. But if he had actually led for a legit sizing then this would be an easy fold imo. Even given most peoples 3betting range being AAxx here a huge amount of the time, we don't have to defend with our worst AAxx hands and this is definitely one of them

I admit having the Ah is not irrelevant but it is not important at all in PLO5 imo

I mean calling the donk for ~8/1 I'm obv not worried about and in a vacuum I'm sure it's fine, it's more about the plan for the rest of the hand against a weak opponent who "knows" you have aces...if he pots the turn there is literally no card in the deck I can call, and I can't value anything bar a miracle runout. Pretty much just hoping they lose interest with air and check it down?

Reads and history etc would obv help, but this comes up a lot at nanostakes so it's not a problem with this specific hand more just how to defend against these plays. Just seems so weird how such a weak fishy play can be so effective.

As an example, after I flatted the flop:

Turn: ($0.57) 6 (2 players)
UTG bets $0.12, Hero folds

Meh

you can combat small bets with small raises. or just call down, you dont have to be right that often