5/5 PLO, 9-handed, $1,000 max. Table is mostly terrible. Tons of limp/calling pre with terrible hands. Not a complicated hand.

Villain, BB, ~$500: MABW. Regular in the room. I’ve played with her before, and I come to this casino only a of couple times a year. Everyone knows her. Buys in for $300, usually loses it and keeps buying back in. She has to be on her third or fourth buy-in since I sat down. She will bet weak hands, gii if she thinks she’s ahead, chase, etc.

Hero, SB, $2,000: MAWW. Left the table around 11 p.m. up $2,500 (it’s about 3 a.m.) to get dinner and go home, but decided to stay and made my way back to this table, and many of the players are still here, but she’s new. (I was allowed to buy back in.) I’m fairly tight, not too aggressive w/o a good hand. Have called a few people down light and won/lost a few. Not sure image matters too much here, though, vs this player.

Three limpers to me with JT98ds, I pot to $35. Villain and two limpers call.

Flop ($134): Qc5s3d

Limpers: MP is passive calling station w/ ~$1,000; button covers and is one of the better players at the table, but still not great. Won’t bluff me if I bet here, but will call with any decent piece and definitely raise with QQ, although he probably would have raised that pre. He has tightened up a bit since he got his big stack.

I decide to check. Would you bet here? I couldn’t really see the point, but maybe that was a mistake? Checks around.

Turn ($134): Qc5s3d 8c

I check again because I do not have clubs and don’t want to face a check/raise. Should this be a bet? V bets $85, limpers fold, I call. Should I just fold? Should I raise? She could have similar to me or on the smaller side, two pair, clubs, maybe even a naked Q or naked 8.

River ($304): Qc5s3d8c 8d

I check and she bets $150. I think she’d bet more with a FH, but not positive. I think she has an 8. Hero? Is this a simple check/call? Should I have bet/fold, bet/call?

OTF do you have one backdoor flush draw or two? I might bet with both backdoor flush draws as there would be a ton of good turns for us.

Turn is an ok card but cerainly not a great one. Would she really bet with just one pair here? I'd assume she's on at least pair + FD, two pair or very nice draw. Close for me between calling and folding, though with 6 nutted outs calling is ok.

River I check again. Hard to see her betting with a worse made hand. If she has an 8 she almost certainly has a boat or has you outkicked unless she has T987 or 9876 pretty much exactly. This is probably a fold unless you think she's bluffing 25% of the time.

Pre-Flop is not a definite "pot" to me with your position in the Small Blind. I think I'd probably lean toward a limp more often than a Raise/Pot. A mixture leaning heavier towards Calling with some raising mixed in is fine.

OTF: After Potting Pre, I'd probably lead out again. Around 60% pot. I think the players after you will play there hands pretty straight forward and will let you know how far behind you are and depending on the turn whether you can get them off a hand or not. I think you are going to get called by the decent draws, and 1 pair of queens. 2 pair + and a really good wrap will most likely raise and give you an easy out now.

As played, after you check I'd expect any 2 pair+ to bet and Probably AQxx especially if there is a backdoor flush or a gut shot for a straight, KQJT and QJT9 probably bet too as there is a ton of good cards that could come and improve those hands on further streets. Any good wraps will bet here. When it checks through, I'm not putting anyone on a super strong hand at this point.

Turn: As played, I check again. when the BB leads, I am putting her on 2 pair plus, or a good wrap with a flush draw (9765, T976, T987, A765 etc.) Occasional she may have a marginal queen + a gutshot for nuts (QT97, KQ97). QJT9 and KQJT probably bet the flop from this villain.

River: As played, Check for sure. If you bet here, I see the only calling hand you beat being AQxx, but we don't really think she'd have AQ as she would have probably bet the flop. You can consider throwing out a blocking bet, if you want to try and control how much money is going in on the river, but I like a check better as she is almost always betting this river. Then it comes down to how often does she boat up here versus how often does she miss her draws. The 2 pair hands that bet the flop almost all boat up as they mostly contain an 8. But you have an 8, so that makes it harder for her to have an 8. Based on the description of the Villain, I think she's betting a missed draw more often then a boat, and I think it's a call more often than a fold, by a decent margin.

I generally agree with this up to the river. On the river, she also has a reasonable number of 8x hands that have you outkicked. Stuff like A or Kc, 8x and a club draw, or A876. Would expect those to all bet when checked to, which pushes this to a fold for me. That said, can't tell from the read how bluffy V is, which is the key read because we're fully bluff-catching here.

Agreed we are bluff catching here. I'm leaning call based on Hero's description that the Villain is on here 4th or 5th buy-in and she short/min buys every time. It just seems like there enough bluffs here, and maybe even some light value bets by KQ that its a call more often than a fold.

On another note, I'd recommend rivering an off suit 9 versus another 8. It's better to have the nuts than not

Thanks very much for the comments so far.

I had one backdoor flush draw on flop (meant to put red ds).

with one BD FD I probably check flop too, though I don't hate betting.

Thanks, MIB211 and jtm1208. I thought I played this hand OK, but wondered if others changed it up. A simple hand, but these seem to come up more often that the "I didn't 3bet AAKQds, now what?" spots.

I don't think I'd ever limp with this hand, even OOP, but I could easily be wrong.

I ended up calling the river, but it was a crying call. I only called because of how bad of a player she was. Thank goodness, I was right. I showed my hand and she said something about, "Oh, you have the jack." All I saw was a red 6 and an 8 I her hand before she mucked.

PLO is alive and well!

Check flop, fold turn, river is kind of close but based on your read a fold

Based on my read that she's terrible and will bet weak hands I should fold river (and turn)? My reads are why I called both, especially river. Turn just seemed obvious once it folded back around to me. Can I ask why you think it's a fold?

I call river.

How about a turn fold unless you're going to bluff a lot of rivers?

Interesting. Her range is pretty wide. Not sure which cards I would bluff, but it's an option.

Your read was she was betting the river with an 8 and she shouldn't really have worse 8s if that is the case, maybe t8