Quote:
Originally Posted by oxie
Fair question / challenge.
There is no animosity for sitting out and some do. But I thoroughly enjoy the bomb pots and am too gambly to sit out.
I’ve just started the PLO Mastermind course and have identified about 10 flaws / leaks in my game. I’m addressing these and already performing much better in the small stakes I play online ($0.25 / $0.50).
The strong feedback here is well taken and I will be making appropriate adjustments when I return to the live felt.
Thanks for taking my comments as they were intended. Yeah, bomb pots are fun, and.... if this is just how you blow off steam and $1200 is like going to a movie or a ballgame for you, congrats. (And let's meet up in the staking forum...)
But more seriously, knowing why you play is an important foundation to achieving whatever poker goals you have. If you want to play serious PLO for an hour aiming to build up a stack to gamble it up on the bomb pots, that's fine as long as you're honest with yourself. (Track results separately.)
Just FTR in case anyone reading doesn't understand the theory of why this hand is so overplayed -- OTF on the top board 66 makes bottom set, a classic slightly ahead/way behind hand.
You should play bottom set carefully even if with the top board in conventional single-pot PLO. Against some combination of wraps, FD, top two, etc. you're about 50% three ways, which is a substantial edge. OTOH if you're against QQ and a FD you have 15%. (You have some backdoor equity with the 97.)
So if no one else has much, or if they're all trying to draw cheap, you have a decent hand. If they want to play for stacks, you could well be crushed and can't be crushing them (except that they're clearly horrible, but still). If you get a free turn card, you can start playing more aggressively on a blank (or check-fold a heart, Broadway card, or probably Q or T pairing).
But this isn't single-board Omaha -- this is a split pot game, and the absolute best you can reasonably hope for is winning half the pot. This doesn't sound like a lineup that's going to fold to your flop stab. HU, there's a good chance you get freerolled by 43 on bottom and any two hearts on top, or 55 and any two hearts, or 22 and a Broadway gutshot. Even AK44 rainbow is almost chopping with you (15% on top and you have 16% on bottom). Three-handed, unless you somehow know they're both playing the bottom, you're still in trouble.
So check hoping to get a free card. Fold to any reasonable flop bet. Stab on the turn on a complete blank. Otherwise fold. This isn't a good hand.