$25 with 8 runners: $200 pot
Hero MP with $1,200 holding 6679 unsuited

Flop 1: 6TQ
Flop 2: 5:A2

Checked to hero who bets $120. Pot $320
V1 OTB calls has me well covered. Pot $440
V2 UTG Check raises AI for $400. Pot $840

Hero?

Some V1 back story is relevant here. I have played with him many times and I have taken some big pots from him (more than he has from me). He is a pleasant elderly gentleman (could be 70ish) tight, risk averse and has been on unusual swings this session. Was up to over $3k from $500 buy-in, lost it all and was now back up to over $2k. Of particular relevance is that he lost the majority of his big stack in a bomb pot when he GII with the nuts on one and a draw on the other only to get scooped.

check/fold the flop

* although the good news is, you are in a very good game as both your opponents played their hands even worse than you played yours.

It is a wild game most of the time. I've had huge swings in both directions. I'm slightly ahead overall, but the challenge remains how to maximize without losing my stack.

Potting flop is spew, its a bet small or check and then evaluate.

Doing anything other than check folding flop is a massive mistake. This is like going all in 8 way in single board bomb pot with bottom 2 no draw.

Assuming the actual PLO game isn't nosebleed stakes, you will go broke quickly playing like this.

I mean this unironically: Can you opt out of bomb pots for a while and just watch until you get a better sense of how to play them? Or will you provoke animosity? (Very game dependent from what I hear.)


If the game is so good otherwise that you feel you have to play these bomb pots, don't ever let yourself put any more money in the pot without the nuts on one board plus a viable draw on the other board. That's a bit "too" tight, and you need to play too tight while learning.

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.

Pretty good comments in here ..

1) Bomb pots are about nuts .. you don't hold and can't draw to many (heart bad, 8QT unreliable)

2) These Boards are drastically different, which good Players will see. They still have to decide if they are going after 'the other' Board than you are, but they will know that you can't really have both Boards dominated unless AhXh is involved.

3) On the flip side, you are crossing fingers about how Player's minds work with max aggression. Certainly amazing that a Player folded the nuts, fearing a flush draw. At a min they should think that they are chopping the side pot with good possibilities for $200 profit coming from the main. Granted it is 1050 to win 200 and if a Player 'knows' they can only win 200 or lose 1100 I can see some folds here. GL