Hi guys.

Playing some small stakes here to sharpen my game to make the return to live PLO.

Hero is playing pretty snug. I am playing the only 2 games running at 20PLO right now (3am ET) and am up a buyin at this table but even at the other. $44.30

Villain is new to the table but I have given him the green tag (bad) from previous sessions but I have no other notes. I probably should improve that system btw. He has only been at the table for 1 other hand. $20.00

OTTH 5 handed 20PLO

Hero is UTG with ATQ5 and raises to $.7
Villain on button raises to $2.4.
Folded to Hero.
Hero calls.

Flop ($5.10) AQ4
Hero checks.
Villain bets $5.10

He has $12.50 remaining and I cover Villain. Hero????

So, what did he have? My guess is that he hit a set of fours and has some kind of flush draw as well.

I don't think we should play this hand. Or fold vs 3bet because we are oop in a 3bet pot with a bad hand.

Now pbb call and reevaluate on the turn

Preflop I open this in the HJ and, while I have a significant number of folds here, I think we defend this vs the 3bet with the suited Ace and given the read.

Agree with flop check on the A hi board. I think you have to jam top two for equity denial at this stack depth. It won't feel great when you run into AA but all your other options (call and lead blanks, call and call, call and give free card) seem worse.

Pretty uninteresting hand for the most part. Probably should fold preflop UTG. 5 dangler is super bad. You now are out of position against a guy who 3-bets you. Let me guess, you C/R'd all in and he showed you aces, and are posting to try to figure out how to justify it?

This shallow I'm going broke with top 2 and kicking myself for playing loose UTG.

He had...... a range. Try building a range for him and learning from this exercise. If you just guess his hand, how do you learn? JS...

Fold pre. As played x/c, stack off bricks.

Vs an IP 3B calling here with Axxx is typically a losing proposition over time, so I agree that it is borderline. Being SS instead of DS here is a def disadvantage too. Does anyone have access to a solver to see if this is an open for this position?

Also, at these stakes, 3! are more rare which probably exploitatively will push this to a fold more often than a call pre. However, a green tag note (even though ambiguous) is typically enough for me to play more hands.

Only a 6,7,8 or 9 that are not spades are bricks..... Are you adding wheel cards as bricks too? If not, only 12 cards are true bricks. Does this push it to a push/fold spot or still a call and eval?

Open fold or fold to the 3!? If you have a moment, would you explain why?

Open fold or open and then fold to the 3!?

As for the results, I will share them tomorrow. The stakes are so small, I didn't care about the results. I was just trying to brush off the dust before getting back into my live routine again. Am I justifying my play? Maybe... I was recording the session and I was focusing on OOP spots which are a leak in my game (and most other players as well) I thought immediately that it was a marginal or losing play to call preflop. Vs a wide opponent, a 3! pre might be a better option but I think we need better notes before we go there.

As for this being too loose UTG, IDK if it is. I will get PLO trainer or something similar today and run the sim.

Condense your posts into one. Don't spam.

Open fold is the right play. You are UTG. Position is king in this game.

You should probably be opening something like 20-25% of hands UTG 5-handed? This definitely isn't anywhere close to that.

I'm one of the loosest players in PLO out there and call it a fold. I only raise this if players after me are total nits.

I pulled up my spreadsheet from mastermind. It goes under Bucket #11 as a Connected A high broadway, suited Ace. Examples are AKQJ-AJT2 with one A high suit. Using an RFI of 18.6%, this is an open 85% of the time. It does show a fold to 3b OOP as 59%.

This is only for the bucket... Not the specific hand. I will look the exact hand up later today when I purchase a solver but I think this is a clear open. The calling the 3! is probably a mistake though.

Yeah, suited ace can provide a lot of value even with the dangler. Without the suited ace a clearer fold. But when we flop top 2 we get it in at this depth/level.

I'd treat all wheel cards are bricks, if he 3bet 532 pre. he deserves the pot. K turn is the obvious non-spade bad card, can just fold that if he pots. J and T are borderline, for opposite reasons ... not 100% sure what I want to do on either, probably leaning call J and folding T. I'm not folding on a non-spade 4 either.

Calling the 3! is borderline sure, vs a fishy player might be ok.

As played, I'm raising all in, expected to get called by all sorts of bad hands.

Thank you for all of the thoughtful responses. I appreciate that. Results....
I jammed and GII. He had AT55 ss with no flush redraw. We hold.

lol guy stacking off AT55 and 3 betting.

Upswing lab is giving out a free preflop chart made from a 2000PLO monker solution.
RFI for UTG is 17,9% and the worst open from this category would be A(KQ)4.

This game pays more rake and has much looser players behind, so that UTG should play considerably tighter than the solver would, folding hands that are borderline like this one.

Without additional reads about this player that hint to some maniac-like tendencies, I'm folding this hand against a 3! UTG has so many better hands to defend in this spot.

opening should be fine given population doesn't 3bet aggressively enough but prob just fold vs btn 3bet as it happens