5/5/10
9 handed
500 deep

UTG limp, I raise to 40 UTG+1 with A2458
CO and button calls, UTG calls.

(180)
988

UTG checks

This flop is way better for my opponents, I'm checking this flop very often.

1) What 8 do I want to bet and what 8 do I want to check here?
2) If you're betting this hand, how much would you bet with 2,5 SPR ?

not sure i necessarily agree with the premise that it's better for your opponents.

true, you have less 8's than your opponents. but you also have all the AA, some KK/QQ, and more nut hearts than them.

I would sometimes bet flop here, depending on how agressive opponents are - we don't want to bet/fold against opponents who raise light and are happy to check against opponents who stab light. We may even xr light stabbers.

Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 psb could be ok - looking to protect our equity and play a big pot on favorable turns. Bigger could be fine too, but opponents should pick up that you are not folding the flop on that scenario.

Later positions should have more 98,99 in range because they are more likely to try and see a flop with high-only hands, but that doesn't mean we have to check, or that opponents are likely to try and represent it when we do. Betting both 9xxxx and 8xxxx hands at some frequency is sure to be solver-approved.

This is also much less of an issue, when only 50bb deep and large pot all ready. Its hard for you to make massive errors with your hand, as it is so easy for you to become pot-commited.

I would have one sizing, and it would be small, third of the pot at most. I think this is one of the weakest 8's we can have, so I'd be looking to bet to protect.

betting to protect your hand against draws? or betting small to protect your range with AAxx?

Figure out your play with AAxx and go from there.

At 50bbs Utg I think limping > potting.

Betting to protect against draws. I just think overall in this spot a small bet works very well (we protect, get value, get them to fold some equity), also with AA.

I would bet around 40% on flop with your hand and pretty much all hands which contain an 8, also with most AA combos and some NFDs.

Sure, some hands have us crushed, but the majority of the time your hand will be good and we need to protect against random QT/JT combos and also JJ,QQ and KK hands binking the turn for free.

Agree with the 1st part of your post but massively disagree with the 2nd. If a player is only raising with hands better than A2458ds it becomes too easy to assign their holding. They basically have A23xx with a suited ace or AA34/AA2 every time they raise.

Do we have to pot it for 40? Maybe $30 or $35 would be better but its definitely preferable to limping.

I'm not potting, I raise on a limper

I understand you are raising a limper. My bad, potting it would be 50 not 40. I was responding to what draw2pat was saying.

I think vs good players, checking is good because people will be stabbing alot on the btn.

In practice I think alot of people play very fit or fold, and betting 20-25% to deny equity to a small flush draw is more valuable and getting called by a hand like KK/QQ/A2 "I'm calling one time"type hands.

Also denying equity is very important vs small pocket pairs. Getting snap folds from a hand like A44xx and 3355x is huge vs the field. While individually each hand can't call to spike a 2 outter, giving a free card to a ton of hands with small equity COMBINED is definitely a problem

9s and 8s are the two worst cards in Omaha8...I don't like playing hands that have one of them, let alone two. Do we really put them in their range?

BH i think you'd benefit a lot from working with a solver.

a lot of the things that are discussed in recent threads would start to become very clear, one of those things being range advantages.

it doesn't really matter if you like playing them or not. the hands that coldcall in LP will, on average, contain more 8's and 9's than the hands that raise in early position.

projecting what YOU would do onto other players is something to avoid.