I play a game that can sometimes become all-in every hand between 2-4 players. I usually like to see a flop before I put all my money in with big o hands, and I typically play any A3XXX or better. But I find myself letting go of some pretty big hands when I’m in a situation where the last 5 pots have gone to 5-bet all ins preflop. My Question is, What hands would you play?

For more context, my game is 6-Handed Big O, Pot Limit. There are a few whales who will 3-bet every pot, others who will 4-bet every pot, and some who will 5-bet every pot. So there are streaks when every hand is all in or nothing. I find myself folding big hands like A346K double suited, that I would love to play and see a flop. A priori, I have found myself losing in so many of these situations with hands like A23XX or AA@XX when the board comes all high cards. I know the variance will be high, but what kind of hands should I be playing in these all in every hand situations? If 100% of the hands were all in, what would you go with?

I'd keep an eye on what they are willing to gamble with:
- does it always have an Ace, and if so, is it always suited?
- Do they trend to favor broadway cards or wheel cards?

You might be able to find some strategies to always be better than your opponents. If they favor heavy wheel cards (especially without an A), you're strengths will be in suited broadway hands. If they favor mostly big, then you want big pairs with wheel possibilities (AA[23]xx, AKK[23]x,AQQ[23]x, but avoid x==9,8,7,6 as you want to maximize straight options)

Absent of that, you need to find a range of hands that are strong and you feel comfortable with. I could say something like top 5-8%, but what does that mean when you have 2.6M starting hand possibilities? That's still over 100k starting hand options!!!

In the end, if you play about once every other orbit (8%), with hands that are ~ top 10%, you should print money with high variance. I'd look for
- Suited Axxxx, where x is either Wheel (W) or Broadway (B)
- A + Big pairs (KK, QQ) + W (as listed above, suited A in this case is a bonus)
- ABBBB, and occasionally BBBBB
- 2345W, 23456 are probably the only non-A wheel hands I'd play. While not strong hands in of themselves, if you show up with this hand from time to time, it'll be memorable and they won't think you a total nit.

6 cards?

A239TJ triple suited

Or maybe

A234 and any pair.

Don't (usually) fold A346K ds pre.

I feel like people are answering different questions / I'm not sure what question is really being asked. The replies so far are describing the strongest hands that will be super +EV vs random hands, but this isn't very interesting. It seems to me the only question is how much variance do you want to under take / what's the bankroll situation? I would probably go all in blind with them because its fun, but that doesn't seem like a helpful answer either. I think you just have to realize this is going to be insanely high variance no matter what you do and you should be pretty happy to get dealt any Ace+wheel + 3 cards that aren't 8s and 9s lol

Use propokertools to get an idea of what kind of equity to expect to have. Bring a lot of money and walk away with a lot of EV.

I'm also not sure what exactly is the question, so this is probably not a helpful answer.

I was hoping propokertools had the rank function for BigO like it does for 4-card, but it does not. That's when I started to think of what I'd play in that situation.

I did make an assumption based on one think OP said about A346K and "wanting to see a flop". That assumption was that he was a little bit scared and wasn't there to purely gamble, so I figured I'd answer the question in a way that would give them some ideas and some specific hands to start working with.

I'm with you DD, I'd gamble all day with that group, cause it sounds like a fun home game. But not everyone plays degen like that, so I want to help OP with some +EV strats.

Fwiw big o ranks do work in odds Oracle I believe.

Thank you all for the helpful replies. there is a rake, so huge split pots just lead to a ton of chips going to the house — and my bankroll can’t take huge swings (if I lose three buy-ins, I’m out). Perhaps this game is just too big for me? I have just been in several pots with strong hands (e.g. AA23J, AK235) only for the board to run out with no low and my opponents to make two pair (or a weak flush/straight) all in with hands like KQ456. This has happened so much, that with 3-4 way all ins I never feel too comfortable being all in. I will take some of the advice you have given and see if things turn around. Thanks.

You honestly shouldn't be playing with three buyins as your bankroll unless it's a budget where you can keep reloading it from paycheques or other source of income.

You'd be very surprised at how close equities run even with what on the surface looks like the shittiest hands.

You could easily win or lose 30 buyins in a session in a game like that. You almost certainly shouldn't play, you are going to be throwing away so much equity they might be correct to jam you blind.

Exactly, this and the above.

Flipping is flipping, if at all possible slow the preflop down and play post flop with hands like aa23j and ak235...

But sounds like everyone is just playing a bomb bot where they're all in pre flop.