Hi,

I am making the transition from limit holdem to limit o8 and I am struggling with one concept. How important are pot odds preflop vs. being trapped in a dominated hand preflop? In limit holdem calling from the BB in a big pot is a nobrainer, but I am not sure what to do in O8 in these situations.

For instance, let us say you are playing 30/60 1/3 kill and you kill a pot. You have total garbage (789K) and check it from EP, then there is a raise and a bunch of calls. Do you call here with your whole range? Can you fold here getting anywhere from 6 to 10-1, considering you are oop and anything you flop will be at best good for half the pot and likely dominated? What is the worst hand you can call with in these spots given a standard live 08 mid-stakes game? I have been folding in these spots with totally unplayable hands given that while the pot is big, your reverse implied odds are terrible.

Another similar example: raise from EP, and anywhere from 2-5 calls. Can you call total garbage in the bb or should you still be folding a high percentage of bottom-rung hands?

I don't play much limit omaha hi lo. However I'm folding that 789K, at best we're splitting the pot and at worst I'm getting scooped. You lose the most money out of the blinds, so tightening up in them especially if you're new to the game can really help you out.

gild,

i hate to try to mold your playing style because my hand range and thought process has been molded towards aggressive short-handed online games.

however, i do play a lot in mid-stakes live games. so i'd say you're giving up a lot of PnL by not playing one-way hands that can make the nuts. you don't care about getting half the pot in a 3 or 4 way pot. so 789K is a hand to see a flop multiway, especially if its suited king. 6:1 is playable. 10:1 is a must.

for BB defending, a lot of that is dependant on post flop. so far the tone of your post sounds like you're playing a fit or fold style. if that's the case, definitely do not call light. good defending hands are two wheel cards with a suit, suited ace, any 4 runners.

call light if you know how to squeeze extra bets, correctly peel for backdoors, and know a few plays to knock out better draws.

This is a question I struggle with as well. I guess one important aspect is how aggressive/jam oriented the post flop play is. The more your opponents are going to be hammering you/pushing small edges postflop, the more youd need to fold those RIO hands. In a more passive game id guess that the preflop bets are going to be a greater % of the eventual pot size and so you could play more 789K type hands.

BTW, my inclination is to fold in those types of spots. I think this has to be more true in LO8 than LHE in these multiway pots because it really is going to come down to your hands ability to make something near the nuts, and those weaker hands just cant. you also wont be able to play them very well or very aggressively.

No. It's a fold.

Yes. The betting is not over. Unless you go all-in, your true implied or reverse implied pot odds are not that good.

I don't know. I think it "depends."

Exactly.

It depends on the group of opponents you are facing and what has been happening. For the short run, it's better to fold. For the long run, you may deter future attacks on your blind if you defend. what to do is opponent and image dependent. You can't keep defending if defending does not good. But defending to achieve a certain image may be worthwhile if you don't have to do it all the time. You simply have to judge each situation for yourself.

Buzz