Hi all

I'd be grateful for your suggestions as to how to play the following hand:

I'm one off the button, full ring, PLO8 $25. The session has gone well and my stack is up to $33. To my left is a weak calling station (vpip 80/0) with a stack of $13. The big blind seems tight aggressive and has a stack of $16.

Preflop, I'm dealt A,Q,Q,7. It's folded round to me, and I raise to $0.75, regretting this slightly when the calling station joins me post flop along with the big blind.

The flop is an interesting 4,7,3, and there is $2.35 in the pot.

The big blind checks and it's action to me. Placing yourself in my shoes, what is your strategy for the hand?

Thanks

Iggy

Bet pot or close to it. Don't give off a free card that could ruin you. You can slow down on a turn if need be, but right now the best result for you is taking the money in the pot. Well, I guess that's the 2nd best result behind someone calling all three streets with a K/Q high flush, which can happen. If we had a good low we could consider a slowplay, but this isn't one of those times.

I would pot flop....if called, check behind turn, and bet pot if I still have the nuts on the river. If the board pairs and he bets, call for your 1/2 and pray. There isn't too many other ways to play this.

POT THE TURN OR RIVER if an Ace or 2 hits

Anyone fold if their flop bet is re-raised?

There is a straight flush possibility. Assuming Villain plays almost any four cards, it's about 149 to 1 that Villain doesn't have the straight flush. BB could have it and if so probably would slow play it. So between the two of them it's about 74 to 1 than neither of them has the straight flush. Someone could have a straight flush draw with various hands (A2**, A5**,25**,
26**, 58**, 68** are all straight flush draws. My guess is anybody with the spade flush would be sticking around whatever you did. If you put that all together, there's a reasonable chance you'll get beaten by a straight flush by the time you get to the showdown. And the board could pair and make an opponent a full house or quads thus negating your ace high flush. On top of all that, low is already possible, and a calling station probably calls it down with any low.

Finally you won't be able to tell if someone who raises you has the nut low or a straight flush. You're going to lose your whole 33 bucks if you bump heads with a straight flush or if the board pairs and an opponent makes a full house.

Thus this hand/flop is fraught with peril.

However, despite the dangers, I'd bet, and for me the bet would be about 60% of the pot. (That's consistent with my meta game style). I don't fault betting more and most posters here, I think, favor and advocate maximum (100% of pot) flop bets.

If you later post that you lost to a straight flush or quads or a full house, I fully intend to merge this thread with the monthly low content thread, which is where bad beat Omaha-8 posts belong in this forum.

Buzz

+1 - would probably be my standard line and I'd open this preflop all day long.

Thanks Buzz, and all.

I did bet pot on the flop (hoping to chase out a weak low, or possibly counterfeit an A2 low). The button came with me, all the money went in on the turn, and the villain then indeed showed

5 689 for a flopped straight flush.

However, the story is not a bad beat because I rivered a 5, counterfeiting his low, and giving me an unlikely split pot.

Very happy for the post to be moved to an appropriate place elsewhere, and thanks all for your contributions. The main things I was looking for from you guys were:
- how high would a potential straight flush feature in your thinking?
- can you ever get away from the hand?

On reflection, I still like my pot bet on the flop, because the straight flush is so unlikely. But I am pondering what I would have done if the board had paired.

Cheers

Iggy

Just pot it preflop from the Cut Off. On the flop I'm making my standard continuation bet of 3/4's the pot, $1.75. I do this 95% of the time after raising preflop. Hopefully, no one has a2xx and will fold out the low draws and maybe you get the station w/ a Q high flush to come along.

Instead of betting pot and trying to take down the pot on the flop or going heads up, I sometimes bet half pot on every street getting both of them to come along and most of the time splitting and sometimes scooping.

I only do this against opponents similarly described.

I think it's also a safer line should the board turn and we showdown a little more cheaply.

To make things a little more simple, lets say the pot is $2 on the flop you bet $1 they both call and the pot is up to $5. You do this on the turn again and the pot is up to $12.50. Again on the river and the pot is up $31.25. You're getting at least $15. Although you'll more likely only get one caller on the river and split and get $12. The profit is ~$13 and ~$10 respectively.

If you've found a complete fish and bet pot all the way through against one opponent, and are lucky enough to scoop- you'll have a profit of ~$26 (assuming he's also deep). What is more likely is that hero will check turn and pot again on river, giving you ~$8. What is even more likely is that villain has the low and you chop receiving nothing (except what third villain put in obv).

I just think that I'm getting paid off by two stations when I bet smaller, way more often than I'm getting paid off by one station when I bet pot.

There's obv multiple more scenarios when they call then fold on later streets but I didn't consider FE because most of the time hero has none.

If you have an 80/0 to your left I'd also consider switching tables; it's good to have a tight player on your left so that you can effectively have the button twice per orbit. (Obviously you would want to stay if the table has enough good features to outweigh this disadvantage!)

Wow.. I'm never leaving a table with a guy playing 80% of his hands and never raising pre regardless of my position on him.