Disclaimer: I've possibly been playing way too much plo hi atm.

Villain I have labelled as an aggro fish, to others he might be a bad/aggro reg.

After 885 hands his overall 3b % is 5.2%. But his co is 8% and mp 7%. So he is 3betting light.

Some benefits I can think of:

1) I retake the initiative
2) I neutralise his positional advantage, by taking the lead and creating such a small stack to pot ratio.
3) I discourage him from 3betting me light in the future.

Some negatives:

1) high variance play
2) It sucks a bit when he pops in the Aces.
3) Equities just too close together in plo8 for this to be good?

Thoughts?

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha H/L Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. View Hand #11766942

Hero (MP): $100.89 (100.9 bb)
CO: $145.45 (145.5 bb)
BTN: $59.41 (59.4 bb)
SB: $49 (49 bb)
BB: $30 (30 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q A 5 2
Hero raises to $3, CO raises to $8, 3 folds, Hero raises to $25.50

How can a light 4bet be for value? I wouldn't call this "light" at all. But that's semantics.

I 4bet this against described villain most times. To extend your list of benefits:

4) makes the hand much easier to play postflop (kind of what you say in 1) and 2) but not quite)
5) Balance. You can't 4bet only AA hands against an aggressive 3better and this is a perfect hand to do it as even if you are against AA you're only making a small mistake. Of course you could also balance your AA hands by sometimes flatting AA but to me this approach smells a bit like FPS. Especially if you multitable you want to keep things as simple as possible.

Well anything other than AAxx in plo8 is light to me. I do believe I'm ahead of this guys 3betting range in the hand though so therefore it's for value.

I like your extension of benefits.

Yes, please stop.

ProPokerTools Omaha Hi/Lo Simulation

600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Pot equity	Scoops	Wins Hi	Ties Hi	Wins Lo	Ties Lo
QsAs5h2h	50.43%	176,669	251,676	45,752	160,052	94,062
8%	49.57%	174,659	302,572	45,752	63,285	94,062

It seems ok.


Yeargh but we are not running that terrible against aces.

ProPokerTools Omaha Hi/Lo Simulation

600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Pot equity	Scoops	Wins Hi	Ties Hi	Wins Lo	Ties Lo
QsAs5h2h	44.64%	165,147	196,577	7,101	228,989	41,532
AA**	55.36%	224,568	396,322	7,101	38,526	41,532

Even if he has AA2* we still have ok equity.

ProPokerTools Omaha Hi/Lo Simulation

600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Pot equity	Scoops	Wins Hi	Ties Hi	Wins Lo	Ties Lo
QsAs5h2h	37.79%	110,250	183,013	16,814	69,791	207,392
AA2*	62.21%	223,983	400,173	16,814	22,309	207,392

It sure increases variance but there are advantages which you have mentioned yourself. If you want to make a stand against him this is sure a good hand to do it with. And 4betting without aces also makes you a tougher opponent.


Edit: welcome back to the true PLO-forum.

I'm seeing more benefits than negatives from you guys.

Anyone not like it?

The 4bet looks fine against a villain of this type.

I've been seeing this a lot recently and don't think this sim is applied properly. When you start addressing a 3bet range >4-5%, you're no longer dealing with the top X% of hands. In this instance, his 8% 3bet likely entails top 15%(or more) hands. imo

You are right! A 3bet procent of 8 includes other hands than only top 8% hands.

What's the worst hand you think would be good to do this with?

Agree with most of the above. This isn't light IMO.

Honestly, I haven't noticed guys doing this that are regs and 100bb. I assumed it would be considered light. I stand corrected.

Good play, it's far easier to play OOP with a SPR of 1.5, than with SPR of 6; and as we see you aren't giving up much if anything on the equity front.