New to PLO8 and I'm pretty sure I played it terribly but what's the best line on the flop? I did see the guy punt off with bottom two and a gutshot on kq4 double suited.

Definitely OK. HU, made nl + top pair is a very strong hand on the flop. You can just call his raise of course to be able to get away on A/2/spades but not sure if that's better.

Thanks, guess it was just bad luck to run into one of the worst possible hands.

It's not bad but it's not great either.

What do you think he raises with? I know there are some real goofballs out there but usually, minimum it's gonna be A25x or some kind of hand like a set with a worse low draw which can outdraw you for low.

Against those hands you are flipping and you don't really know which side of the coin you're on.

But against the stronger hands you're gonna be against nut low+NFD, 2 pair/set+NL, a2+overpair, a25 with flush draw, or various combinations of these. Your 1 pair for high isn't looking so hot then.

But then again, if you only call his raise, almost every turn card is horrendous for knowing whether your pair of eights is any good, so you could easily get blown off it or be calling down blindly. And you are out of position so you are fairly clueless in that spot.

That is if you let him keep the initiative. Before you call the raise, think about which turns are good for you - or bad for him - and lead into him on those turns.

By just calling the raise you let yourself bluff him or potentially find out more info about his hand according to how he responds to the situation.

tl;dr call the raise and play the turn

ALSO

side note: just because you have A2 in your hand does not mean you automatically raise preflop. not all a2's are equal in strength and as it happens A28T is one of the weaker ones. you also should factor in your position at the table. By bloating up the pot early out of position without good expectation that you'll have a low SPR on the flop, you are giving your opponents more ammunition to fight you due to the pot limit nature of the game.

Flop bet is good, just flat his raise. If he is willing to get it in on flop, you are definitely behind on equity. Nut low + TP is pretty strong, but so many turns decrease your hand's value tremendously. Can you think of a turn that you would like to see other than an 8? Deeper stacked and a 5 isn't even a fist pump. The hand he had is close to the best case scenario the way the hand played out.

Also terribly isn't the right word. Not perfect, but not shocking bad lol