Here are two pretty interesting hands from a small PLO8 tournament that I final tabled on Saturday ($100 buy-in, like 135 players, I finished 8th, not a big deal). It’s pretty rare that you would slowplay in PLO8 because a single card can easily make even huge hands an underdog. Moreover, when one induces bluffs, it’s usually from hands with a lot of equity, such that you don’t pick up value from snapping them off. Just in general even with big hands you gain a lot from folding people out and picking them up right away. But these I played differently:
Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
8 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: t18739
UTG+1: t19416
Hero: t7646
MP2: t31489
CO: t9845
Button: t5398
SB: t11072
BB: t1246
Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is MP1 with :kc :7d :9c :ad
2 folds, Hero raises to t1111, MP2 calls t1111 (pot was t1711), 4 folds.
Flop: :kd :td :ah (t2822, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.
Turn: :jc (t2822, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t1600, Hero calls t1600 (pot was t4422).
River: :8d (t6022, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.
Results:
Final pot: t6022
Villain shows [As 2c 3s 5h]
Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t400/t800
8 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: t15439
Hero: t27260
MP1: t21723
MP2: t7032
CO: t7895
Button: t7827
SB: t7222
BB: t9610
Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is UTG+1 with :ah :2h :tc :kc
UTG folds, Hero raises to t2222, 5 folds, BB calls t1422 (pot was t3422).
Flop: :jc :td :ks (t4844, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.
Turn: :9s (t4844, 2 players)
BB bets t2400, Hero calls t2400 (pot was t7244).
River: :4d (t9644, 2 players)
BB is all-in t4988, Hero calls t4988 (pot was t14632).
Results:
Final pot: t19620
Villain shows [8d 5s Kh Ad]
Sorry I know it sucks to look at these without suit pictures, but this is the only converter than can handle PLO8. In the first one I made top two and the nut flush draw on a broadway flop. In PLO high, it’s very dangerous to give a free card here since a T, J, or Q are all disastrous cards. It’s actually a bit less of a concern in PLO8 because hand ranges are weighted towards lower cards. In other words, four broadway cards on the board is a bit less worrisome because straights will be a smaller part of your opponents’ ranges; they’ll often be playing smaller cards looking to flop low. There are thus also fewer ways for them to pay you off.
In the first hand, the nut flush draw also makes it safer to induce bluffs. When I river the nuts, I stick with the plan of inducing a bluff, especially since my opponent will probably bet most of his flushes for value anyway. Even though I didn’t get the bluff, you can see that the guy didn’t have a hand that was calling a bet.
In the second hand, it’s scarier since I don’t have redraws, but my hand was less strong and I couldn’t stand a check-raise. Having played it as I did, I feel compelled to call down. I though his range would be polarized to straights or bluffs. Mostly it was a bad pre-flop call on his part, even for a discount.