Monday, March 9, 2009

An interesting PL08 cash game situation

I had been playing at a soft microstakes PL08 table for a while but had not accumulated any notable hands until this one came up. Since it features some interesting preflop decision points, and some interesting hypothetical postflop decisions I figured it was blog-worthy.

Pot Limit Omaha H/L
Seat 3: Villain #1 ($18.25)
Seat 5: Villain #2 ($48.05)
Seat 7: Hero ($48.25)
SB posts the small blind of $0.25
Hero posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PirateLawyer [2d As Qs Qc]
Villain #1 raises to $1.75
Villain #2 raises to $6
SB folds
Hero calls $5.50 - I am anxious to see a flop with AQQ2 ss and my hand plays well against Villain #2's range.
Villain #1 raises to $18.25, and is all in - It looks as if he has managed to get his stack in with AAxx
Villain #2 calls $12.25 - This cold-call almost certainly means he doesn't have KK
Hero raises to $48.25, and is all in - It's time to build a side pot with an equity edge for the high half and a nut low possibility
Villain #2 calls $29.80, and is all in
Hero shows [2d As Qs Qc]
Villain #1 shows [Ah Ad 2c 8c] - a nice hand to be sure, but his sidecards are marginal against two opponents
Villain #2 shows [Qh 2s Tc Ac] - sure enough, he was raising light preflop with AQT2 ss
*** FLOP *** [Kh 7d Ts]
*** TURN *** [Kh 7d Ts] [Js] - boom! high lock shared with V#2, but I have a spade freeroll
*** RIVER *** [Kh 7d Ts Js] [6s] - gin! a scoop
PirateLawyer shows a flush, Ace high, for high
Villain #2 a straight, Ace high, for high
PirateLawyer wins the side pot with a flush, Ace high
Villain #1 shows a pair of Aces, for high
PirateLawyer wins the main pot with a flush, Ace high
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***

If this hand had been played more slowly preflop and I see the turn, all my money goes in. But I could be pushed off the hand on the flop, unless I am brave enough to bet out and price myself into calling V#1's shove. It was odd to see all three of us with an A2.

Overall it seems as if I made a +EV play vs. Villain #2's range to salvage the best of an awkward situation where a villain with short chips was able to get it in with the best of it. I was very fortunate to scoop the side pot the way the cards fell, but if money was deep I would have been in the catbird seat with the freeroll on the turn with the current nuts + nut redraw vs. the bare straight.

6 comments:

Memphis MOJO said...

Nice post. I'm still trying to learn PLO8. Leaving tomorrow on a business trip, but might shoot you some questions by e-mail when I get back, if that's ok.

SirFWALGMan said...

Another retarded play gets paid off. Wow. That just sucked. You are a lucksack. Learn to fold.

Bayne_S said...

"a nice hand to be sure, but his sidecards are marginal against two opponents" may be the most delusional comment you have ever posted.

Let's compare.

AA2x in PLO8 should always be willing to commit stack, especially when he can stick it in pre.

A2QQ is no doubt a nice hand but vastly inferior to AA28 as you have no emergency low possibility if A flops or 2 flops.

Preflop you called off $12.25 that you thought was "bad" on a naked A2 low draw (lows occur 47% of hands) and raised an additional $29.80 that you thought was good which if you are sure villain 2 will call.

In summary I think play is fine because you are expecting to net $10 in side pot plus ~25% of time low side (or piece) of main pot.

Shrike said...

Uh, I think you skirted part of my post where I said the AAxx villain got his money in good. My observation when hands were flipped was simply along the lines of "phew, he doesn't have blockers for my draws". Like I said, I expect to be in rough shape vs. most AAxx hands but ahead of villain #2.

Bayne_S said...

"a nice hand to be sure, but his sidecards are marginal against two opponents" was cut and pasted so I am pretty sure I must have read that correctly.

As hands come up villain #2 has 37% equity, a ds A2 low low hand has 44% equity for side pot.

For main pot you have 35% equity against villain #1 HU.

3 way your hand has 25.5% equity (knowing exact cards), with villain 2s call you are priced into main pot AND him holding Q was bad for you, generally you should be closer to 30. But it is still very marginal EV for main pot.

Summary would be you made correct play because villain #2 failed to fold to jam but A2QQ having only 2:1 equity edge over A2TQ tells you how marginal a hand it really is.

Shrike said...

I ran numbers in equity calc before posting hand, and thus am fully aware how marginal this spot was ... my comment about the xx sidecards for AA hand really was red herring; I should have edited that phrase to something that made sense.

If villain #2 holds a suited Ax and not a queen as you say my equity goes up closer to the 30% I anticipated when jamming over the top.