WSOP Omaha Tourney question. What would YOU do here?

Tikay10

Just a quick bit of help for non-Omaha players.

A-A-J-5 (4 suited) are just about the nut worst aces it is possible to have.

If we re-pot this, chances are we wll be playing for stacks. 

Tikay10

This happened to me, yesterday. Quite an interesting spot, I thought. Now YOU play it.

We are playing an 1,100 runner, $1,000 WSOP PLO Tourney.

$1,000 is a bit above our regular bankroll, but we are 'rolled for it, having won a few bob at PLO this year.

3,000 starting chips, & a 1 hour structure. This will play FAST. (Half the field were eliminated in the first 4 levels).

We don't think we are the value, we might even have a small edge against most (not all) of the field, but not much.

This Tourney is one of the highlights of our poker year, & it means a great deal to do well.

We are dealt.....

A-A-J-5. (Four different suits).

Blinds are 25-50, I make it 150 to go from around 3,200.

Solid kid, not got ool yet, pops it up to 400. He has around 3,000.

What do we do now? And WHY?

 

Matt237

Are we in position?

Tikay10

In Response to Re: WSOP Omaha Tourney question. What would YOU do here?:

Are we in position?
Posted by Matt237

No, he has positon on us. Think I was UTG.  

VespaPX

Don't play with your danglers :-)

yoyo

pot

Tikay10

In Response to Re: WSOP Omaha Tourney question. What would YOU do here?:

pot
Posted by yoyo

No need to be so verbose Jules, be like me, embrace brevity.

yoyo

waffle on pls

Unknown

Fold preflop utg (very difficult to play all 3 streets oop with hand like this) and tbh if someone 3bets an UTG raise in PLO its going to be aces very very often (even when you have two of them!) and thus getting stacks in now is putting you in bad shape. Could maybe advocate flatting and raising/getting it in on low paired boards/rainbow boards without two broadway but its a swingy line to take!

Glenelg

In Response to WSOP Omaha Tourney question. What would YOU do here?:

This happened to me, yesterday. Quite an interesting spot, I thought. Now YOU play it. We are playing an 1,100 runner, $1,000 WSOP PLO Tourney. $1,000 is a bit above our regular bankroll, but we are 'rolled for it, having won a few bob at PLO this year. 3,000 starting chips, & a 1 hour structure. This will play FAST. (Half the field were eliminated in the first 4 levels). We don't think we are the value, we might even have a small edge against most (not all) of the field, but not much. This Tourney is one of the highlights of our poker year, & it means a great deal to do well. We are dealt..... A-A-J-5. (Four different suits). Blinds are 25-50, I make it 150 to go from around 3,200. Solid kid, not got ool yet, pops it up to 400. He has around 3,000. What do we do now? And WHY?  
Posted by Tikay10

Just catching up with this....WE FOLD!  Why? Cos of above ^^^^^  I personally think we can find betters spots. AAJ5 ds is just MEH! 

Tikay10

Coxy wins again, ditto Glenelg.

Ordinarily, this is not only a fold, but a trivial fold.

However, there were 2 other facts in the equation.

Before play began, I was chatting with Barny Boatman & John Duthie, both strongly suggested this would play VERY fast, & it'd be prudent to try & play for stacks, early.  

And they were right - 1,100 players started, & we were down to 500 in less than 4 levels (!!).

Also, & this is a psychological point, but.....

When I go to Vegas every year, a bunch of friends & regulars buy bits of my action. I don't need to sell, I'd saved my UKPC Omaha bink money for Vegas, but it's just something I do every year, & enjoy doing.

So it's a fast tourney, & if I fold these aces, I'm going to have to explain that to them. And in the heat of the moment, with a million thoughts racing throgh my mind, I just felt sort of obliged to play the hand strongly, if I busted early, & then said "yeah, but I folded Aces earlier, what a hero fold", it'd look a bit wimpish.
 
Anyway, I re-potted it, almost reluctantly.

He snap-folded, & showed me K-K-Q-Q.
 
Ordinarily, an easy fold. In this pot, I'm not really sure, to be honest. I'm 60% convinced, because it played so shallow & fast (only 4,000 chips) it might have been correct.  

Tikay10

I doubled up on Level 5 or 6 to give myself a great chance of cashing (some 400 were left, 110 paid), but busted the very next hand when I could not find a fold with K-K-Q-x (forget what x was), on a J-9-3 flop. My man had a full wrap, & 2 pair, & turned the nuts.

I think this was a bad mistake, & was down to the adrenelin surge after I got myself back in it after being short for 2 levels & completely card-dead. 

I love PLO & PLO8, so many nuances.  

F_Ivanovic

How did Coxy get this right when you did the exact opposite? :P

I do agree somewhat in that AAJ5 is just going to be a really difficult hand to play if it goes multi-way. I personally would limp UTG with it. In holdem you would never limp UTG but in omaha there's an argument to be made for limping a lot as opposed to raising UTG especially in 9 max. If we limp and flop an A, happy days. If not, we can fold for minimum investment (or slightly more if it's raised up) - and if it's raised/3bet in front of us we're more than happy to 4-bet now. We put our hand face-up but we can get enough chips in the middle for it not to matter. 

Also getting stacks in with AA is nearly always +ev in omaha. And in a fast structure that's all your looking for. Even if we are against another AA (which is more likely than holdem but still rare enough to not worry about too much that often), we have on average 46% equity... that's the same as AK unsuited vs QQ in holdem. Only time it's not +ev is if you're sure the other guy has AA and someone else is in the pot too with almost definitely a DS rundown type hand. In which case AAJ5 would be in pretty horrible shape.