PLO hand - a couple of questions

silentbob

I'm very new to the 4 card game. So much so, I reckon I've probably only played a couple of hundred hands at most so I'm sure I'm making plenty of mistakes!

Yesterday I asked a question about raising pre flop in PLO games & got some very good advice. With that I decided to play a DYM tonight & got this hand.

1 - Is this generally a good enough hand to start raising with pre? My thoughts at the time were that I've got a big pair, a potential ace high straight draw & 2 potential nut flush draws

2 - When the flop comes as it does is it best to just flat call or raise it here to try & build the pot? I've got an overpair (I know one pair isn't particularly strong in PLO so I don't know if it's even worth taking into account?) as well as the club flush draw & a possible back door heart flush draw

fwiw, player x was seeing almost every flop so I'm guessing he's also new to the game (I did have NLH notes on him about chasing draws with no odds but I don't know if you can make any use of them when crossing over to PLO?)

Also, in terms of reading other people's hands, I take it that this is purely something you learn to do over time? I'm finding it much more difficult to do in PLO than NLH but I think that's probably because there's 4 cards to think about.

All advice greatly appreciated. I'm beginning to like this game more & more & I may even start playing this more than NLH.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
x	Small blind		50.00	50.00	1390.00
	Big blind		100.00	150.00	1525.00
	Your hole cards	A A J 3
	Call		100.00	250.00	3605.00
silentbob	Raise		300.00	550.00	2315.00
	Fold
x	Call		250.00	800.00	1140.00
	Fold
	Fold
Flop
		3 5 8
	Bet		100.00	900.00	1040.00
silentbob	Call or Raise?

waynec

Talon has a thread on the clinic have a look at that loads of good tips

simuk

That hand is a MONSTER pre.... 

As for the flop... raise... if you can get this in against a worst draw or even KKxx then thats huge...

Talon

 First things first.Your staating hand is very strong with Big PP, multiple straight options and multiple nut flush options.So yes you want to be raising preflop with this hand to remove all the bad hands and make the pot worth winning.

 You get your caller and the flop gives you a monster draw and out comes the bet from your opponent.Now in this situation any meaningful raise will result in your entire stack going in on this flop. This is a situation where your opponent has built the pot up and you can take a very cheap card to try to hit your draw . This is the best option in this situation(in cash i would be pot raising because of the reload option). The turn might improve your hand or give you a chance to guage your opponents hand.

  Let us just imagine the worst case scenario in this hand where your opponent has made a loose call preflop with 8x8x 2c 4c.This puts you a mile behind and in a world of trouble. Your 9 flush outs have decreased to 6 and your set would give your opponent the nut straight.Though this is unlikely these are things that you need to be aware of.

  You can chase big draws in a cash game but you need to be careful of doing so when relatively short stacked in an STT.


  Sorry if this sounds contradictory or nonsensical but this can be a very deep and thinking game and there are many multiple options on every hand and everyboard/street.