On the flop you can't bet. On the turn, if you're going to bet you need to bet the pot, that $2 bet achieves nothing, you won't fold off anybody with half a hand and at present all you have is a draw. When it's raised $5 it's a pretty easy call, he clearly has a hand he likes (maybe top two or a set?) and you have 2 As, 2 Ks, 1 T and 3 9's giving you 8 nut outs, so you can make the call (if he bets the full size of the pot it's perhaps a lot closer; whether you call depends on whether you think he'll pay off a straight and/or if you can bluff a scare card, like a club). You must bare in mind that a club probably hurts you, BUT if a club hits the river and makes your straight you may be able to check down and win (or, better yet, make a small bet and fold if he raises).
So you played fine, but don't make weedy bets like you did on the turn on drawing hands, that is a terrible, terrible play in PLO; bet the pot or check. A lot of really poor, passive players make small bets with draws and not only does it allow you to liberally check raise them when you hold a set, it also gives away tons of info about their hand, and also prices in any draws you might have in most situations. So don't make those small bets on draws ever again, or I'll come round and burn your pets!
AA55ds is an absolute monster and if you can get it all in preflop, do so. Any AA ds hand is a big one BUT don't fall into the error of over-valuing them when you're out of position until you've seen the flop. AA hands need either to hit a set, AA overpair with a flush draw, or (sometimes) flops like 22T in a raised pot where the raise makes a 2 less likely to be out there. However, beware of RE-raising this hand because it gives away that you have AA; usually, make the first raise with them or consider re-raising if you can get a short-stack all in or if you can get 50-60% of your stack in (at least) preflop.
TJQK is worth a raise, even with three of the cards in the same suit. Don't get over-excited though as it's not a monster, probably worth building the pot preflop though. Any four card run is nice because if you flop two pair you automatically also have an open-ended straight draw, and if you flop a straight draw it's liable to be a wrap with a lot of outs. TJQKds would be a much better holding. Having three cards of the same suit, in real terms, doesn't make the flush feature appreciably less strong. The fact it's "only" Q high makes it only a minor feature in the hand, though.
789Tds is a huge PLO hand and needs to be raised, especially in LP. You could even consider re-raising for deception against tricky players (they'll put you on the likes of AA). However, it IS a hand which can be dominated if you flop strongly and if someone else has something like 9TJQ, so tread carefully. One of the better reasons to raise this hand (and any other suited mid-range wrap) is to clean up any possible flush draws a bit and give you some backdoor value if one or two of your suit flop and you have a big wrap straight draw.
There's an article on the front page about PLO hands preflop, you should have a look at it, there's some examples in there.
Hope this helps.
Monk
xxxxxStatistics: Posted by Felonius_Monk — Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:01 pm
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