Who's the bigger donk here, me or villain?

[JDLush]

Good night so far, villain in this hand seems pretty taggish.

Party Poker
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Low Ring game
Blinds: $0.50/$1
9 players


Stack sizes:
UTG: $180.20
UTG+1: $39
MP1: $98
MP2: $53.52
Hero: $284.50
CO: $130.25
Button: $99.72
SB: $98.48
BB: $73.15

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP3 with
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, CO calls, Button folds, SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: ($5, 5 players)
SB bets $4.75, 2 folds, Hero calls, CO folds.

I like the flop, but I'm not in love with it, you know what I mean? Anyone try pouncing here instead of flatcalling and waiting for the turn? If so, why?

Turn: ($14.5, 2 players)
SB bets $7, Hero raises to $29, SB calls.

Of course we think flush draw here, but would he call with just that?

River: ($72.5, 2 players)
SB is all-in $63.73

Do you make the call? What does he have, regardless?

[Kuso]

i see three lines (in no particular order):

1) fold on the flop (maybe peel one off).

2) keep this pot small all the way to SD without improvement. i want to show it down, but i don't want to play for my stack given that five people saw the flop. the only cards that i really want to see are a non-spade 7, Kings, and Tens. as such, i would probably call turn (rather than raise) and call river unless villain was a known nutpeddler. if he's a nutpeddler, i'd fold on the river to a big bet (better be a solid read, though).

3) raise the flop and take it from there.


i would normally take the blast them off their hand route (on the flop, not the turn), but there are a lot of draws that would call that you're not necessarily in good shape against (e.g., flush plus just about anything). this is doubly so on the turn with the low draw out.

a more detailed read of villain would be nice. for example, winning player, tends to show down nuts, tends to show down janky big hands (e.g., stupid straights), etc. this would really make me lean one way or another.

[Kuso]

btw, you're always the donk, but that's besides the point.

just so you know, when i started playing plo8 at the 25s last summer, my notes at party on you simply read "fish".

[JDLush]

LOL, last summer? I'll have to see what my numbers were, but IIRC, at Party I'm sure I was. I went from Stars and Planet to there around that time, and had a REALLY hard time adjusting to the 'party style' of play.

On this hand, I wished I had a better read as well. By the end of the night his notes said "randomly lags it up for no apparent reason, will bluff the hell out of a LOT of rivers. Semi loose preflop, often on crack post flop".

[Felonius_Monk]

I think you could raise the flop, that's a lot of hand you have to be giving freebies to anyone with a flush draw or backdoor low. If you're up against a set it might be nice to find out here and now.

River is a close one (being PLO8 it seems extremely likely he holds an ace, thus AJ becomes a much more real threat) but given the way he's played I'm sure you have to have the 30% or so calling equity you need to make him show down. Showing down a slightly raggy PLO8 hand (and showing you won't be bluffed) may have positive metagame expectations too which throw a few extra % of equity in your direction.

[JDLush]

I kinda forgot that I had this one still hanging out there.

I waited till the last few seconds before deciding that, if I was in his shoes and had 2 pair or a set it would look like the other guy (me, in this case) was on a flush draw and I'd pot it assuming he missed and hoping he'd lay down.

The other thought bouncing through my mind was that he held a good high wrap like AQJx with 2 spades, but then does he just flat call the turn? Maybe if he's a bit weak/tightish, but then does a weak/tight guy with that hand go full pot on the river, or something less that's more likely to be called?

I figured there was too good of a chance that he held 2 pair or a set (or a busted flush draw and was on a bluff) that I had to call. I called and he showed 9Jxx with 2 weak spades and we split. I don't remember the xx but they were not good cards.

Needless to say, that dude had a target on his forehead the rest of the night, but I never got a chance to get involved in a big hand with him again.