$2/4 PLO8 - Bottom Two Pair Heads Up

[Phil153]

Been playing a lot of short handed at Party lately, it's the only way to get a game going most of the time : ( . In this hand, I can't decide whether my check raise is genius, standard, or a really dumb idea.

Villain is a Frenchie who I was abusing at the $100 table and he challenged me to heads up. He's got some understanding of the game, but definitely overestimates my donkishness and tends towards being overaggressive. I've been chipping away at his stack and the hand prior I'd called down two barrels with top pair for an $80 score.

***** Hand History for Game 5411591403 *****
$400 PL Omaha Hi-Lo - Thursday, November 02, 17:39:30 ET 2006
Table Table 125380 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 1: BadbeatPhil ( $545.60 )
Seat 5: likomaboy ( $244.20 )
BadbeatPhil posts small blind [$2].
likomaboy posts big blind [$4].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BadbeatPhil [ 6h Qc 9c Qh ]
BadbeatPhil calls [$2].
likomaboy raises [$8].
BadbeatPhil: lol, you're a pathetic monkey
BadbeatPhil calls [$8].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 9s, Th ]
BadbeatPhil checks.
likomaboy bets [$23].
BadbeatPhil raises [$92].
.........

What do you think?

[Felonius_Monk]

[Mendacious]

[Kuso]

[Phil153]

Kuso - I'm tending to agree with you here. I don't think he would fold anything that beat me except maybe two pair. The way he was steaming, he might call or push with a bare AA though. The value from that was the main reason I did it.

Apart from the AA scenario, the point is that when I'm beat I'm going to lose a fair chunk of my stack; when he's bluffing, I'm making much less. Combines that with turns I get bluffed out of, being OOP, the lack of backdoor low, etc and it's really not a great play. Given this, I think a raise to $60 is probably a better play. It's arguably more intimiidating as well.

Results:

He pushed and I called, he had an overpair KK, a gutshot and a flush draw to be a 57% favorite.

***** Hand History for Game 5411591403 *****
$400 PL Omaha Hi-Lo - Thursday, November 02, 17:39:30 ET 2006
Table Table 125380 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 1: BadbeatPhil ( $545.60 )
Seat 5: likomaboy ( $244.20 )
BadbeatPhil posts small blind [$2].
likomaboy posts big blind [$4].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BadbeatPhil [ 6h Qc 9c Qh ]
BadbeatPhil calls [$2].
likomaboy raises [$8].
BadbeatPhil: lol, you're a pathetic monkey
BadbeatPhil calls [$8].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 9s, Th ]
BadbeatPhil checks.
likomaboy bets [$23].
BadbeatPhil raises [$92].
likomaboy is all-In.
BadbeatPhil calls [$140.20].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
BadbeatPhil shows [ 6h, Qc, 9c, Qh ] a straight Six to Ten.
likomaboy doesn't show [ Ks, Ah, Kc, Qs ] a pair of Kings.
BadbeatPhil wins $487.40 from the main pot with a straight, Six to Ten.
There was no qualifying low hand

[Kuso]

[Phil153]

[Kuso]

[Phil153]

[GooperMC]

It is always hard to give advice on a HU match because so much is based on feel and prior hands. That being said I’m assuming you posted it to receive advice so here goes:

In general I don’t want to put too much money in with you hand. My reasons are

1) He is steaming so you don’t have much fold equity, you will only get worse hands to fold (I don’t think he folds top and bottom here).

2) He is steaming so you don’t want to let him off the hook by letting him win a big hand. In my experience someone who is steaming cools off after winning a big hand. Until then, they are willing to put they stack in with some pretty bad hands, but after that they will start playing reasonable again. Because of this I want to wait until I have a better hand then you currenly have to get all in.

3) If you are ahead you are barely ahead, but if you are behind you are way behind

4) The obvious OOP reasons (if he calls the flop you are going to face either a turn or river bet)

If he hasn’t been floating you I would have just lead into him on the flop. If he has been floating you I would either
- Check call the flop and CR or CF the turn
- Check fold the flop and wait for a better hand to stack this guy with.

I am leaning towards leading into him or check folding. Overall I would try and find a better place to finish him off.

Some equity numbers:
Against XX: 55% equity
Against XX: 60% equity
Against XX: 25% equity
Against XX: 17% equity
Against XX: 52% equity

I

[Phil153]

I'm definitely looking for advice. This hand has been bugging me all day.

[GooperMC]

[Stoneburg]

You keep mentioning that worse hands will fold as if that is a bad thing... I'm figuring that even worse hands have plenty of equity against bottom two so I'm wondering if it isn't +EV to have them fold rather than call.

[GooperMC]

[Stoneburg]