Improving Post-Flop Decision Making...

[SteveL91]

Hi all,

I'm admittedly fairly new to PLO; I'm primarily a limit hold 'em player, but I'm getting bored with that, and I'm been playing exclusively PLO for the past month or so. Prior to this, I'd dablle in PLO every now and then for a week or two at a time as a way to break up the monotony of LHE. I enjoy PLO, and I'd like to keep playing it regularly, but I'm at a complete loss with the game.

I started out fairly well, but over the past days to a week, it feels like I can't hit a bloody thing; if I am lucky to hit something, I get out-drawn. I'm not trying to whine, and I know variance is something I have to deal with, but it's hard for me to deal with when I'm unsure of my play to begin with. With LHE, I can usually pretty fairly assess my play, but that's not so with PLO. I've lost about 8-10 buy-ins this week, and while I'm not overly concerned about the money, the fact that I can't figure out if I'm playing well, decently or piss-poorly is unnerving to me.

With all of that said, I'd like to toss up a few hands (with one or two hands per thread) of some of my bigger recent losses. I'll add my thoughts and whatnot when I can, but not all of these hands will necessarily be fresh.

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $0.50 BB (9 handed)

UTG ($46.05)
UTG+1 ($13.85)
MP1 ($20)
MP2 ($20)
MP3 ($100)
CO ($16.60)
Button ($45.50)
SB ($54.25)
Hero ($96.85)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , , , . MP1 posts a blind of $0.50. MP2 posts a blind of $0.50.
UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 raises to $3.25, 2 folds, MP3 calls $3.25, 1 fold, Button raises to $8.5, 1 fold, Hero calls $8, UTG calls $8, UTG+1 calls $5.25, MP3 calls $5.25.

Flop: ($43.75) , , (5 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets $41.6, Button calls $37 (All-In), Hero raises to $88.35, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $5.35 (All-In), MP3 calls $46.75.

Turn: ($262.80) (4 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($262.80) (4 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $262.80

This one I know I completely butchered. On the flop, it took me most of the allocated time to come to a decision, and I was very close to folding. But, then I got to thinking: I was fairly certain I had the PF re-raiser, just because it's so rare to see anyone re-raise anything but AAxx. While it was possible I was drawing fairly slim, I thought the primary threat (if they existed) would have been someone else, and frankly, with UTG+1 being so short-stacked and the button who seemed pretty bad, I thought it was possible I had the best hand. So, I pushed. On the other hand, I didn't want to battle with the other big stack when my hand was fairly marginal. The fact that it was a rainbow board, the fact that I did have a re-draw (albeit weak), and the pot being so massive swayed my decision.

I've been going over this hand for the past few days, and I'm still not sure what I should have done. I don't want to be a nut-peddler, but I don't want to give away money either.

Given the length, I'll keep it to the one hand in this thread.

Thanks to anyone who manages to trudge through this.

Steve

[Ojingo]

[briachek]

i reluctantly fold preflop to the reraise because you don't close the action and you can be fairly certain you will be all in on the flop so you will have to hit it hard against 2 opponents that are likely holding similar type hands but higher. Unless you flop J rag rag, you are likely to be in a gambling situation and have to play it out of position. I fold preflop but if I saw that flop, it would be hard to fold and if you stick with it, its definitely gonna be a gamble and increase variance.

[SteveL91]

[briachek]

Well, i don't fold on the flop if i'm just risking one buy in but since you got two, I probably fold. results? I'm interested to know what these guys had.

[SteveL91]