Posted 14 April 2007 - 09:09 AM
OP, you're a new poster, so i don't know how much you know, but you say you play all games and have played stud8/b, so I'll assume you've a good understanding of the limit game.PL stud8/b is a nice game, and i've played this and done very well in the past. I've never actually played it HU, but most of the games I play end up HU after 4th anyway, so hopefully my advice will help you.Well, PL games means increased use of position, pot-manipulation, and usually stronger hands to call bets with on later streets. stud8/b is a drawing and scooping game.So:Position - well in stud this goes to the lower board, so there is definite merit in playing low cards from this premise alone(never mind the equity strength which these hands may hold). The high card acts first, so the low hand may be in a advantageous position beyond 3rd(may take the free card, or bet, depending on how the boards look and opponent's tendencies)Assuming the BI is twice the ante and you play with 100BI, we can look at some general starting scenarios:A) you BI with door<9 and are raised by door(9-K)i) call with most pairs, split or not - re-raise if your pair is bigger than his doorii) call with all low str8(246) or flush(2c 5c 8c) - you could re-raise with A-low flushes or str8/flushes.iii) call with all rolled up(deception here as raiser may not have a pair and fold to a re-raise, yet fire another barrel on 4th if flat-called on 3rd)iv) call with Axx, where x is low(A27 etc) - this may depend on how aggressive your friend is on 4th. If he typically keeps blasting away, then you should release these on 3rd.v) fold all the restB) you BI with door<9, and are raised by door <9i) call with pairs < Queensii) re-raise with pairs > jacksiii) re-raise with rolled upiv) call with all low str8 or flushv) fold all the restC) you BI with door>8, and are raisedi) play as if it's PL stud-hi - i won't go into that in this thread.I was going to write out a mega-long post, but I'll stop here. I'm going out, but that's just a very rough idea of the hands i suggest. Also, a lot is debatable as to call or raise, because of course the style of your friend is very important in determining how you play. This applies to his 4th street tendencies as well. And you never mentioned the structure, but the deeper stacks you play(or lower antes), the more you want to concentrate on low hands. I assume you're playing live since PL stud8 isn't available on the web(tell me if it is!!), so physical reads will come into play.Also, your opponent's play(which you haven't expanded on) will determine whether you exchange steals a lot or whatever. For this reason, i haven't even attempted to cover the scenarios when you are 1st to act(he is the BI).Look at the scenarios in (A), and think about how you will act on 4th, given the different probablities of boards, and the hand equities and actions that are likely in those different situations.
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