Okay, so it's mixed games night for Monday Night poker with the home game crowd. This crowd is terrible, on a $40 buyin it only took four hands to have enough rebuys on the table to make $140 pots normal. Get good cards, have them hold up, and you're making money... I'm really only still learning PLO8 but I feel I have a much better understanding than all but perhaps 2 opponents.

Blinds are .50/.50 (we ran out of .25 chips due to rebuys, had to make them $25). Because blinds are so low in comparison to the pots, I'm seeing virtually every flop in an attempt to make a nut hand and get paid handsomely. I'm dealt AKQ7r in MP. I limp along with everyone else, we see the flop 9 handed.

Flop comes A73hhh, checked around. Turn is another 7. I bet pot, a few callers, then get raised pot by maniac in LP. He could be betting ANYTHING here, he has only a rudimentary understanding of values, but he is something of a POW if he has any sort of 2p+ hand. We are both pretty deep at this point, each with several hundred behind. I start wondering what he has, and I'm convinced I have the best high hand. He does not have AA. He could easily have a flush, the case seven (with a 3? prob not an A with no flop bet), a made low hand (but I doubt this as he would def have bet the flop), or a low draw. In short, I'm pretty sure at this point I'm scooping.

I repot, everyone else folds, he minraises, and I repot. At this point this is a really big pot, even by our standards, especially as the night is winding down and people are starting to protect their stacks. I debated just calling his minraise as unless he has two of 2456hhhh and the third comes on the river, I have the best high. He ended up folding to my jam with only about $60 left, and I was satisfied dragging a large number of chips, but I wonder if I lost value in somehow not getting that last stack... Am I correct in assuming that since I have no low draw it is best to just buy this pot right now, and not take the chance of splitting it? I assume yes, as it was a huge pot and I have no chance at half of it if the wrong card falls, but greedy guy that I am, I wonder about how I could have gotten that last bit in and stacked him to my great satisfaction! Also, inflating this pot as big as possible despite having no low and it being remotely possible that we're splitting the high is correct, correct?

Why can't he have AA? Obviously he didn't because he mucked, but it is very possible on the turn before he mucked that he could've played AA that way. If he had AA (or even 77 down) and no low against an all heart flop, most likely he would be behind, know he is behind and check. With your A7 he is only calling if he has you beat, or is guaranteed the low. The only time repotting here is good is if you know he has second nut low and you may get him to muck it representing the nut low with a made high, therefore stealing his half of the pot.

In PLO/8 you gotta have the nuts or draw to it. Lots of money can be lost with second nut boat and no low on a low board. And quads is not that uncommon either. In this situation however, you were correct that he had nothing worth calling, but still he is only calling your 4 bet with nuts and you don't have nuts, so why make it?

In this particular case, there is no way he has AA because AAxx would have been potted PF. 100%. "AA is a monster. Any high PP is a monster. You raise PF when you have a monster." He obviously doesn't have 77 since I have a 7. He also doesn't have quads...

I'm pretty sure he has a decent high hand, no worse than a naked 7, and he may have some sort of low draw. I'm not worried about losing the high (although we MAY have the same high), but I don't want to split if the low gets there. My question, therefore I guess is - how often does the low get there and is there some sort of pot odds calculation or something that would indicate that I am better off TID now or calling and trying to stack on the river...

OK, so you made a read and went with it. Good move and I applaud your ability to believe in it. Putting myself in your situation and believing the read was correct, that you were scooping, I guess maybe I shove on the turn out of position and call the turn flat in position. Two bad scenarios could come of this: 1. flat calling lets a weak low take half your pot, 2. You check the river out of position and he checks behind with a lesser hand. So putting myself in your position and assuming your read was correct, I probably do the same thing I guess.

nh

OK, so you made a read and went with it. Good move and I applaud your ability to believe in it. Putting myself in your situation and believing the read was correct, that you were scooping, I guess maybe I shove on the turn out of position and call the turn flat in position. Two bad scenarios could come of this: 1. flat calling lets a weak low take half your pot, 2. You check the river out of position and he checks behind with a lesser hand. So putting myself in your position and assuming your read was correct, I probably do the same thing I guess.

nh

You played it perfectly, IMO. With so much money already in the pot and no chance of any low your goal is to push him out so you don't have to split.

Hey, thanks! Wanna make out?

Very well done. Don't worry about missing the last few chips, much worse to let a low draw get there and lose half the pot.

And no way he has AA - yes he would have raised PF, and with EVERYONE limping, at least one other player must be smart enough to (very nearly) only be playing hands with an Ace.

Getting all the money in as soon as you can here is great. I don't want some kind of random weird hand (A83Q making an eight low on the river to get half the pot. If he's on a low draw of sorts, he won't usually believe it's good, but might still make some kind of desperation call and be right to get half the pot.


I ram and jam and jam as much as I can.


Wang

you get me so hot when you talk dirty.

im relatively new to O8, but is preflop any good?
AKQ7 rainbow seems kinda weak to me

It is weak, but I only have to call .50 to potentially win a few hundred bucks if the cards come right. The pots are sooo out of line with the blinds it's worth it to call with any cards that have vague potential, esp as you're not likely to see a raise PF, because no-one does unless they have AA23 ds or something. In this situation, I think it's easily a limpable hand.