I figured we could discuss some of our hands in this thread, until we find something better. Here's one from this morning. Try and think of what you would do at each stage, before reading what I did and my thoughts. I've left off the results, to reduce that changing your answers. I also can't promise that I played this hand well, so my decisions might not even be good ones.
This is on Bovada, so I only know these players from this session. So far, they have been pretty tame. They have played pretty straight-forward and have been weak-tight. I've picked up a few pots, and they haven't made any attempt to stand up to me. A few hands ago, I got raised on the turn. I folded and a third player called. The raiser had hit a set on the turn and was called by a pair with a flush draw. An obvious straight hit on the river and they both checked it down. It's a fairly unusual dynamic for PLO5 on this site, but it was also 6:20am EDT. I expect most of the drunk spaz players had already gone to bed.
PLO $0.02/$0.05 Bovada
SB: $4.17
BB: $4.75
UTG: $4.74
CO [Hero]: $5.56
BTN: $4.56
Pre-Flop [5 players] Pot ($0.07)
Hero is dealt
UTG folds, you?
a) fold
b) call
c) raise
Hero raises to $0.17,
BTN calls $0.17,
SB folds,
BB calls $0.12
Flop [3 players] Pot ($0.53)
BB checks, you?
a) check
b) bet
Hero bets $0.53,
BTN calls $0.53,
BB folds
Turn [2 players] Pot ($1.59)
you?
a) check
b) bet
Hero bets $1.59,
BTN calls $1.59
River [2 players] Pot ($3.27)
you?
a) check (intending to call if BTN bets)
b) check (intending to fold if BTN bets)
c) bet $1.64 (half pot -- BTN has $2.27 left)
d) bet $3.27 (pot -- BTN has $2.27 left)
Hero bets $3.27THOUGHTS PRE-FLOP: I like (c - raising). This is a double suited rundown with a middle gap, I've certainly raised worse. I expect to be able to pick up the pot on a lot of uncoordinated flops, and those flops that are coordinated will probably be good for me. There are some flops that will be bad, but that's fine. We didn't invest too much. I could also see (b - calling), if the table was more aggressive and I expected a raise behind me. I'm not folding this hand, unless two people go to war and appear to be trying to get stacks in pre-flop.
THOUGHTS FLOP: I strongly lean towards (b - betting). Boards don't get drier than this. There are very few hands that should be able to continue. I am not betting because I think my top-pair is good, although it does help by decreasing the odds that someone has top set. The other players have been pretty straight-forward and give up pretty easily. This should pick up the pot often enough to be profitable. If we get raised here, it's an easy fold as our hand isn't worth much. If we check here, it's probably with the intention of giving up.
THOUGHTS TURN: That's the best card in the deck. It not only gives us a 13 card nut wrap, it also gives us a backdoor flush draw. Of the 44 cards left in the deck, we can expect nearly half of them to help us on the river. It is also unlikely to have helped the BTN. They didn't show a lot of strength on the flop, and I think (b) is the best choice. We have a lot of fold equity and we could also improve to the best hand, even if we get called.
THOUGHTS RIVER: This river card stinks, but it also is highly likely to have missed the BTN as well. I think the only two options here are (b) or (d). We have absolutely no showdown value. Betting half-pot, or even a smaller amount, saves us some money if the BTN shoves and we fold. But, I think pot maximizes our fold equity. The only hand that really concerns me is something like Q-7-x-x or Q-Q-x-x as I expect most two pair hands to raise earlier. This player might find a call with smaller two-pair hands, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. The board is pretty dry and I expect the BTN has a marginal hand very often in this spot.
So, what would you have done? Do you disagree with my aggressive line? This hand stuck out to me because PLO5 generally has me nut-peddling as 5-6 people see a flop in an unraised pot (or a single raised pot) very often.