$4 PL O Full Ring: General Omaha H/L Hand question?

This is 1/2. I'm just learning the ropes here. How did I play this hand on all streets? When should I be raising PF with A2xx? Actually any article or advise about when to raise with good starting hands would be great?

Stacks:
UTG+1 with $5.30
MP1 with $3.79
MP2 with $2.95
MP3 with $1.89
CO with $3.97
BTN with $3.68
SB with $5.77
BB with $3.28
UTG with $7.74




Blinds:
Site: pokerstars
Dealt to UTG+1:6♦ A♣ T♦ 2♦
Preflop:
UTG calls [$0.02]
UTG+1 calls [$0.02]
$upernut$ calls [$0.02]
MP2 calls [$0.02]
MP3 calls [$0.02]
CO calls [$0.02]
BTN calls [$0.02]
SB calls [$0.01]
BB: checks
Potsize: $0.18
Flop:
8♣ 3♥ 5♠
SB: checks
BB: checks
UTG: checks
UTG+1 bets [$0.04]
1 players fold.
MP2 calls [$0.04]
2 players fold.
BTN calls [$0.04]
SB calls [$0.04]
1 players fold.
UTG calls [$0.04]
Total folds this street: 4
Potsize: $0.38
Turn:
3♣
SB: checks
UTG bets [$0.14]
UTG+1 raises $0.18 to $0.32
MP2 calls [$0.32]
1 players fold.
SB calls [$0.32]
UTG raises $1.66 to $1.98
UTG+1 calls [$1.66]
MP2 calls [$1.66]
1 players folded.
Total folds this street: 2
Potsize: $6.64
River:
5♣
UTG: checks
1 players fold.
UTG+1 bets [$3.26] [ all-in ]
MP2 calls [$0.91] [ all-in ]
UTG calls [$3.26]


As a matter of fact while I was posting this this hand came up. I know that I need to work on what to do in heads up situations with the low. When I have the low nuts or near to it and I'm heads up should I just be looking to check it down? How do I know when villian may have a worse low?

Stacks:
MP2 with $4.08
CO with $1.29
BTN with $2.17
SB with $2.59
BB with $3.89
UTG with $3.59
UTG+1 with $5.16
MP1 with $8.77




Blinds:
Site: Pokerstars
Dealt to MP2:4♣ 3♥ A♠ J♣
Preflop:
UTG calls [$0.02]
UTG+1 calls [$0.02]
MP1 calls [$0.02]
Hero calls [$0.02]
1 players fold.
BTN calls [$0.02]
SB calls [$0.01]
BB: checks
Total folds this street: 1
Potsize: $0.14
Flop:
J♦ 6♥ 2♦
SB: checks
BB bets [$0.04]
UTG calls [$0.04]
1 players fold.
MP1 calls [$0.04]
Hero calls [$0.04]
2 players folded.
Total folds this street: 3
Potsize: $0.3
Turn:
5♦
BB: checks
UTG: checks
MP1: checks
Hero bets [$0.14]
3 players fold.
UTG raises $0.14 to $0.28
1 players fold.
Hero raises $0.24 to $0.52
UTG calls [$0.24]
Total folds this street: 2
Potsize: $1.34
River:
2♣
UTG: checks
Hero bets [$1.29]
UTG calls [$1.29]
Results:
Hero shows HI: a straight, Deuce to Six; LO: 6,5,3,2,A:
4♣ 3♥ A♠ J♣
UTG shows HI: a flush, Jack high; LO: 8,6,5,4,2:
K♠ 4♠ 8♦ 4♦
UTG collected $1.89 from pot
Hero collected $1.88 from pot

You're looking to make 2-way hands in this game. So in the first example, your hand on the flop is a made nut low which has minimal counterfeit protection, and your only draw to high is a gut shot that isn't the nuts. Thus, this hand goes down in value quite a bit, and you should be trying to keep the pot as multi-way as possible, or you should check/fold to any serious action.

In the second hand, your hand is much stronger. You have a strong two way hand. On the flop, your nut low draw cannot be counterfeited. You have TPTK for high, which can turn into jacks up/aces up by pairing any card in your hand (which also puts out a low). You also have a gutshot. On the turn, when you make a 2-6 straight plus the nut low, I'd be very happy shoving my stack in, especially at these stakes, since you only lose to the nut-nut hand.

Preflop, there are two reasons to raise. First, raise for value, and secondly, raise to control the number of players in the pot. Since hands in PLO8 run very close in value preflop, you want to do less raising for value, and more raising to buy you position/knock players out.

A hand where you would want to knock out players would be something like [Ad] [Ks] [Qd] [4s]. Heads up, high hands go up in value, and your low draw becomes less important. So I would raise AKQ4ds because you have lots of strong high potential, and this hand plays better against less opponents. If more opponents enter the pot, the odds of you winning with 2 big pair diminishes, and the odds of your 2nd/3rd nut low winning are also smaller.

Hands like [Ad] [2d] [3h] [6s] are what players call "pulling hands". They have super strong low potential, and thus you'd prefer that the pots you play be multi-way. This is really more of a limit concept, but the point is that the only time you'll want to put your stack in with this hand is with the nuts (a flush & the nut low for example).

And obviously you can raise your AA2X, A2KQ, A2KK, A23Kds type hands for value preflop.

c9h13no3 said:

You're looking to make 2-way hands in this game. So in the first example, your hand on the flop is a made nut low which has minimal counterfeit protection, and your only draw to high is a gut shot that isn't the nuts. Thus, this hand goes down in value quite a bit, and you should be trying to keep the pot as multi-way as possible, or you should check/fold to any serious action.

Click to expand...

Im no O8 expert by any means, but the bold text above is the most important concept of this game. You are looking to scoop the pot or get at least 3/4 of it. Lots of players at the micro stakes are looking to make a low so they can get at least half the pot, which means you could already be getting only 1/4 of the pot by splitting the low IF you dont get counterfeited. This I know is bad. You should print out what C9 said and tape it to the side of your monitor cause it is the complete and correct answer. GL

This game kinda makes my head explode, but I really enjoyed reading c9's post.

First hand you can rerais because you have a very strong low hand.. But you will only win 50% of the pot