PLO Hands - 1 tourney, 1 cash

2 interesting PLO hands, IMO, that have been marinating for a little while in my mind. The hands aren't really related in any way, but I figured I would knock them both out here at once.

Tourney Hand

The first hand was from an online Pot-limit HA (half holdem, half omaha) tournament. Somehow, I lost the HH, but should be able to remember most of the details. The tourney started with just over 100 runners, and at the time of this hand, we were down to the final 2 tables. I think there were 16 players left when this hand came up. The tournament paid out 12, so we're nearing the bubble.

The blinds are 200-400 with 50 chip ante, and I'm sitting on a stack of about 14000, which is slightly above average. It's the PLO round, and I get dealt 6c-7c-7-8 on the button. The CO, with a short stack of 4000, pots it to 1700. It's borderline, but I decide to call. The SB, with about 11K, also calls, and we see the flop 3 ways.

The flop comes 5-6-Q rainbow. The SB checks and the CO moves in for his last 2300. Given my pair plus OESD, it's a pretty easy call. Then, the SB ships in his remaining 9K+.

I don't play a whole lot of tournament PLO, so this was a weird spot for me. But let's start with the PF action... I hold a decent PLO hand, one worth seeing a flop cheaply, and which benefits from good implied odds. In this case, I can play pretty close to perfect against the CO, since he is almost guaranteed to get the rest of his chips in. But this close to the bubble, should I be calling a raise for 15% of my stack with a marginal hand? Folding PF would probably have been fine.

I think my call of the CO's push is easy, but once the SB shoves, I am in a tough spot. I would be calling ~7K to win almost 19K. But losing puts me on a pretty short stack of ~3K. If I'm up against a set and a draw similar to mine, I'm in really rough shape, and the same goes if I'm up against a dominating draw (7-8-9). At best, I'm up against 2-pair (SB) and high connected cards (CO), in which case I could be as good as 40% to win.

I ultimately made the call and found myself up against 2-pair from the SB (Q-J-9-5) and high cards (A-Q-J-9) from the CO, pretty much the best case scenario. But I bricked out, and busted out 14th a few hands later.

My guess is that the primary mistake was the one PF, where I should be giving bigger consideration to where we are in the tournament, and not putting myself at risk to lose a lot of chips. If I am entering pots, I should be raising, and not calling, to take advantage of FE. Anyone hate my play, at any spot in this hand?

Live Hand

The second interesting hand came from live $1-$2 PLO play during my recent Vegas trip. The villain was a young guy who seemed to know what he was doing and hadn't made much noise in the 45 minutes or so that he had been sitting at the table. Villain has $220 and I cover.

An EP raiser makes it $10, MP villain calls, I call from the CO with Ah-Qc-Jc-Td, the button calls, and the BB calls. $50 pot.

Flop is Kc-2h-5h. EP checks, Villain bets 20, I call and others fold.

There are a couple of interesting things about the action here. One thing I find in PLO, especially in multi-way pots, is that the action from early position tends to be extremely straightforward and honest. Given the dryness of the board, the Villain betting here likely means 2-pair or a baby set, bet for value. Unless he has a monster straight+flush draw combo, he probably doesn't want to lead out and find himself out of position with just a one-way draw. My opponent is handicapped by his position in a big way...I know he isn't semi-bluffing the nut flush draw, since I have the Ah. So I'm in a good spot to make a dry-A bluff if another heart falls.

The second thing to consider is my hand and the strength of my backdoor draws. There are quite a few cards in the deck (any A/Q/J/T/9) that can fall and give me a big nut-straight wrap draw heading to the river. Plus, I have a backdoor 2nd-nut club draw. Now, it isn't always correct to call a flop bet with only backdoor draws. The key factors are stack depth and opponent bet-sizing. Stack depth is key since backdoor draws are by definition less likely to hit, but get paid well when they do since they are disguised and tough to read. Bet-sizing is critical because if you are facing a pot-sized bet on the flop, and another likely PSB on the turn, then you are unlikely to be getting the right odds to draw, even if you get part-way to your draw on the turn. But against an opponent making a small flop bet, you can often anticipate either a check or another smallish bet on the turn. After all, why would they suddenly change their story from weak to strong when the turn falls.

Now back to the hand...

Turn is the Ad, giving me top pair and a 9-out broadway wrap. Villain bets out 50 into a $90 pot, and I have an easy call now.

The river is the Tc, giving me the nuts. Villain bets $100, leaving only $40 behind. I shove for his remaining chips, and shockingly, he folds pretty quickly, leaving me to think he was either stone bluffing with a heart draw that whiffed.

Of course it takes some luck to have a backdoor draw come in like that. But if you recognize good hands and situations to play strong, multi-way backdoor draws, you can make a decent profit of it...and also enjoy the berating you'll receive for catching up from so far behind.