50PLO: Playing drawing hands aggressively against light callers

Posted by

Posted by posted in Low Stakes

50PLO: Playing drawing hands aggressively against light callers

CO: $55.37
BN: $50
SB: $110.56
BB: $63.17 (Hero)
UTG: $78.34
HJ: $60.53
SB is HUGE fish playing 90/17 and never folds to cbets.

CO opens 45% of hands from CO and BTN.

They are both passive postflop.
Preflop ($0.75) (6 Players)
Hero was dealt A J 3 T
UTG folds, HJ folds, CO raises to $1.50, BN folds, SB calls $1.25, Hero raises to $6, CO calls $4.50, SB calls $4.50
I 3b, because I'm pretty sure I'm ahead of their ranges. SB will never fold, but I may fold out CO which is fine and let me play the hands HU IP against the fish.
Flop ($18.50) 5 7 8 (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11.75, CO folds, SB calls $11.75
Cbet with a NFD and a gutshot. Please comment on the sizing. I think maybe bet bigger because of the wet board, but I also want to give myself a reasonably price to draw.
Turn ($42.00) 5 7 8 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $33.25, SB calls $33.25
I turn another gutshot. This is where I'm in doubt. I'm not sure I like my bet because I have almost no FE as he generally calls very light and wants to go to showdown with all of his hands. Should I check back and realize my equity instead of betting? On the other hand I have a very strong draw and would want to build a big pot for when I hit one of my 17 (not all clean) outs.
I generally have problems playing these drawing hands and very often find myself with nothing on the river having put a lot of money in the pot. My plan is to give up if I brick the river because he will call me down very ligth, so I don't think a bluff is going to work very often.
River ($108.50) 5 7 8 2 7 (2 Players)
SB bets $59.56, and is all in, Hero folds
Final Pot
SB wins $105.50
I hope some of you will offer any insights. Excited to be a part of this site and is going to upgrade my account to the Elite Plan as soon as my Stars withdrawal comes through.

Thanks in advance.

2 Comments

Loading 2 Comments...

ndahlhoff10 12 years, 3 months ago
I don't really like the sizing otf/ott. After betting flop smallish, I'd continue with a bit smaller size ott leaving you more stack to jam otr. Or betting flop/turn much larger also seems better. I like betting turn much more than checking back. We have plenty of equity, he has a weak range, and may not necessarily fold a ton of it ott, it sets us up to jam river and he'll have a lot of weak one pair type hands that he'll have to fold
Tom Coldwell 12 years, 3 months ago
You started off by describing a drooler without any ability to fold a hand so I got really sad when I saw the turn here. However, lets start at the beginning:

Preflop: I don't think the 3-bet is that bad, indeed both have such wide ranges that you almost certainly have an equity edge here, but in general I kinda hate doing stuff like this OOP against people who don't have fold buttons (unless I have a really huge hand). The 3 means we don't exactly flop THAT good super often and having to barrel against stations SUCKS, especially when they have position (although, as the HUGE fish is in SB, I'm more ok with this). Another consideration is that, whilst pushing equity edges is good, preflop in PLO we can't be THAT big a favourite, especially with a hand like this, and the lower the SPR is once we get to postflop situations, the fewer mistakes stations will be making by doing what they do best - stationing!

Flop: As flops for our hand go, this is a pretty great one. 3 overs, a gutter and the nut flush draw is more than enough to make me smile in a 3-bet pot. Therefore, I am going to happily bet my hand, just as you did, although my sizing would be larger - around $15 - for two reasons: 1) I would rather like to be able to shove either the turn or river, your bet means we can't quite do that. 2) We should, at least as I understand it, be tailoring our c-bets to the board texture and, given that is a decently wet flop, the appropriate sizing would be larger than the one you chose. You don't need to concern yourself too much with 'giving yourself a good price' because f*** it, if they raise, it's going in regardless so whether you've bet 1/2 pot or 3/4, you're committed with this hand.

Turn: I really, REALLY dislike this bet. So much. We have 15 outs to make a hand we can expect to win with (8 hearts, 3 non-heart 9s, and 3 non-heart 4s) which, although a lot, still means we are behind if he has anything. Also worth noting the 4 might not be good if he has like QT76ssdd or something equally stupid. Therefore, our bet cannot be for value 'cas he has more equity than us, and I hope we're not bluffing because the leak we've identified is that this guy doesn't fold - you exploit him by value-betting light, not by blasting into him and allowing him to station a profit! I'm far happier to see the river for free, knowing that a lot of the time I'll make a great hand and sometimes I might river a pair that I can check back with and win - it's not like I'm worried about a passive moron bluffing me off a rivered top pair on that board.

River: Lol, easy fold for your last like $12 without a pair. Villain has a house here like always.

Conclusion: You identified villains' major leak - calling FAR too much - but didn't execute a line to really take advantage of it. It kinda sucks when you have a hand that looks this good, but can't do much more than hope to hit. However, against some people you just have to thank them for letting you draw cheap and punish them when you get there. You don't have to win more pots than villain, just more money.

Be the first to add a comment

Runitonce.com uses cookies to give you the best experience. Learn more about our Cookie Policy