[Buzz]

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Question: Should I factor in any set value with the Jacks or Tens?

[/ QUOTE ]Giant Fan - I'm not sure what you mean. You mainly have a pair of jacks and a pair of tens. You also have a JT straight draw, plus a non-nut flush draw.

AKQ, KQ9, Q98, and 987 on a flop without all cards the same suit make a nut straight. 256-16 = 240 nut straights... and 4 nut straight flushes (out of 17296 possible flops). That's an additional 1% or so for nut straights. Plus you have lots of straight draws. But mainly you want to make a set with this starting hand.

You should expect to catch a ten or jack on the flop and thus make a set about one time in four. The other three times in four you will miss but might have a straight or straight draw.

I'd play this hand from late position for one bet in a loose game.

But you're not in late position. If you play this hand from early position for one bet, you have to be very sure there will not be a raise behind you, since you don't want to play this hand for two bets.

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could the same principle apply here because of the propensity of lower-limit plyers to play high-only hands and thus the increased likelihood of a high straight?

[/ QUOTE ]I don't know what you mean. Your opponents will probably like high cards. But when you hold JJTT, nobody else will probably have been dealt a hand with four high cards. 0.00935 is the probability of any one opponent being dealt four cards of ten or above. That's small enough to multiply by the number of opponents to approximate the chances of being up against someone with four cards of ten and above. You have eight opponents? Then it's about 8% likely one of them was dealt a hand with four cards of ten and above, and 92% unlikely. Of course someone could also be playing a hand with only two or three high cards.

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A very marginal flop, but the pot was large.

[/ QUOTE ]No. It's not a marginal flop. You missed the flop. Period.

You don't have a playable hand after this flop.

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After I made my straight I wanted to knock players out. I knew that no-one would fold to one bet, so I hoped a late position player would bet, allowing me to raise and force others to call two bets cold.

[/ QUOTE ]You missed the flop, but played anyhow and got lucky. Your raise here is the correct play, in my humble opinion.

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Is the pot big enough to justify a call here?

[/ QUOTE ]Yes.

Tough luck on the river. But that's the game. Instead of thinking in terms of needing two cards from your hand, think of it as needing three cards from the board. After the flop, there is one three-card combination. After the turn, there are four three-card combinations. After the river, there are ten three-card combinations. Looking at it that way, you can clearly see that Omaha-8 is a drawing game, a river game.

Buzz