[Triantafylidis]

No worries Janelle, we were all new at one point or another, good to have you here and I enjoy the post. Yes you were in early position, and although calling isn't terrible here with so many people behind, I'd like to juice this pot up a little as you have a pretty strong drawing hand. Since you are in EP, a pot size bet preflop will not be a huge bet, it may induce many callers behind you that are calling for pot odds and to have position on the original raiser(you). Even if you have to check/fold the flop, I like raising preflop here.

Secondly, on the flop you basically have two choices. Depending on how many players have followed to the flop, you may want to check to see someone lead out behind you. This has its own risks too as many times people will check behind and then you aren't adding any value to the pot.

If you choose to bet this flop, I would bet 3/4 pot. The 1/2 pot bet seems too fishy and people may see your hand as face up. Another reason I like the preflop raise is because it puts you in position to continuation bet this flop, most of the time people will see this as a c-bet and call you down with worse flushes and sets hoping to pair up.

What is all boils down to is if people catch. No matter how you play this hand, you aren't going to get stacked off unless someone hits the monster.

As for the stakes your playing, are you properly rolled for those stakes? It's adviseable to keep around a 30 buy in bankroll for PLO. If you dont have it, don't be discouraged about playing .05/.10 like you said you were, but take the occaisional shot at .10/.25 and when you're ready .25/.50. I think .25/.50 is where players actually start to know what they are doing, but of course there are still the standard fish in the tank that stack off with top 2 pair on every flop. Hope this was helpful and PM me if you wanna talk more about strategy or have questions. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]