PLO8 MTT (donkament) Strategy - Maniac on left

[franknagaijr]

Early in PLO8 MTT, maniac is on immediate left, and he pots close to 50% of his hands, folds 30% and limps 10%. The c-bet is pretty regular, almost guaranteed HU, and it may indicate an overpair, a weak flush draw, bottom two, or even top pair, frequently with no low or weak low. Occasionally accidentally has A2 in hand, but clearly is not waiting for low draws before potting. Hands I noted for potting included JJ68ss, KK2Tss, A2HH, KK58, and other pocket pairs greater than 9 with two random cards.

In NLHE, the typical play is to wait for a high pair, limp with the expectation of a raise, and re-raise or push depending on chip stack. Since even the best O8 hands rarely push 60% favorite, I'm not crazy about that play, especially since I saw maniac knock out at least six players who tried to get it all in pre-flop or on the flop.

Of course, limping medium-strong hands and calling the PR has it's risks too. Maniac doesn't care if he bricks and will bet his high pair, so I either need to cover the screen with my hand, or actually have a piece of the board to c-bet.

Anybody have a consistent approach for maniac on left when you have a reasonable M for seeing and evaluating flops?(greater than 15M (or 22BB) for example.) How strong a hand do you need before you limp into the expected raise? Do you raise lesser hands as a show of strength ?

Do you somehow out-donk the donk? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]