[BluffTHIS!]

pete,

Most of those comments of David and others have been made primarily regarding NLHE, but the principle does translate to PLO. What he means is that if you make a bet and get raised, you should be glad, because either you can happily fold or happily call the raise or in fact reraise.

What he is advocating about avoiding tough decisions is not making bets where you can get raised off mediocre draws that couldn't (shouldn't) call a raise, or making excessively thin value bets where again you *shouldn't* call, but where generally you should have sought to had a cheaper showdown, i.e. exercised pot control.

Now you are right that if you can make tough decisions better than your opponents, then you will have an edge. But it is also true that if you routinely put yourself in tough spots against tough opponents, who are bluffing or raising thin a certain portion of the time to balance for when they have the goods, you mostly aren't going to like it.

All of which isn't to say you should never make thin value bets or semi-bluffs, because if you don't you will never get any action with big hands from observant opponents or even many looser aggro ones (which is why you must push big draws occasionally in PLO and be seen doing so in order to get action with sets). But if you go overboard in making such bets and bluffs, then good opponents will take appropriate countermeasures which includes checkraising and raising (including bluff raising on the river) a correct percentage of the time to punish you.

I will give a concrete example. You are on a FR table and there is a limp and raise which gets called behind in 2 spots including by you on the button and the original limper. So it's 4 way to the flop which comes down:

J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

And you hold: A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]


It is almost never correct to bet if all 3 other players check to you on that flop. Very likely one of them especially the first guy on a draw heavy broadway board is waiting to checkraise. And if you bet and he does and you both have deepish stacks, then you simply don't have enough outs to justify calling, especially if he is the kind of player who won't pay to redraw if you hit on the turn. And if all he or another player has is JT and another deuce or a 6 comes on the turn, then they aren't betting and you will have a greenlight to do so, and that bet might even garner a call by a suspicious AA. Similarly if you hit your flush someone else may have a lower one and bet into you allowing you to raise and drive out the guy with a set or 2 pair or make him pay dearly. Of course you mostly will brick the turn and someone will bet and you should fold unless getting enough pot odds via other calls. But so what? Multiway on that type of flop you had no real chance to steal and were able to get a freecard to bust someone or at least get a bet out of them.

You really need to think about this principle of not betting when you have a mediocre hand or decent draw and shouldn't call a raise, as you can't be a winner long term if you don't understand it. This also applies not just to betting at all, but also to betting the wrong amounts.