This kind of thing has happened very frequently, with less vulnerable hands than a flopped str8 eg) nut full houses. Whilst I've experienced the variance of FLHE, and bad runs. Having put a lot of work in on FLO8 to improve my game, I'm getting very little out, and it's getting dispiriting. If a hand stands up, it's generally a smaller pot due to lack of aggressive players to help me push pot equity advantages.
Have other winning players, gone through poor runs? FLO8 seems to me to be a real grind, just eeking out small edges, with very poor players able to play loose-passive with their stacks going off in rake, rather than over to my stack. In FLHE I tend to have more chance to protect vulnerable marginal hands eg) top pair on flop by check/raise.
With the FLO8 1-1-2-2 betting structure, caller collusion is making the most horrible flop calls seem like a small price for the next card.
Pre-flop: I raise with A289 precisely to buy outs for middle str8s
Flop: Nut Str8 + nut Lo draw, bet
I think if Fish1 wants to go for a str8, with an 5A Lo draw, putting me on Nut Lo he ought to be raising, and hope my Lo draw gets busted, possibly gaining free card on turn. MP2 seems to have got rewarded for very bad play.
Turn: Nuts + nut Lo draw, bet
River: Non nut str8 no Lo
As is I realised the river card was bad, but I value bet because the pot was big, noone would put me on the 98 str8 so I'd get called by weaker hands (even pairs), and the loose players behind had 'random' hands, rather than high liklihood of nut str8. I couldn't construct a good reason for most KJ/J8 hands to be in the pot. MP2 is quite poor enough to call a raise with medium running cards, and draw on a gutshot to a split pot, ie. T-hi str8, not just drawing to a better nut str8, hence my call of river raise. Furthermore if I showed weakness, MP1 bets then I end up calling MP2's raise anyway. What happens is I miss bets, when my hand has stood up, and pay off the same when it hasn't.
So is my thinking and way I played this sensible? Do I keep plugging away, perhaps exercising a little more caution regarding the nuts on the river. Perhaps switching over to PLO would make more sense?
FTR Hand History Converter Output (intended for copying and pasting into poker forums!):
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PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Omaha/8 (10 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from
FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)
Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with
,
,
,
.
[color=#666666]
2 folds</font>, [color=#CC3333]Hero raises</font>, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, [color=#666666]
2 folds</font>, Button calls, [color=#666666]
1 fold</font>, BB calls.
Flop: (10.50 SB)
,
,
[color=#0000FF](5 players)</font>
BB checks, [color=#CC3333]Hero bets</font>, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, Button calls, BB folds.
Turn: (7.25 BB)
[color=#0000FF](4 players)</font>
[color=#CC3333]Hero bets</font>, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, Button calls.
River: (11.25 BB)
[color=#0000FF](4 players)</font>
[color=#CC3333]Hero bets</font>, MP1 calls, [color=#CC3333]MP2 raises</font>, Button folds, Hero calls, MP1 calls.
Final Pot: 17.25 BB
Results in white below: [color=#FFFFFF]
Hero has 8c 9h 2d Ah (High: straight, ten high).
MP1 has 6c 8d Ad 5c (High: straight, ten high).
MP2 has Jd Qs Ks 3d (High: straight, king high).
Outcome: MP2 wins 17.25 BB. </font>