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Preflop: I raise to take the blinds because the table was tight. Should I have just called?
[/ QUOTE ]Hi Jim - You raise hoping to steal the blinds and win three bucks? My problem with that line of reasoning is I think your starting hand is worth more than three bucks in a $2/$4 game.
Still, your tactics would have worked out better for you if you'd had better luck with Button folding and then better luck with the cards of the flop. (And the result, whatever it was, could hardly have been disastrous for you, but maybe the result was a bit unsettling in that you realize it was not optimal).
Your starting hand is well above average, certainly good enough to raise before the flop. In another situation I might raise before the flop with it. However, in general, I would not raise before the flop with this hand. Instead, I'd want to keep as many opponents as possible in the hand with me.
In some other poker games limping with a hand strong enough to raise would be termed "slow playing." However that is not the best perspective to have when limping before the flop in Omaha-8. Instead, think of limping with this type of starting hand in Omaha-8 as "pulling." (I think that gives it a different, better, perspective).
An interesting love/hate aspect of Omaha-8 is everything can suddenly change. After the flop or after the turn, the fit can be such that this starting hand will need all the protection it can get, or you may want to promote your nut high or low into a scooper. At that point your hand will abruptly metamorphose into a pushing hand.
After the flop this starting hand will probably continue to be a pulling hand. But it may become a pushing hand. Hard to say without knowing the flop.
At any rate, before the flop, this starting hand is definitely a "pulling" hand. Indeed, most good Omaha-8 starting hands are "pulling" hands. And that is an aspect of starting hands regular Texas hold 'em players, even very successful ones, do not seem to understand.
You could be at a table where your opponents are gambling fools and unable to read your cards - and then it would make good sense to raise before the flop, even with a pulling hand.
But although it's hard to judge on the basis of only one hand, that does not seem to be the case here.
You should want to pull as many opponents into the action as possible.
Why is this hand a "pulling" hand, rather than a "pushing" hand? Because this hand will often make the nuts on the river, and even when it doesn't make the nuts, you will often end up with a winning non-nut hand.<ul type="square">• You have a suited ace, the nuts if the board flushes in your suit.
• You have the nut low if the board on the river has three low ranks without aces or deuces.
• If you make a straight it will tend to be the nut straight.
• If the board pairs and you make a full house, it will tend to beat an opponent's full house.
• If the board pairs and you don't make a full house, your trip jacks, trip tens, or trip deuces will beat those of an opponent who also ends up with trips and doesn't have an ace kicker.
• Your two pairs will tend to be better than an opponent's two pairs, if nobody has better than two pairs. (Happens a lot more than some apparently think).[/list]Bottom line: Instead of chasing people out and stealing the blinds, you should want potential customers who will end up holding non-nut hands and who will end up paying you off when you end up with a winner.
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Flop: Standard?
[/ QUOTE ]For a full game, or even for several opponents seeing the flop, you missed a good enough flop fit to continue.
However here you only have one opponent and the flop is high. If you think your one opponent may not have much of a fit either, it makes some sense to take a stab at the pot.
But if you bet because you thought your hand/flop fit is better than your opponent's hand/flop fit, be aware there are lots of ways your opponent could have a better hand/flop fit and in addition, your opponent has position on you. And be aware that your opponent probably will know full well that you realize a good fit with this particular flop is less likely than with various other possible flops and that you might be doing exactly what you seem to be doing - taking a stab at the pot.
At any rate, you bet this flop, your opponent raises, and you're more or less screwed. You don't have much of a flop fit yourself (whether you realize it or not), but you can't tell if your opponent has a better flop fit or not (and you don't know if he realizes it or not). And since now there are 8.75 small bets in the pot and it will only cost you one small bet to see the turn, you call the raise.
You cannot like the way things have gone for you thus far. By raising your flop bet, your opponent may be executing the first step in a "free card" play. That's more of a Texas hold 'em ploy than an Omaha-8 ploy, but sometimes I see it and sometimes I use it myself in Omaha-8 play.
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Turn: I made two pair and decide to call him down.
[/ QUOTE ]You actually should like the turn, but are afraid your opponent raised on the flop because he has a AKYZ, or possibly because he has QJYZ. So you check, planning to call your opponent down.
And then your opponent checks behind you, perhaps successfully executing the second step of a "free card" play. Or maybe Villain is simply playing coy, hoping to get a bet out of you on the river.
After the way you played the first betting round, you end up betting when you don't have a bet and checking when you do. Ironic, isn't it.
Buzz
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Sums it up imo.