How would you play this type of hand? PLO8 (full ring)

[Bad Beat Jason]

How would you play this type of hand? PLO8 (full ring)

AA55 rainbow in late position (CO or Button) with two limpers in front of you.

AA66 single suited in early position.

AA77 and AA88 in general.

I seem to have a tough time deciding the best way to play this type of hand. The games I play don’t have a lot of raising/re-raising before the flop. Limping seems very weak, but very few flops will really hit this kind of hand well. On the flip side, a raise will often get called by anyone who limped or would have limped in the first place. Then I’m back to playing the hand against the field with a larger pot and with only average equity in most cases.

I haven’t specifically charted my win rate with the above hands with poker tracker, so I can’t even say if I’m bleeding money. I do know that I don’t like starring dumbfounded at my screen for a few seconds trying to plot my course of action.

[bbartlog]

Opponent stack sizes could be relevant. Shortstacked opponents make raising a better option. But absent other information...

AA55r with limpers: pot-raise
AA66s EP: open with pot-sized raise
AA77/AA88: limp from EP or if there are other limpers, pot-bet if first in from middle or late position.

Exceptions are if I'm playing with a bunch of people who play loose and who I know won't fold to the preflop raise, in which case I'd limp all but the AA55. Another thing: if you never pot-raise with anything *except* AAxx preflop, it makes you too easy to play against. So if you're not raising other hands and your opponents are decent, then limping once again looks better.

[elche92]

Playing AA with a medium pair like AA66, AA77, AA88, AA99 is not that great especally if its a rainbow hand. The times when these hands are playable are when they are double suited. In omaha8 you need a hand that will scoop. Hands should have flexibility and potential. Having two pair in your hand limits your out come to a set or full house if you're fortunate. Being double suited gives you the potential to make the nut flushes. Hands with AA have more potential if accompanied with a small pair 22,33,44,55. Here you have the potential to win the low ro make the wheel. Remember that many players will play an ace low for the low pot potential so having AA in your hand will probably not improve. If you are playing short hand 3-4 players then definitely raise with AAxx since two pair may take down the pot short handed. For more information look for the book Advanced Omaha Hi/lo split strategies: A comprehensive guide to strategies and scenarios by Antonio Garcia. The book covers how to play these hands and also scenarios (limti and pot limit).

[bbartlog]

Thanks for the hand value lecture. But this is really kind of orthogonal to the original question; I expect Jason is already aware that these are not fantastic hands. That's one reason they're hard to play.

two pair may take down the pot short handed

An overpair may take down the pot on the flop HU. Anyway, so far as shorthandedness goes, the question isn't so much how many are in the game, but how many see the flop. AALx is a favorite HU against just about everything; against three other hands it starts to look much worse. Thus the need to raise preflop even if the value proposition is dubious. Of course, this only makes sense if some people will fold to preflop raises...

[Truthiness24]

I think that these become hard hands because they're hard to let go of if you aren't experienced. They play well against a small field for the reasons stated.

Isn't the optimal play: pot bet PF except limp against a loose field (then limp), c-bet the flop as appropriate, be prepared to fold if you don't like the board or meet resistance. Hit a set or fold against a loose field. Vary play as conditions change.

[Rush17]

If a raise in your game usually gets called by anyone who had already limped in, then I don't care for a raise with either of those hands (especially with relatively low blinds)because you won't be able to get them to HU (which imo, would be the best case scenerio). I would limp along and hope to flop good and maybe I'll be able to trap someone if an Ace flops as it's much harder to read when noone has preflopped raise.

Also, players tend to chase less and release easier on the flop when the pot is small.