240 PLO8 MTT at Gold Strike

240 PLO8 MTT at Gold Strike

Hero late registered at the first break (after 3 levels).
10000 starting
blinds starting 25/50

initial reads:
1 - younger player
2 - older player
4 - mentioned he played some/a lot on PS
5 - older fishier player, seemed to like to gamble
6 - originally mid-age young person who wanted to gamble
7 - Andy - mid-30s large Asian
was extremely LAG in the LO8 MTT
8 - originally older person, eventually changed to another older person
9 - hero

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This hand occurred about 5 hands after hero sat down (as late registrant)
Hero UTG: dealt AK92 (AK suited)

hero: limps
one other player limps
sb calls
bb calls

(4 players - 200 in pot)
AKT rainbow
Hero check/folded to single PSB.

Analysis:
Retrospective, this was probably a nitty fold against unknowns. I think I should have called one street possibly...

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About 10 hands into the first level

hero in SB: dealt AA72 (A2 suited)

5 limpers
hero raises to 600 in SB
1 fold
all other players call

(5 players - 3100 in pot)
Flop: Q87 monotone (hero has nut flush blocker)
hero bets 2050
folds to seat 7
seat 7 (Andy) raises pot

Hero tanks for a while. Hero tells villain "You don't have the nuts, unless it's tc 9c xx...", but eventually folds.

Villain says "b/c it's you, i'll show you" - AK43 (K3 suited for flush)

Analysis:
This should have been a smaller bet (maybe 1800 or 1500?), since it's bet/fold and live game where villains don't keep track of pot size.
Should hero ever call for half? No, as villain's raise screams flush since raised preflop/flop aggressor.
7200 in pot + 7200 = 21600
Hero would be calling ~7200 to get 3600 back (and MTT life).

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Hero had been kind of tight.
A bit later towards level 5, hero won 1 small pot.

Hero stole one pot when ISOed weak tight player (seat 5) with AKJ4 rainbow
hero cbet flop (K95 rainbow) and villain folds

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Overall Comments about Tournament Field
Lots of limping in general, outside of 2-3 good players who tended to raise. (the players who raised tended to be online players as there were conversations about PLO8 and mixed games).

But, the level of play was pretty bad. Example a fishy player calls flop bet, then turn bet for MTT life.

board: Qx 6h 4h 2d
thinking villain: Ah 7x 4x 3h
fishy villain: AJ93 rainbow
river brings Jx and fishy villain gets 3/4.

No other really interesting hands. Hero maybe played 4 hands in 30-40 hands of MTT.

Seat 7 (Andy) was very aggressive and had some huge swings. Up to 50,000 chips, before giving some back, then rebuilding them up, all while busting 3-4 players. He admitted his very loose, aggressive style.

At second break, Andy was moved to a different table.
Before the table broke, there was maybe 2 raises preflop in ~40 hands, including one folded to BB.

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Also weird, my 25 chips were not colored up and raced off at a break.
Upon reporting to tournament director, he immediately took the chips out of play.
Sigh - should have kept them in my pocket as souvenirs :-P

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7500 at 100/200 break
5950 at 200/400
5500 at 300/600 dinner break

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Player reads after dinner break:

1 - younger player - seemed to be inexperienced
2 - older player; willing to chase player 7's bets for 1/2 the pot
7 - empty seat; Andy was moved to new table which changed the dynamic of the table
8 - eventually got replaced with older person who mincashed in LO8 MTT the day before, but said he'd never played omaha 8 before that time

Summary:
At first table, about half the table raised preflop, but now it's not the case for 2 levels.

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Side comment: Steel wheel sighting in live play!
Seat 4 was kind of fishy. He bet flop/turn (putting self all in) and player in seat 8 called the whole way.
Flop: Ac 2c 6x
Turn: Ac 2c 6x 5c
Seat 4 had 43xx for straight flush.
Seat 8 had 43xx

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hero's stack: 5000 at 400/800 blinds

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Hero on button: dealt AAQ4 (A4 suited)
4 limpers
hero raises to 3000
sb (seat 1) - calls
everyone else folds

(pot = 9200, 2 players)
Flop: 975 (two tone, hero has no flush draw)
villain checks
hero bets 2000 (AI)
villain calls and shows A984 (with flush draw)

turn: 97545 (no flush)
river: 97545 (no flush)

Analysis:
In live play, making smaller raise size to entice people to call seemed best, even though some/most players saw very few raises in general. But, either raise size seems fine.
One caller is fine to flop and getting it in on this board is fairly normal.

hero up to 7200 at 400/800

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Just before the break:

Hero on the button: dealt Ac 3c 3x Ty
2 limpers
Hero limps on the button
SB: calls
BB: checks

(pot = 4000 - 5 players)
Flop: 7c 3s 8h
everyone checks

(pot = 4000 - 5 players)
Turn: 7c 3s 8h 3d
4: bets 2000
7: calls
button: calls

(pot = 10000 - 2 players)
Turn: 7c 3s 8h 3d
4: checks
7: checks
button: bets 4000 (AI)
4: calls
7: calls

Hero shows: AT33
4: shows A2xx (no pair)

Analysis:
Flop: Hero betting on a dynamic board (nuts can change easily by river + possibility of being overset) with a low already out is kind of spewy. On this board texture, building a big pot in position is a mistake.
Turn: By slowplaying turn (not raising to squeeze either player), hero feels it can underrepresent/look like naked low that wants to get to showdown cheaply and bet rivers if checked to.

hero's stack: 7500

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After a level change, these hands occurred back to back. Hero's stack was at 6900 after chopping small pot and blinds passing by 1x or 2x.

Hand 1:
hero dealt: Qs 5s 5c 4h in BB
4 players call (including button and SB)
hero - checks

(5 players - 5000 in pot)
Flop: AJ5 rainbow
SB checks
hero bets 3000
1: calls
4: calls
others fold

(3 players - 14000 in pot)
Turn: AJ5K two tone
hero bets 4400 (all in)
1: calls
4: folds

1: shows 6532

(2 players, 1 all in - 22800)
River: AJ5KT two tone
hero: wins with set of 5s

Analysis:
Flop: This seemed pretty normal. There are very few AAxx that limp preflop. With such short stacks, hero has to accept JJxx in ranges.
Flop bet with 3rd nuts to price out flush/low draws. Higher sets would probably jam the flop before low comes on turn.
Turn: Although gutshot broadway wrap completes on the turn, hero has fold equity + boat outs to bet/call. Equity is ok considering villain's flop call range includes: top set, broadway wraps, low wrap gutshots, random flush draws).

Hero almost triples up to 22800.

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Next hand:

hero's stack: 22800 at 500/1000

(7 handed)
Hero in SB: Dealt Ac Qh 5s 3h

folds to button
button: limps
SB (hero): completes
BB: checks

(3 players - 3000)
Flop: J42 monotone (hero has nut flush blocker)
SB: checks
BB: checks
Button: bets 3k
SB: hero tanks, then c/r to 6k.
Button: calls
BB: folds

(2 players - 15000)
Turn: Q42T 3 flush (hero has nut flush blocker)
SB: Hero bets 5k
Button: quickly calls

(2 players - 25000)
River: Q42TJ 4 flush
SB: Hero checks
Button: checks behind

Villain shows Tc 8x 5c 4x (ten high flush)
Hero mucks

Analysis:
Flop: Hero tanked some before min-raising. Bet size seemed ok as some/most villains may fold to flop/turn aggression since it's polarized on flop (although there's a low draw on board).

One likely possibility: Maybe hero overestimated fold equity (if any existed) as villain had folded once when a different villain showed aggression. Villain also seemed to only bet their hands (lock low and bad flushes are 2 examples)
The villain had made a PSB though, so this was a "probably not folding spot".
Hero thought about/fired second barrel on turn, even though not fully analyzing the following:
1. villain has a hand (likely)
2. can villain fold to turn aggression? ...not really likely.

At the end of the day, this was probably a check/fold flop (chasing half is not smart) and fold equity against this straightforward passive villain should have been close to 0...so, this may have been "instinct" rather than evaluating villain and just check/folding.


Hero's Mental State:
Hero's mental state got flustered. Talking to others/tweeting/reviewing mental game of poker "injecting logic notes" eventually helped to subside the "mistake tilt" factor.

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hero's stack at 500/1000 level break - 11200

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off topic after 500/1000 level
a "sub floor" thought all 100 chips should be colored up.
luckily, hero was able to tell floor (and ask dealers) to stop by showing that there are 600/1200, 800/1600 levels.

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Table change:
About 10 hands pass (between the misplay and the break).
As hero was putting chips in rack, hero grabbed too many and they dropped onto seat and floor.
15 seconds later, the same thing happened to another player at my table.
This other player thought they had more chips than they ended up finding.
Eventually, hero walked over to verify and came to conclusion that one of the dropped chips that were found were actually other players...
Hero had about 11k in chips.

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At new table, only 1 player (seat 1) was recognizable as a nitty, middle-aged person with glasses who was at 1st PLO8 table and was at LO8 MTT yesterday, playing similar nitty style.

This hand takes place 3 hands after moving to this table.

Hero dealt UTG: AQ53 (A3, Q5 double suited).
Hero raises to 2.5k
other players fold
button calls
other players fold

(2 players - 6500)
Flop: Q85 two tone (hero has no flush draw)
hero: bets 4000
v: calls

(2 players - 14500)
Turn: Q854 two tone
hero: bets 3500 (AI)
v: calls and shows AT92 (no flush draw)

(2 players - 1 all in, 21500)
River: Q854J (flush draw misses.

Analysis:
All of this seemed pretty normal. No reads on villain, but probably fishy based on this play. Villain peeled lightly with naked nut low draw...
FWIW, hero can scoop if villain's low is counterfeited (5 cards)
Hero is scooped if villain hits gutshot (4 cards).

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Hero out in 25th of 73 runners.

This field seemed a little bit tougher than the LO8 MTT based on table draws/reshuffling after table breaks (a couple internet players were at first table), but 50% of field still seemed very bad.