Hand 2 : AJT8 ds

I was sitting at a table, alone, waiting for someone to join me when a strong aggressive player sat down to play against me.  Immediately I clicked 'sit out next hand', but before I could leave I was dealt AJT8 double suited and opened to $3.  My opponent reraised to $8.

A strong, loose aggressive regular could three bet here with a decent variety of hands.  Aces, to be sure, but also strong or possibly strong and weak kings as well as rundowns or double suited double pair hands. Getting 2:1 to see the flop and holding a very strong hand folding is out of the question. Assuming that my opponent is three betting the top 10% of hands (probably he is reraising pre more than that actually) propokertools.com in forms me that I will have 46% equity against that range.  

Omaha Hi Simulation ? 
600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Equity	Wins	Ties
AdJcTc8d	46.36%	269,021	18,272
10%	53.64%	312,707	18,272

 

Against a much looser range I am actually the favourite :

Omaha Hi Simulation ? 
600,000 trials (Randomized)

Hand	Equity	Wins	Ties
AdJcTc8d	51.63%	298,332	22,890
25%	48.37%	278,778	22,890

Of course this refers to all in equity and our concern is really more what is going to happen on the flop, but getting 2:1, having position and being probably not much of a dog to the hands he could be raising me with calling is almost certainly profitable. Four betting (reraising again) might be reasonable too.

The flop came down Td9c5s and my opponent bet $12 into the $16 pot.  

You can see from this simulation that this is a very nice flop for my hand :

Omaha Hi Simulation ? 
10,723,140 trials (Exhaustive)

board: Td9c5s

Hand	Equity	Wins	Ties
AdJcTc8d	58.04%	6,039,295	369,527
10%	41.96%	4,314,318	369,527

I've caught up and then some.  And if you think about the sort of hands that my opponent might be three betting you see why.  I can now make two pair or trips, have 8 outs to a straight, and both runner runner flush draws.  I also have a pair of tens, which is not inconsiderable, for example my opponent has something like AKQJ which also flopped very well, but would lose to me if it goes brick brick.

So after my opponent bets $12, with exactly $80 behind, and assuming I now raise, he will be getting exactly 1.5:1 to stack off.  There is already $16 in the pot, so I match his $12 with my $12, $24, and there is $40 in the pot with $80 left to be bet.  So he is getting 1.5:1 to stack off.  If I can get him to fold in this situation with >40% equity, this is a real coup; I thought that might happen, and I even if it won't I'm almost certainly pushing an equity edge here, which is enough, so I went ahead and made a pot sized raise.  Despite the components of my hand, top pair and an open-ended straight draw not being that strong on their own, in combination along with the fact that my opponent is somewhat less likely to have smashed this flop given that he reraised pre, makes this a fairly strong situation.  My opponent quickly went all in and I if course called.

His holding was JdQh9sJh, a great hand to reraise against a presumably loose open (even out of position) and actually a slight favourite against my holding.  The board ran out Js and Kd, giving my opponent a king high straight and I quickly left the game. It's important to avoid strong, aggressive, attacking players and I will usually just quit a table as soon as one of them shows up.

Hand 1 : Aces

BB (Hero) $137.64

CO $84.79

Button $39.28

SB $23.43

Playing in a short handed .5/1 PLO game on stars I picked up AhAd3s6s and after the cut off opened to $3 and was called by the button and the SB I decided to repop to the maximum to $15.  Most importantly, I have aces, and cannot be beat just yet and should be a nice favourite on this action.  My opponents were all pretty loose, and so could be holding ugly hands which don't really flop that well and they were pretty short stacked as well. In general when you have a strong hand or the nuts you want to play it aggressively; of course there are lots of exceptions to this general rule.  All of my opponents called, leaving $60 in the pot, and we went to the flop.

The flop came perfectly : ($60) AcKs5c.  Top set on a fairly draw heavy board.  The SB, my shortest opponent, shoved his last $8.43 into the pot with a very nice draw, Qc8cTdJs, I made a pot size raise with my AhAd3s6s and the cut off decided to call with his top two pair, AsKd7d6d.  This is not really the sort of hand you want to be raising or calling reraises with before the flop, since your cards are so disconnected, but his flop play was actually correct despite the fact that he was drawing almost dead. Getting better than 2:1 on his money it would be a mistake to lay down top two pair to this action. The board ran out with the 2s and the 8h and I won the pot.

In general, when you have a strong or very hand you should bet or raise with it.  This will help protect you from being outdrawn and to extract value from hands which have a lesser probability of emerging the winner.  But strength in poker is always subjective so you must carefully observe your opponents in order to properly ascertain the meaning of their bets and respond accordingly.