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Very straightforward HH here, but I want to check my application of this concept.

It's a $10+2+1 knockout sat that just started. Top 2 of 52 win a $240some seat, and 3rd wins $8.

Full Tilt Poker Satellite to FTOPS Event #2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 9 players - View hand 523820
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: t1649 M = 36.64
Hero (BB): t1230 M = 27.33
UTG: t1838 M = 40.84
UTG+1: t1373 M = 30.51
UTG+2: t1651 M = 36.69
MP1: t742 M = 16.49
MP2: t1500 M = 33.33
CO: t2092 M = 46.49
BTN: t1455 M = 32.33

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with A Q 7 A
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, UTG+2 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, MP2 calls t30, CO calls t30, BTN calls t30, SB calls t15, Hero ???


I can pot it to t270.

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I elected to check. I figured that although I'm a nice favorite heads up with little action behind, I figure to end up in a multiway pot (can you tell they're loose?) OOP with only one-fifth of my stack in. I figured this was not a good spot to build a big pot with aces, so I checked.

Flop: (t240) 8 2 K (8 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t120, UTG+2 calls t120, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, CO folds, BTN folds, SB raises to t420, Hero folds....


As an aside, not that anyone cares, but I just busted out very early when I got
A25J up against the fish's KJTT rainbow. (Might even be a slight ICM error to limp/reraise what turned out to be a 60-40 edge pre because I know he ain't folding a monster like pocket tens.) These FTOPS sats are very juicy but super-high variance.

Looks like you played the hand perfectly to me. AAxx with no low is pretty much junk without the set in such a multiway pot.

To make this more interesting (because yeah, it is a pretty standard hand), how shallow would I have to be to make this a raise?

My general rule of thumb, which I picked up from some PLOH source (Hwang or Slotboom, maybe) is that it's fine to raise aces OOP if you can get 1/3 in. This makes sense, because all you have left is one PSB, and it's not possible for someone to exploit you even with half half your hand turned up for so little postflop reward.

I don't know where that point is in PLO. The bidirectionality might change things if you have miserable aces, like AAJ9r, but here I have a weak low and a suit so I can't be too bad off heads-up or 3-handed. So if I could make it like t450 to go pre, I would.

If I magically had 900 chips here I'd still check my option just because I feel that my edge is higher postflop and the pot is still gonna be multiway even if I pot pot pot. I'm gonna wait until the blinds are bigger before I start gambooling preflop and I'm gonna try to make some hands and get value while the levels are low.

If I magically had 900 chips here I'd still check my option just because I feel that my edge is higher postflop....

My understanding is in big-bet poker, it's a mistake to try to outplay people postflop from out of position. It's further my understanding that this holds true almost regardless of skill differential.

In The Coaching Tree it's suggested that you need two of three advantages to work in your favor: skill, position, and cards. We may have more skill, and we may have better cards, but they possibly won't be better cards postflop. That series is for NLHE but I think the principle holds true here too.