This is not a bad beat post.

I am fairly new to plo and have only been playing for a month or 2.
Just a quick question. How often does a set over set situation happen in plo?
So far I have lost several buy ins with middle set on the flop.

Am I just overplaying sets?

Not even read your post, but yes. Yes it is.

Quite normal.

is it a hand i should be going broke with?

bottom set, just about never.

middle set, more than bottom set but less than top set.

top set, a decent amount of the time.

Regarding when to go broke with 2nd or 3rd set - it pretty much always depends on your opponents and the board texture. But yes, I got it in 3 times the other day with an underset....one of them I think I could definitely have folded if I wasn't maybe tilted at that point.

Other advice: hit your one-outer sometimes, it really helps a lot.

If you are facing crazy action and you are holding middle or bottom set on a board like Q73 rainbow (i.e., very few draws possible) then you definitely have to be careful, the same, obviously, if there is a straight or flush on the board. But middle and bottom set are strong hands - yes, it is expensive to overplay them when you are beat, but it is also expensive to underplay or fold them when they are good. (as a side note, you should not play many hands containing low pairs, and if you do play them, you should have good side cards that give you back-door draws: For example 7765 on a board of Q73 has a gutshot in case the set happens to be beat - that makes a big difference.)

^^^^ wut he sed



Seriously, that was said very well. I think the best thing you pointed out is hand selection - you shouldn't have to face too many tough decisions with naked 3rd set if you are playing well preflop. Conversely, if you've got a whale sitting with you who won't ever fold a naked flush draw or two pair with an ace kicker (ace kicker --> sw), then you want to try to make bottom set on him.

When you are facing heavy action on a draw heavy board with middle set aka 2nd nuts , even if you aren't against top set you will be against a good draw(s) most of the time which you are an underdog against.

Most people play sets like they're the absolute nuts. I like to think of sets as drawing hands. There will almost always be a possible straight or flush on the board by the river if the board doesn't pair. I say play a set as if you're drawing to a full house. I stack a lot of people with wraps vs. sets, and i've lost a ton of buyins with sets vs. a wrap. It's easy for holdem players to start playing PLO and think of a set as the absolute nuts. I tend to think of set as similar to top pair in holdem. A ver strong hand, but not necessarily the absolute nuts.

Hope that's helpful.

PLO's a great game. Good luck.

I'm guessing this is a level, but it sounds like OP is too new to the game to catch the "woe-is-me, I hate getting all-in because I always get sucked out on" meme that certain PLO players seem to follow. More serious advice is probably warranted here.

Anyway, for a new player, I'd say that stacking off with middle set every time is just fine. As you become more experienced with hand-values and hand-reading in PLO, you'll occasionally find spots to dump middle set, but it's much more rare than say finding spots to get all-in with top pair and no draws (other than 2-pair draws). In raised pots with no straights or flushes possible, bottom set's usually a stack-off hand as well, at least 90% of the time.

Top two starts to get a little dicier. Usually if you're raised by a really passive player you can fold. If you're raised by an aggressive player, it's often good to see a safe turn since you only have 4 kill cards, and when the draws hit, you're drawing really slim. Regularly bet-folding top two to aggressive players on coordinated boards is definitely too weak though and will allow you to get run over pretty badly.

The thing that OP needs to know is what is the state of the pre-flop action, the player types, and the current pot size. If you limp in with 6678ds and 5 limpers see a flop of Q64, then yes you need to be folding if you can to heavy action.

If you raise preflop and get 3-bet, and see that flop HU with 25bb in the middle, shove with any set every single time.

OP, this is the most skillful poker game played at the moment, so jump in and learn it, it'll be worth it in the long run...