Hey so I wandered into a PLO real money game for the first time and got my butt handed to me. I found the tables a lot less fishy than I would have liked. Tables were very loose preflop, but it didn't seem like NEARLY enough people were chasing their straights and flushes on paired boards as I would have liked. And it seemed like my hands were the ones not getting there.

This was 5c/10c PLO, with a max $20 buy-in. Most people had 10 bucks or less at the table, although the big stack was over $100 (!!). I always bought in for $10, and by the end of about 2 hours I was down $30. Bleah.

I learned a bunch of stuff. For instance, trips top kicker is no good if anybody is betting strongly. I knew that intellectually, but last night I paid 7 bucks to learn it for real. Super obvious newbie type stuff.

But what about this hand?

I am in MP and get QJT9 with the QJ of the same suit. UTG calls, UTG+1 pot raises but it's not much of a raise of course, and most everybody calls anyway. Is this an OK call? I was thinking that QJT9 is a solid hand and that it would be multi-way giving me really good odds. Yay or nay?

Anyway, the flop comes Q99. Checks to me, and I bet about half pot and get 2 callers: BB and LP. Turn is a T, putting a bunch of straights out there as well as the boat, I bet about half the pot again, and get 2 more flat calls. (I was worried about folding people with full pot bets; good idea or no?) River is a J so the board is Q99TJ. As far as I can tell I seem to have the best hand and I'm loving the idea of two people having good straights. So I bet most of the pot, which is also most of the rest of my stack, and again get two flat calls. LP was a little bit short so my last bet put him all-in -- he shows QQxx and scoops.

So, should I have been willing to play for (almost) everything with this hand?

Later I got sucked out on twice, people sticking around with two pair to beat my turned straights with boats. I potted the turn both times. I know that kind of stuff happens a lot. Both times I paid off on the river but only because they bet pretty small. I felt OK about that stuff.

Thanks!

QJT9 is a huge hand in PLO. Should usually be played for a raise and pretty much never mucked, especially with a single suited feature involved.

That hand you got unlucky. You should probably play for your stack on such a board in a $10 game. Given that you hold a Q, a J, a T and a 9, the hands that beat you (QQ, JJ and TT) are very rare.