on the cutoff. 3 limpers to me.
in the SB. UTG raises and MP calls
on the button. UTG and MP limp
on the cutoff. 2 limpers to me.
in MP and UTG limps
from UTG+1. UTG limps
on the button. It is folded to me.

Okay, here's a quick quiz. With all of the above situations, two seats to your left is a weak knowledgeable player. He knows good hand selection, but doesn't understand some of the more intricate parts of the game. He never raises the nut low.

Other than him, most of the others on the table are a typical selection of bad players and none of the players at your table have VP$IP lower than 30%.

For each of the preflop situations above, what would be your action (call, raise, fold, reraise (if applicable)) and why? What's your plan for the hand if you do continue and what flops would you proceed with and which would you drop?

Take as many or as few hands as wanted - this is meant as an exercise in hand selection. If you want or need more information, please feel free to ask. This is as much a series of situations for you to learn as it is for me.

/d

on the cutoff. 3 limpers to me.
I fold here, no low, too many people (I guess it's Limit O8 as you talked about nut low...)

in the SB. UTG raises and MP calls
fold again, same reasons as above+bad position

on the button. UTG and MP limp
raise, I don't see any reason to limp with A2, even on the button

on the cutoff. 2 limpers to me.
raise again, I want more money in this pot

in MP and UTG limps
call but ready to fold to any scary board....

from UTG+1. UTG limps
call, the 4 diamonds make this hand less attractive but worth to see the flop.

on the button. It is folded to me.
raise, there's a chance you win the blinds, but that 8 is bad !

I'm not a O8 player but i'll give it my best shot. these answers would change if it was PL as I like to see flops cheap and push postflop since this is a postflop game.

1) I fold in H/L with no low
2) see 1
3) raise
4) raise
5) probably fold (i'm weak/tight )
6) fold in ep, probably limp in lp
7) raise depending on the blinds, maybe just call but likely raise

Hand 1 is a typical dangler and needs to be played carefully if at all. In most circumstances, I think this is fine as a fold - in this particular case, I decided to see a flop with it. I'd be hard-pressed to believe I'm in bad shape and there are particular flops I'm looking for here:

1. no ace, with 2 high cards
2. ace of clubs and another high club, the third card should be part of a broadway straight draw.
3. king with at least a backdoor flush draw or straight draw - one low card only - an ace here is acceptable.
4. TJx rainbow or with 2 clubs.

This essentially means I'll be check-folding on the flop 2/3rds of the time - however, right now I'm getting 4.5:1 to hit a reasonable flop. While I don't expect my kings will be good unimproved - there are plenty of good flops. Most of the time, in limit O8, when the flop is high-high-low or high-high-high - the pot very quickly is either dropped entirely by your opponents or becomes heads-up.

If I felt the SB or BB would raise - I think this is a clear fold. I only want to see this flop on the cheap.

Comments? Disagreement?

I'm a very green O8 player still only playing at the microstakes levels ($10 PL). Also, I don't play limit so my limited (pun) experience is exclusively from Pot-Limit.

in the SB. UTG raises and MP calls
Fold. I guess it is a decent "defensive" hand but I wouldn't even play it in an unraised pot on the button so I won't play it out of position against a raise (I really don't bother defending my blinds).

on the button. UTG and MP limp
I guess I should raise it since it is a really good hand but I practically never raise preflop. I guess I am tight and superpassive preflop. Got a nut low, nut flus and high set potential. I'd play this against a raise too.

on the cutoff. 2 limpers to me.
Obviously excellent low potential and a suited ace means decent high potential as well. I guess I should raise but... I'm passive, remember.

in MP and UTG limps
Mjeh. No real low potential. Limp along if I am feeling loose. It has a good high potential and an emergency low so I guess it could be a good hand heads up?

from UTG+1. UTG limps
I'll limp with this hand. The few times I do raise preflop it is either from late position or a limp/re-raise with a monster like AA23s or AAK2ds

on the button. It is folded to me.
Raise to pick up the blinds or fold, if the blinds are loose or good players.