Starting with 100 bucks! I am back after 9 years

A small step on a big path😀

GL!

Thank you! 😀

There's not a lot of grinding for me at the moment, at least compared to the 60hrs+ per week I put in the first three weeks of May. I am doing more studying/practicing right now, more on that soon. Maybe I am taking either tomorrow (Wednesday) or the day after completely off from poker, would be my first poker-free day in like 6 weeks hehehe.

On a completely unrelated side note, I am six episodes into Netflix' "The 8 Show" and still unsure about it ... It definitely lacks the overall appeal of "Squid Game" (somewhat overrated IMO). It's not a bad show so far, but the plot is a bit thin and the characters are pretty shallow.

Anyway, that's all for now. GL everyone!

A bigger poker update is coming tomorrow (Friday) as I am still trying to get as much study time in as possible before the start of June.

I will forgo a lengthy May recap. To make it as short as possible: With everything accounted for, I am still up around $240 for the month. It's not a huge financial success but it's still better than being down money.

This is first and foremost a poker thread/blog (duh), but you can expect some random thoughts about shows/movies, food, video games, and football (not soccer) from time to time because ... why not? I will still keep like 90% poker with 10% randomness mixed in at the end of my posts so you can just skip it if you want.

So I started to watch "The Recruit" on Netflix. I am about halfway in and it's a pretty solid watch so far. Lots of (dark) humor and a good portion of action while having a somewhat unique angle on the whole espionage genre. I am pretty excited for the last three episodes.

GL all!

There is no need for a new thread but I will give super short cliff notes for everyone new in here:

What happened so far:

Coming next ...

The Omaha Challenge: From PLO2 to ?

So about a week ago, I decided to do what I should have done back in '11 or '12 and get more serious about PLO. I did very little preparation before I jumped on the tables, mainly just rereading parts of SlowHabits PLO book. Besides that, I just went with what I remembered about playing PLO after all those years.

I played only reg tables, mostly four-tabling, and made a ton of mistakes (as expected). But I ran super well in AIEV, although that's obv never the whole story:

So nothing to really brag about but the results will count towards the overall progress. And for future reference, here are my stats over that super teeny sample size. Obv they are far from good/optimal / GTO (lol):

Anyway, I watched the "PLO Lunch Pad" over the last few days. I am semi-satisfied with the course but that's besides the point. I watched all the theory videos (and will rewatch them in the future) and most of the PLO10 Live & Explains videos. I will save the rest of the live session videos for the future because I do not think that they are super beneficial for me right now. With that being said, I am hopefully a bit better prepared for PLO moving forward.

Building a bankroll is not the real concern of this experiment since I am super over-rolled for PLO2 (450 BI) and already somewhat comfortably rolled to play even PLO10. So it's way more about improving my PLO skills.

With that in mind, here is my plan for moving up/down, at least for the time being:

1) Play at least 20k hands at any given level with a positive EV win Rate,
2) Take a 10BI shot at the next level,
3) if the shot is unsuccessful, move down and start with 1) again.

Besides that, I will set myself some guidelines for this challenge:

1) Only reg tables
2) Table selection
3) Limit sessions to 90min
4) At least 15min breaks between sessions
5) Daily Stop Loss of 5BI

Another point of emphasis is my need to convert all those Cash Game $ (C$) I got from the leaderboard grind into actual $. I have already converted about 100€ into actual cash but have another ~708€ to go. So even if this challenge does not work out as well, I will have at least a somewhat decent BR for other formats.

This post is already way too long as it is, so I will post my June goals in a new post later today.

June Goals

In case you have not already, please read the post above for more context. 😉

Anyway, here are my goals for June. I organized them into two tiers.

Main Goals:
[ ] 20k hands
[ ] At least 25hrs grinding/week
[ ] At least 7 hrs study time/week
[ ] Get more familiar with Hands2Note

I think everything is pretty self-explaining. I am not gonna stress myself over volume because 1) I think quality over quantity is more important right now 2) I have a lot of irl stuff over the next 7-8 days and thus not a lot of time for poker. As for the last point, I never used Hands2Note before but I don't have an Omaha license for PT4 so yeah, it's H2N for now.

Bonus Goals:
[ ] Take a shot at PLO5
[ ] Dabble into PLO tournaments

Those two are more optional, depending on how the month goes. So I think of them more like "nice to meet if possible" goals...

Last but not least, a look at the side quest, which is to convert those C$ into real $.

That's all for now, gl everyone!

I will refrain from giving daily updates / posting daily graphs because that can get very monotonous IMO. Instead, I will post some hands from time to time.

1) Not sure about the river raise, I guess worse hands are still calling enough?

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 3 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

BU (Hero): $2.00 (100 bb)
SB: $2.23 (112 bb)
BB: $2.29 (115 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with 8♠ T♠ 7♣ K♣
Hero raises to $0.06, 1 fold, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.13) J♠ 7♠ K♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.07, BB calls $0.07

Turn: ($0.27) Q♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($0.27) 7♥ (2 players)
BB bets $0.09, Hero raises to $0.32, BB calls $0.23

Total pot: $0.91 (Rake: $0.05)

2) I guess that's a check on the flop 4-way and our spade doesn't really change that - maybe it's a bit different when we have two spades? Anyway, when I bet, I should bet smaller on the flop like $0.50 or so. I don't expect someone at PLO2 to fold a flopped flush here, but by betting smaller at least the Turn SPR doesn't suck that much ...

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

UTG: $3.55 (178 bb)
MP: $2.08 (104 bb)
CO: $1.25 (63 bb)
BU: $0.95 (48 bb)
SB: $2.32 (116 bb)
BB (Hero): $2.06 (103 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with 7♠ 4♥ A♥ A♣
UTG raises to $0.07, MP calls $0.07, 2 players fold, SB calls $0.06, Hero 3-bets to $0.35, UTG calls $0.28, MP calls $0.28, SB calls $0.28

Flop: ($1.40) T♠ A♠ Q♠ (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.93, UTG calls $0.93, 2 players fold

Turn: ($3.26) 5♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.78 (all-in), UTG calls $0.78

River: ($4.82) 9♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $4.82 (Rake: $0.08)

3) TBH I am still confused by hands like that one ... Is the river too thin to bet? But river x/r ranges at PLO2 are obv super nutted, so there is no way I can call here, right?

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 5 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

UTG: $1.61 (81 bb)
CO: $1.70 (85 bb)
BU (Hero): $2.00 (100 bb)
SB: $1.98 (99 bb)
BB: $2.71 (136 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with 6♣ 6♠ 7♦ 8♠
2 players fold, Hero raises to $0.06, SB calls $0.05, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.18) K♦ A♣ 6♦ (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.12, SB calls $0.12, BB folds

Turn: ($0.42) 9♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.28, SB calls $0.28

River: ($0.98) 7♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.49, SB raises to $1.47,

It feels like I butchered all three hands to some extent, which obv makes the difference between a winning and a losing/breakeven session ...

Awesome to hear that you are trying out different things and been getting back into PLO after all of these years. I have been considering getting into PLO more myself but have a lot to do on my game tree fundamentals first so just been sticking to Holdem so far to not get overloaded.

Your results are definitely encouraging. Are you enjoying it more than the AoF?

What did you find questionable about the PLO Launchpad course? Training content is never cheap and it's a heavily competitive field so any and all first-hand reviews are invaluable to potential customers.

As for the hands well I'm a beginner at PLO so I'm posting my thoughts here and hoping that someone more qualified chimes in and that we both learn from them. This is kinda more to hold myself accountable to my initial thoughts than to be able to provide you with good advice sorry. These sort of discussions can be really useful.

First hand I could maybe see some straights or 87 sigh-calling but yeah at that point I'd imagine it is mostly bigger boats that look you up after you raise.

Second hand I don't really see a reason to bet at all on the flop. Between broadway and the flush that is a scary ass board for top set. I would probably check and hope to boat up. Pray for a turn and river check from a small flush not wanting to get stacked by a bigger one. If you were to small bet flop to deny straight draws some equity then that makes some sense but a lot of straight draws would already be two pair combos with the potential to be coolered in which case folding them out leaves only the flushes and completed straights that beat you. Those hands would probably slow down on board pairing cards and might even find the fold rather than the stacking that would happen with house over house. Implied odds against continues become pretty miserable after the flop bet is called. Checking flop and re-evaluting turn would be my line. I'd probably call a small turn lead but make a reluctant fold if things got too hot turn or river.

Third hand is pretty tricky. You have straight blockers but the flop bet should have folded out a lot of wraps that would end up getting there runner runner. You block 77. The front door flush draw bricks and you would think that KK or AA would have 3bet preflop, especially from SB, so unless 99 found a set on the turn you are probably not against a bigger set. You're beating a lot of two pair hands that would have played this way up until river (which your hand unblocks) but I don't know if many of those would be turning their hand into a bluff here rather than taking the showdown. Personally I feel like there are more combos of missed draws than value that gets to the river as played but I could be wrong. All of this said, you are completely correct that the population doesn't x/r bluffs on river a great deal at lowstakes. I'd make the call hoping to see QJdd, JTdd etc. or an overplayed two pair but be fully prepared to see 99 and to lose. I'm a station though so the fold is probably ideal.

Once again these are my beginner thoughts that are more here to be corrected than they are to be learned from.

Thanks! I should have made that move in 2012, I can not image how soft those games must have been ... I remember those Half PLHE / Half PLO tables on Stars ... those were super juicy, especially with all those NLHE guys.

Oh yeah, lots more fun than AoF, but obv way more complicated. And the rake is similarly insane but the edge is way higher of course.

Wrt to the "PLO Launch Pad", I will try to summarize my pov:

Let's start with the price. It's $99, but you can get one month of their PLO Preflop Matrix for an additional $1 instead of $48 or so. So factoring this in, it's like 50 bucks which is more than decent obv. The preflop Matrix also plays a role in the course, and that's probably my first point of (mild) criticism. While playing GTO preflop is never truly wrong, I doubt it's the most effective at the Micros. There is a lot of open limping, over limping, and not as much RFI and/or 3b/4b and often you get like 2-4 callers when opening UTG/MP. So in short, nobody plays GTO there lol.

Now PLO is a very complex game and it is way harder to make generalized rules like in NLHE. The course makes a pretty decent effort to give a (sometimes very) broad overview of PLO with some easy-to-understand guidelines and encourages you to do a lot of studying on your own which is obv very good and needed.

But, and that's my second point of criticism, it's also often a "sales show" for the $999 PLO course. There are more than a few spots where it's like "Here is a very specific nod of the game tree. I will not tell you why, but according to GTO you should do XYZ here. If you want the reason and the full game tree for that spot, you can find it in the PLO Mastery course."

Overall, the course isn't bad but maybe I expected too much. I guess you can watch it and win at the Micros even when you don't have a lot / any PLO experience. For myself, I learned a few things for sure but I expected a more well-rounded course specifically tailored for PLO Micros.

I appreciate your feedback!

Yeah, the third hand is really tricky and I am still unsure ... Like you said, I block a decent amount of stuff here ... Even if he flats KKxx pre, does he play it like that postflop? Also, there are a lot of players at PLO2 who flat some AAxx pre OOP but then again, does AAxx play postflop like that?

I guess he has here K99x and A99x a lot, naked 99x although that would be a curious call on the flop and probably some weird 5♦8♦ or T♦8♦?

Thank you for the little review of the PLO course. Kinda makes sense that it is a teaser for the expensive one. Bit of a shame though. For what it is worth I have heard good things about Run It Once's course From the Ground Up PLO Edition. I have no first-hand experience with it yet though.

At least the PLO Matrix looks like a neat way to study preflop. Your current opponents may not be playing GTO preflop but by learning it yourself now it will give you a great foundation to build upon as you move up. Exploitative postflop play is likely going to be more effective at the micros but you can't go wrong by understanding hand classes and preflop better than them.

Yeah, I wonder if RIO's From the Ground Up PLO Edition would have been a better choice. Maybe I will buy it as well some day.

Here are two somewhat interesting hands from yesterday (Sunday). Both of them are against the same villain. I had no history with him, but his preflop stats indicated he is loose-aggressive (something like 30/20).

The second hand was obv heavily influenced by the first one. I thought about x/r the Turn here because there are so many rivers I have to x/f.

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

UTG: $2.02 (101 bb)
MP: $2.71 (136 bb)
CO: $1.25 (63 bb)
BU (Hero): $2.31 (116 bb)
SB: $1.04 (52 bb)
BB: $3.01 (151 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with A♣ 9♥ A♠ T♣
UTG raises to $0.07, 2 players fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.24, 2 players fold, UTG calls $0.17

Flop: ($0.51) T♠ Q♦ 5♣ (2 players)
UTG bets $0.51, Hero calls $0.51

Turn: ($1.53) Q♠ (2 players)
UTG bets $1.27 (all-in), Hero calls $1.27

River: ($4.07) 8♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $4.07 (Rake: $0.12)

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

UTG: $3.03 (152 bb)
MP: $2.30 (115 bb)
CO: $2.77 (139 bb)
BU: $0.64 (32 bb)
SB (Hero): $3.50 (175 bb)
BB: $2.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with A♥ 8♣ 7♦ A♣
UTG raises to $0.07, 3 players fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.23, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.16

Flop: ($0.48) T♥ 5♠ 8♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.36, Hero calls $0.36

Turn: ($1.20) 5♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

River: ($3.60) 8♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.24 (all-in), Hero calls $1.24

Total pot: $6.08 (Rake: $0.12)

Nice to see this thread shifting to PLO 😀

Tables are still juicy these days event at PLO25!

Regarding the hands, AussiePhoenix had a good detailed analysis:
1) I thinks this is OK to do that river raise, at PLO2 and higher you'll be called by worst hands a lot...so just take a note on the player and move to next hand 😀
2) Clearly not a bet on this flop, I understand the mechanical desire to do it but I'm sure you already know it's a prayer 😀 As difficult as it is, 4 way, I would go for a check and hope for the magic turn.
3) Tough spot here...you show some weaknesses in your bet sizings, why don't you pot the turn for instance?. I think I would have gone for a call river, you block some good cards and there is a lot of miss draw river...

GL for the grind

Thanks a lot for your feedback, I appreciate it a lot. 😀

Not a lot of poker for me with all that irl **** going on atm. I will post a graph once I hit 10k hands at PLO2.

Sometimes it is just better to be lucky than good ...

GGPoker, Omaha Pot Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Pokeit

UTG: $3.80 (190 bb)
MP: $3.06 (153 bb)
CO: $1.63 (82 bb)
BU: $0.70 (35 bb)
SB (Hero): $5.29 (265 bb)
BB: $1.60 (80 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with A♣ K♥ K♠ 8♣
UTG raises to $0.04, MP calls $0.04, 2 players fold, Hero calls $0.03, BB calls $0.02

Flop: ($0.16) K♦ 5♠ 3♣ (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $0.16, MP calls $0.16, Hero calls $0.16, BB calls $0.16

Turn: ($0.80) 6♠ (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $0.80, MP calls $0.80, Hero raises to $4, BB folds, UTG calls $2.80 (all-in), MP folds

River: ($15.48) 6♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $15.48 (Rake: $0.12)

Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows A♣ K♥ K♠ 8♣ (a full house, Kings full of Sixes)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 65%, Flop: 83%, Turn: 23%, River: 100%)

UTG shows 4♠ 7♠ 9♦ 9♥ (a straight, Three to Seven)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 35%, Flop: 17%, Turn: 78%, River: 0%)

SB (Hero) wins $8.68
UTG wins $6.68

Looking forward to the graph. That's a spicy turn card, glad you got there though. I don't have any PLO preflop tools to confirm it but I'm pretty sure that your opponent's hand is a super loose open for UTG. I would definitely make a note of that as his ranges are going to be all over the place.

Thanks! Yeah, I did not have a good feeling with that turn card and my line is probably too spewy on the turn here ... It would be nice if a PLO reg could come in and share his thoughts. 😃

I guess it's probably way better to just call the turn here and x/s with A♠ 8♠ although we block K♠?

The open is way, way too loose, it seems like according to GTO you do not open a lot of 99xx SS UTG anyway.

As promised, my graph for the first 10k hands at PLO2. It's quite embarrassing but I have to keep it real. So yeah, I am basically a fish on a heater.

June is a bit of a struggle so far:

Let's see if the next 10k hands go better I guess.

So that's where all of my missing EV went haha. Nice work putting in a bit of volume and love the honesty with the graph.

Nothing to be embarassed about man. Plenty of people on here have worse graphs but won't put them up. Being honest with yourself and others about results is infinitely more useful and brave than putting up filtered or manipulated graphs and claiming supremacy over the poker world.

Remember that you're learning a new skill, getting better every session and are honest with yourself about where you are at. Better to be a fish on a heater than a donkey on a "downswing".

Thanks a lot, much appreciated!

I wouldn't care about running below EV, but running so much above it really bothers me.

The last 1-2 days haven't been fun. Yesterday (Monday) I played through my daily Stop Loss and today I lost my cool and started to spew at least 2 BIs but got somewhat lucky again (lol).

Anyway, I am really starting to question my PLO challenge ... I am not pleased with the process. It might be dumb because of the small sample size and just starting. But like I said, gotta keep it honest.

If you don't enjoy the process it not worth it because you will experience so much variance in your PLO Journey but it's also the perfect way to improve your mental and to be proud of your work.

Forget about the lost buy ins and focus on your plays.

Regarding the turn raise, I'm sure you know it's not the optimal move at PLO2..even if the UTG open is awful you know you will only be paid by better hand. Because 3 handed (2 handed you could say you are only against a FD)...If you had the FD, it could justify the raise.

don't know if I'm clear enough 😀

Keep grinding

nice man, i just recently had the same experience on GG! the games are so soft and the bonuses are pretty insane. I recently completed every honey moon mission except the win a tournament one lol. but the honey moon ended up paying me i think 240$?? good for me because im a micro grinder. all the luck to you.

I do not have a problem with variance itself. I honestly would not care if I were to run 30 BI below EV as long as that EV line goes up... The frustration comes more more from running above a shity EV line. 😉

Nicley done with the Honey Moon Mission! I missed a few missions but yeah, completing all 30 mission has a value of $300 which is very nice. Thanks, gl to you as well!