Rec Coming Back to Poker to Explore the Jungles of PLO
Well, like everyone does, I’ve decided to come back.
In my last thread which I updated for a couple months, I aimed to become a reg playing live 1/3 NLHE. I put in about 120 hours, went up a bit, got coolered, and took a break. Life eventually got in the way - I moved cities for work and didn’t have access to poker for a while. Other than making 4-5 BIs at home games with buddies, I got busy with work and didn’t play any poker.
That is, until this past Christmas I happened to be in Reno and figured I’d play a bit and got sat at one of the weakest tables I’ve ever seen. +$400
Anyway, in about 5 months I’m moving again to a city with a bigger room, and it almost always has both NLHE and PLO running. So, I’ve decided to learn PLO whenever I have time over the next 5 months and give it a shot in the summer. Earlier this week, I deposited 5 BIs for microstakes and lost it in two days. I deposited 2 more BIs and won it all back, and am currently up a few after about 3000 hands. Welcome to PLO, I guess. Won’t be posting super often but hoping to update this periodically to track my progress and share hands. Cheers
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It’s about a week later now, here’s what I’ve done:
Although it seems PLO is primarily a post-flop game, I’ve decided to first get preflop ranges figured out for a good starting point. I’ve been using the free skills trainer on PLOmastermind to get an idea of 6max online ranges, and am usually scoring around 80-85% from EP, and lower as I move closer to the button. Although online 6max will differ from live, I’m confident I can make the adjustments towards hands that perform better multi-way fairly easily.
I’ve also watched a fair bit of PLO Professor on YT who focuses on live play. His recommendation for beginners is to play hands that fall into one of these three categories:
-Suited Aces
-Pairs 99+
-Rundowns
It does seem like a very simplified strategy, but it makes sense that if it’s going to 6 ways to the flop, we need to have the nuts if we want to scoop a big pot.
I’m up to about 5000 hands of micro PLO 6-max and am currently even. While the focus will eventually be live, I’m going to continue playing online because it’s fun. I also played some live 1/2 NLHE this week to help build a bankroll (and because it’s fun), and went +$114 over 11 hours.
Where I’m currently living they only spread a table of PLO on choice weekdays, so if I’m able to I’ll jump into the game and nut-peddle but I don’t expect to be able to play more than a few times over the next few months, which is why the focus is on learning. This week I’m going to continue drilling preflop and start looking at 3-bet ranges and maybe some post-flop stuff as well.
Put in an 8-hour session today at live NLHE and ran pure, in for 300 out for 1030. Nice start to the bankroll we’re building for PLO.
My PLO preflop is definitely getting better, still working on RFI ranges and will eventually make my way towards facing a raise, 3b pot, etc. Currently +5 BIs after 6000 hands at microstakes.
There’s a 5/5 PLO game going on tomorrow night, might go rail the game and see how it plays. I still feel very weak post-flop but looking to spend some time this weekend and get better.
Update for the week:
Didn’t get as much PLO study as I wanted due to spending a fair bit of time playing live hold’em. Went down 200 over 14 hours spread over the last few days.
Total since I returned to poker:
+1030 over 41 hours
If I could build to a bankroll of about 3000 (10 BIs) for live PLO I’d feel decent, just not sure if I’ll be able to put the volume for it.
I did spend more time doing PLO preflop trainer and am definitely seeing improvement. Hoping to do some more PLO study this week since that’s what the focus of this blog is.
Well, just about busted my small online bankroll again. Lost ~7 BIs over the past 24 hours with a decent portion of it being losing all-ins where I got it in good.
Currently -5 BIs over 8000 hands at microstakes. Obviously a very small sample size but would bet that I’m a losing player. Would definitely like to become a winning player before playing live, even if they play very differently. I’ll probably deposit some more if I lose what’s left in the account and keep on playing.
Currently struggling big time against aggressive players. I know I should be raising back at them but I always just feel behind.
With such a small roll everything can happen, np. Reload and go again, I have lost many rolls when I started.
Gl in future.
Not much to report this week, was busy with work so not much time for poker. Played a little bit of microstakes while walking on the treadmill at the gym (lol) and did a bit of preflop trainer.
After depositing some more online I went on a big upswing and actually won everything back + a few buyins and then just lost an AAxx v. AAxx AIPF for 200 BB and a nut straight with flush draw v. nut flush draw all in on the flop for 300 BB about 10 minutes before making this post. Feel like I’m probably running below EV on all-ins but I definitely still am very lost most of the time postflop.
Currently even after 9000 hands of microstakes PLO.
Expecting another busy work week but hope to play at least another 1000 hands of micro PLO, some PLO preflop trainer, and maybe some live NLHE to build the live bankroll over the weekend.
