Not so much when you keep losing everytime you get the money in on the flop or the turn and run ridiculously below equity. These are all my preflop or flop all-in hands since Dec. 1, 2009, spanning a 86798 hand period.

It's 25% 2/4, 66% 1/2, and the rest is basically 0.50/1.




I don't mind people telling me I suck. But if you're going to do that, please don't insta sit-out when tables break and it gets down heads up between us. At least let me give you my money.

Haven't had much time to blog, but I've had quite a bit of time to play during my winter break.

Some people might be questioning my ability to beat PLO due to my PTR stats. Even though the accuracy of PTR is obviously questionable, they do get a decent amount of hands played.

The following is my December graph, which might explain my "mediocre" PTR stats:

The last time I posted on this blog was January and I was struggling to beat PLO100.

Fast forward eight months, and now I'm beating PLO200 and taking shots at PLO400. Oh and I'm making videos for cardrunners while being a moderator at 2+2. wtf?

Ever since I got into poker, I had similar dreams like a bunch of you guys. Brian Townsend was my idol and I was going to follow in his foot steps and take the no limit high stakes world by storm someday!

But things change. I discovered PLO last year, and making flushes and straights many times a session was way more fun than hoping top pair was good in NLHE. The road wasn't easy, and in fact, I think I was break even lifetime at PLO50 for thousands of hands. It wasn't until I moved up to PLO200 that I had some major revelations about the game and started to do really well.

I've pretty much come to the realization that I probably don't have the talent or work ethic to become a high stakes player. That's okay though since I don't plan on being a professional player anyways, and I play this game mostly for fun.

I'm heading back to school tomorrow, and I really don't see myself having much time to play poker (then again, I have been pretty lazy when it comes to putting in hands even this past summer, averaging maybe 16k hands a month or so). I'm still interested in making videos though, so I will probably record anytime I play and use the interesting sessions to turn into a video.

Anyways, brag time! All 1/2 6-max (and a bit of 2/4) hands since I finally got omaha manager in mid-June:



Hope everyone had a good summer!

Before today, I had been up 2k over the last week playing PLO50 and PLO100, just destroying it.

I focused on 4-tables at a time, and was game selecting well, and was just dominating.

Today, I was dumb and decided to 6-table... I also decided not to game select well, and didn't leave tables when I knew I should of. I should've quit when I had lost a bit, but I was dumb and decided to keep playing >4 tables while a bit tilted and down - very very stupid, I need to stop doing this.

The result were some wars with decent regulars, and some bad play on my part - the end I dropped about 5.5 buyins, which upset me since I had been destroying since last week. I know I'll bounce back, but I'm more upset with the fact that I didn't stick to my goals of 4 good tables.

Initially I thought I played really awful to be honest, but when I went over the hands I played, I feel like I ran pretty bad in 3bet or 4bet pots. The whole day I kept getting like >50% of my stack in preflop with AAxx and getting cracked.

Lots of these I lost to cornellxc, who I felt ran very well vs me in our 3 and 4bet pots. I sucked out on him in one pot where we got it all in with my AKKQ vs his AA45 preflop for 100bb, but other than that, I just kept missing the flop completely while he kept hitting the flop hard.

I 4bet AKQ8cc preflop, he calls, flop comes J67hh, I have to check-fold. He claims he flopped a monster.

I 3bet AAxxss preflop, flop comes 9TJcc, I have to b/f. He knows this flop often hits my 3betting range hard, and he shoved anyways, so he obv hit it pretty hard.

Another interesting hand, fish limps, i pot KK44, cornell 3bets on my left. fish calls, I call. I'm really sure cornell has AAxx here based on the way the game was going, esp. since he knows I'm willing to 4bet lightish vs him.

Flop comes JT2 rags. Fish checks. I want to bet, but I feel like cornell might just snap shove his naked AAxx here cuz he knows I'm capable of making moves, so I just decide to check. Cornell checks. Once he decides to check here, I am 99% sure he doesn't have a big hand. Turn is a 6, putting a club flush draw on board. Fish checks, I pot it expecting to take the large pot down a lot of the time. Cornell INSTA shoves which confuses me... but i'm so tilted and curious that the turn somehow hit him that I call. He tables AA35 with the club draw. I honestly don't like that play because in this spot, I normally have him crushed, but nice hand by him.

The one time I flopped decent vs him in a 3bet pot, I got it in with 77% equity and lost.

I also lost a 500bb coinflip in a 3bet pot to a 70/10 fish where I flopped the nfd and a gs, and he flopped the nut straight. Another hand, same fish, we got it all in on the turn for 150bb, I had a straight and nut flush draw, he had a set, he binks the river. SIck sick.

To be fair, I had been running pretty darn well the last week, so I shouldn't be too surprised this was coming.

Some other interesting news... I was approached by Stox about the possibility of being a PLO coach for them.

Really surprised to get that kind of news, and not sure if I want to do it at this exact time in my life, but I'll consider it.

Good luck at the tables!

Since watching CornellXC's PLO HU low stakes video on Thursday, I have played 1661 hands of PLO50 HU and have won 8 buyins at 24 BB/100 hands. I have run a little bit above expectation in all-in's, but those major hands were coolers (e.g. I 3bet AAxx ds, flop nut flush draw and gut shot, we get it all in, he has middle set after calling preflop with 9744 rags).

Here is a nice screenshot:



I know 38 of those hands say 6-max, but I was playing HU at a 6-max, PLO/PLHE table with a major major fish. He was awful at PLO, so I just kept folding a ton during the holdem hands, and destroying him in the PLO hands for 2 buyins before he quit me.

Some quick tips... if you want to go after the fish, aim to play the guys who don't have full buyins. They tend to be just donking around, scared to lose 50 at a time, but some will keep rebuying for 50bb or w/e, so it's just as good.

Most of the regs (like I myself) definitely have leaks in their games, but the biggest leak among regs here is tilt and just playing poorly in large pots. Most of my winnings, either vs. regs or fish come in the big pots, where regs make crucial mistakes, esp. in 3bet pots.

There was one weak-tight reg in particular who I played today, who would 3bet a super narrow range preflop, and I could float any low flop (obv I float with at least a pair), and fire most turns that bring any danger, which is like half the deck.

Anyways, after being a break even player for so long at PLO 6-max, I think I've found my calling! Small sample size, I know, but I feel like I'm playing pretty well.

I'm 2-tabling at the moment. I 3-tabled a bit yesterday, but it made my head spin a bit.

GL at the tables!

After CornellXC's great first video, it's made me want to give HU PLO a shot.

I feel like I understand the game well enough to beat 6max, but I've been running awful lately and I lack discipline in some key spots where I should fold or give up on a bluff, but don't do it when I'm in a bad mindset.

I think cmyr or some other pro said it on the 2+2 forums, but half of the battle in PLO is just not tilting and staying in a calm, logical, emotionless mindset. I know if I never tilted, and understood my negative emotions in certain spots and let go of my ego and gambling habits, I would've folded and my winrate would jump.

So why HU PLO? I think it'd be a nice change of pace, and I have always loved the idea of completely outplaying someone, and 6-max tends to be a grind a lot of the time.

There's definitely more variance in HU PLO, and I'm not sure if my bankroll can handle the variance at the moment. As of next month, after rake-back, I'll probably have about 70ish buyins, which should be enough. I mean right now I have about 54 buyins, and I think as long as I play pretty well, keep a stop loss, quit people playing better than me, I should be fine.

I've always had trouble multi-tabling heads up for some reason, but I'm going to try my hand at 2-tabling, and see how that goes.

I'd like to think that heads up should be much more profitable than 6-max, at least at the micros and low-stakes if you are a very good player, but we'll see how that goes.

Since Sept 1, I have run 50 buyins below expectation in all-in`s at PLO50 (according to PokerEV software, take that fwiw).

No, I didn`t play perfect, but whether you play well or not, running that god awful sucks. Not being able to move up sucks even more I think.

So ummm for those of you who think 50 buyins is enough to play PLO comfortably.... it is until you feel the wrath of variance.

For anyone wondering, this is over about 90k hands.

I do feel like I have fixed a major leak recently, and understand this game better than I ever have before.

This morning I played my shortest session in months where I lost 6 buyins in completely standard spots, and decided to quit after 170 hands even though mentally I was feeling fine.

I got it all in with AA78ds vs Q9J5 rags (he was some guy on tilt or something), and obv flop is 99x.
Same guy, I got it all in with AAJ7hhh vs K963 ds and obv lost to a K9x flop.

Then I 3bet AAK4hhdd pf for 20bb pf, against a fish and another player, flop came 339hh. I bet half pot to induce a shove from fish, other player shoves, but I obv can`t fold with my nfd given the amount in the pot. Fish has KK77, other player has AJJ3 ds. Turn is a J of hearts lol.

Later on I flop top set on a K8Jcc flop, get it all in vs a monster wrap (QT97cc) - standard from both sides, not much I can do there.

On another hand, in a limped pot, I flop middle set with a fd on a AQ5 board, I potted it, am called in one spot. Turn is a blank, I pot again, he raises, I shove - yes there`s a good chance he has AAxx here, but most people aren`t flatting top set on a fd, sd flop. Turns out he had top set with the nfd, river is a 5, gg me.

All pretty standard hands, I`ve just been running awful since Sept, and well lucky for me I don`t play for a living. Everyone says that the high stakes players today who have done really well have been very lucky to have had upswings at the right time, and they`re prob right. Obviously the high stakes players are generally very good, but I`m sure you can imagine that if one of them had run bad from the beginning, he might`ve quit poker altogether, and never realized his full potential.

Yeah so didn't mention this last post, but I've been on an insane downswing since September 2008, due to bad play, several massive tilt swings, and running pretty awful.

Since Sept., I'm down about ~25 buyins at PLO50, and running ~16 buyins below expectation in all-in's.

I do'nt play full-time obviously, but it's always been my desire to become a nosebleed player someday (just for the challenge).

Well it's been 10 months since I started playing poker for real money, and here I am suck at PLO50.

It's nice to say that I've turned a $200 deposit into a ~$4k bankroll without ever redpositing, but considering that I've prob played something like 200k+ hands this year, that seems sort of pathetic.

Most of it is just not playing my A game all the time, blowing money away in obviously -ev spots, tilt, and running bad. Bad, bad combination.

A problem, that is probably unhealthy, is that my poker play sometimes affects my mood. When I'm losing, I can't stop thinking about it, stay up late to chase losses, and feel horrible the next day. That has got to stop.

I think I need to set a stop loss at 3 buyins or something per session, so I don't go on tilt.

I'm playing a 20/10/1.5ish TAG style right now, without much 3betting, to reduce variance, and because I really don't think a super aggressive style is most profitable for the PLO50 level. Also need to table select better, and not get into variance wars with the regulars.

I still believe I am good enough to 9-table at 10ptbb/100+ for 50k-100k hands or so, and I will do my best to prove that!

GL at the tables

Hey guys

Haven't written here in a while.

I've been running bad and playing bad at PLO50 HU, just playing too lazy and while tired, and losing all the money I make at 6-max, seems kinda dumb. I need to stop playing it.

Anyways, I've now been able to 9-table the PLO50 6max games, and have been doing very well.

I do think PLO50 6max is crushable, and I intend to prove that. I believe I can maintain a 10+ ptbb/100 winrate, while 9-tabling, for over 100k hands.

I'm a full time student, and very busy with other things, so this will take several months whenever I feel like playing or w/e. But seems like a good challenge.

Will prob post graphs/stats every 10k hands or so maybe, hopefully I can do this. And if I do, maybe CR will offer me a microstakes PLO instructor job? =)

Good luck at the tables!

Hey everyone

I haven't updated in a while, but it's not like I haven't been playing.

I took a week off before Aug 4 because I was busy, and to clear my head. The night of July 28 I went on major tilt and lost $500, which is a lot, considering I had a $1800 roll at the time.

Since I've gotten back, I've 4-6 tabled the PLO50 games and have been doing extremely well:

I've actually tilted or played tired 2-3 times doing this, so if I was playing well the whole time, I think I might've made 200 more or so.

I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the game now. I finally understand what it's like to have a breakthrough. Getting past PLO25 was such a huge hump and it took me 6 months of on and off playing. Now I feel like I'm good enough to beat as high as PLO100, and maybe even PLO200, depending on game selection.

My previous plan was to aggressively move up and take a 10 buyin shot at PLO100 once I had 3k. Well I have 3.4k now in my bankroll, and I decided to make 4k first before taking a shot.

Would suck to run horrible while shot taking...... so I think I'll just take a 10 buyin shot at PLO100 to get my feet wet.

From what I've heard, PLO100 is not much different from PLO50.

So just gotta win 12 more buyins at PLO50, and then will be taking a shot!

GL at the tables.