Because I can take losses, and learn from them.

So anyways, last night after having a poor afternoon session, I decided to tilt off about 14 buyins around midnight or so, partly because I was frustrated by running bad vs major donks, and also partly because I suddenly felt bored cuz of the grind. I mean I did run bad, but I also played awful, like bet/calling shoves vs donk with 7 high flushes and obv losing to a higher non-nut flush. etc etc. etc.

So all the hard work I put into grinding a 20/8 TAG game the past 2 weeks and my 6 ptbb/100 hands essentially was gone, as I had won 400ish over the 2 weeks, and lost about 350 in a matter of a few hours.

But my frustration with the grind got me thinking. 6 ptbb/100 hands sucks. I remember this guy I know a bit from 2+2 who plays 2-3 tables at a time, and absolutely DESTROYS PLO25 while playing a sick 50/32 style. 50/32!!! holy. On this laptop (and I had a few K hands on him on my old laptop, with similar results), over 706 hands, which is not a huge but it's an okay sample size, he's winning at 38.34 bb/100 hands which is insane.

There's another PLO25 reg I've seen quite a bit, who also plays a similar LAG game. Over 1200 hands, I have him running over 51.1 bb/100 hands while playing 40/22. Which confused me, because if these guys are playing so many hands, how are they making money?

But I thought to myself, if I want to improve as a player, and increase my winrate, I have to learn to play a more LAG game. If you follow the high stakes games with the likes of David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, etc. etc. the top players have a much laggier game. David, who's arguably the best PLO player in the world, and def. the biggest winner online, runs at like 52/25. Patrik runs at like 39/20.

So I decided to go back to 6-tables, and try to turn my 20/8 game into a 40/20 game. I couldn't get quite that high, but I finished at 33/18 over 1100 hands, and won at 16.55 bb/100 hands. I was very pleased with my play, as I only lost one pot where I got it all in for 100bb ish, and I was a 65/35 favourite on the flop when I raised and he called, and 50/50 on the turn when the rest of the stacks went in. The restof my all in pots I got in as a good favourite and luckily held up alot.

This experience def. improve my PLO game, and taught me some interesting things. First of all, I know they say it a lot, but position really is important, and I think more so in PLO than holdem, because being out of posiiton with marginal hands in omaha is really hard. What do you do with bottom 2 pair? bottom set? etc. etc.

For example, UTG raises, everyone calls, you call in the big blind. Flop is 56h7h. You have 34xx. If you bet here, you're sure to be called by hands with good equity vs you, or the nuts, or raised with the nuts, etc. etc. So you've essentially wasted a pot sized bet a lot of the time. Conversely, if you are on the BTN and this flop is cked to you, and you have 34xx, you know you have the best hand a decent amount of the time, because 99% of people won't check this scary a flop with the nuts.

Conversely, being in position allows you to steal a ton of pots, because when peopel check to you, you have info tha tthey are weak more often than not. Conversely, you have absolutely no info when you are first to act.

Knowing this, I began raising a lot of hands vs limpers that I would fold before. KJ56 double suited vs a limper, I raise in the CO or BTN automatically, esp. when the limper has like a 75% fold to flop continuation bet. Because no matter whether I hit the flop or not, I can take down these pots almost every time. Which is great because I get to win a lot of small pots, but these all ADD UP.

In addition, at a level where soooo many players 3bet AAxx preflop no matter stack sizes, positon, etc. or raise AAxx preflop everytime, then being in position and being hte preflop raiser, I can represent a lot of hands they can't. For example, I raise 5678 over a limper, and 2 people call out of posiiton. Flop is A72. Checked to me, I can bet pot and they will more than likely fold any hand because when you raise preflop, most people assume you have AAxx. And I know these guys can't, if they are people who don't always limp, but don't limp this time. That is, AAxx is in my range, but the nuts cna never be in theirs.

Another important concept is being very aggressive with your draws. Here is such a hand, which also incorporates many of the concepts I've mentioned.

www.pokerhand.org/

Here I am raising preflop in position vs a weak limper, and we get 2 callers. Flop is gin for several reasons. First of all, people will often put me on AAxx and fold to my bet. Secondly, I have any wrap draws crushed. And I have great equity vs a set. I'm only afraid of Axxx with spades, but I still have outs vs that.

The power of betting this monster draw is that I have fold equity, not only on the flop, but if a blank turn such as the Q here comes. When it's checked to me again, I can mash the pot button, and get tons of folds because the Q doesn't change anything and my hand still looks like top set. And even if called, I still have great equity.

Here is another example of playing draws aggressively:

www.pokerhand.org/

Like I said, whenever you bet out hard, people put you on top set. So here, even if this guy whoc heck/calls the flop has a better fush draw, or has blockers to my straight draw, etc. he folds on the turn to just a 1/2 pot bet because I can rep a full house pretty easily.

Here's a hand I was very proud of:

www.pokerhand.org/

In this hadn I flop top 2 pair, and make a standard cbet. When he calls, some random straight draw or flush draw, or some dumb top 2 pair, etc. is a huge part of his range. I check the turn, because I didn't know this guy well, and whether he'd fold a flush and give me credit for a full house.

On the river, I felt pretty strongly that he had a flush, thin straight value bet, or some random 5x hand or Kx hand he turned into air. My hand looks like a slow played full house on the flop and turn, and it's obvious he never has a full house here. So I shove like I would with a full house, and after timing down, I get him to fold.

Against some opponents this doesn't work though, but it's def. a good play vs TAG regulars.

Anyways, that's enough poker blogging for today, gl at the tables everyone!