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Middle rundown hands are ones like 4567 or 5678. In Omaha High Low games they are basically garbage. Once a player gets a little experience with hilo they will figure this out pretty quickly if they didn't already know before they started. While the concept of these hands being pretty much unplayable is really Omaha 101, it came to my attention recently that a lot of players don't know this so I thought I would make a quick post to discuss it.

The first reason not to play them in Omaha High Low is that they will basically never make the nuts. There are very few boards that will give you the nut straight. Even when you make the nut straight there will usually be better low hands out there and you will end up with half. As you should now by now the name of the game in Omaha High Low is to scoop, so getting half the pot won't get you anywhere in the long run.

The second reason is when you manage to make a flush, it is almost never going to be good. If you make a 7 high flush and get a lot of money is, you are going to be praying that the other player has a low and you can get half the pot. Again, even in the best case scenario you will not be making any money. If you manage to make a full house, it usually won't be the nut full house. So you are pretty much screwed on any board where a flush or full house is possible, and that's a lot of boards.....

Lastly, you are going to get quartered and free-rolled a ton with these hands. Getting on the wrong side of those situations too often in Omaha High Low will make you a massive loser, and playing middle rundowns is a good way to get there.

I was thinking about detailing out some hand examples, and showing some flop fit equity curves to illustrate by points more quantitatively. But its Friday night and I'm feeling too lazy, but I wanted to write down what was on my mind. Maybe I'll create a more detailed article for Nutblocker.com or put out a video on the topic. If you have interest in that (or some other topic) send me a tweet @campfirewest or an email at campfirewest@hotmail.com.

Since black Friday I haven't exactly played a ton of poker. I've played enough on Merge to stay reasonably sharp, although given the options available to US players right now I play pretty much for recreation. The stakes are too low, there are too few games, and cashouts are too difficult to play to make money. But I still love the game and am glad there are still some opportunities to play.

While there aren't as many PLO8 games available as their used to be, the good news is the ones that exist are still juicy. I'm working on a series of blog posts on PLO8 strategy that will be coming out soon. While people seemed to enjoy the travel related posts, this is a PLO8 blog afterall and I'm going to start refreshing the content. I may also make some short (~10 min videos). In the meantime here's an example of how good the games can be right now. The villain in this hand was playing 90% of his hands, so J235ss was probably the top of his range:

MichaelBluth raises to ($39)

MichaelBluth shows:

MichaelBluth wins the pot of ($47.25 )

Part 3, finally..... http://www.plo8poker.com/asia-trip-report-part-3-shanghai/

Part 2 of my business trip, had a weekend so I got to see some sights like the giant Buddha and the Bruce Lee statue: http://www.plo8poker.com/asia-trip-report-part-2-hong-kong/

This part covers Singapore, parts 2 and 3 will be coming soon: http://www.plo8poker.com/asia-trip-report-part-1/

I've got some interesting trips coming up this fall, which will hopefully make for some good blog posts. I'm not going to give away all of the destinations but the highlight will be Singapore. I've never been to Asia before so I'm really looking forward to this. It will be interesting to see how the trip over there goes. It is going to be extremely longggggg... My plan is to right some PLO8 articles on the plane. The longest leg of the trip is San Francisco to Hong Kong which is 14 hours in the air, so God knows there will be plenty of time for writing. This is a business trip so the sightseeing will pretty limited. But hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures.

Lately I started playing on Carbon Poker again. I did a cashout a month ago, but after the transaction still showing 'pending' and Carbon not responding to emails I figured I may as well cancel it and have some fun with my play money. I'm really disgusted at the state of online poker in the US and can't wait for the day when we get regulation and I can play on MGM.com.

The PLO8 Poker app was completed recently, you can find it here.

Basically it is the PLO8 Revealed book on an iPhone. There will also be an iPad app pretty soon. In addition to having the book content, there are some training videos embedded into the app. I also do a brief audio intro to each chapter.

In the future I think we'll see more poker apps like this. At this point its pretty unique and there aren't many poker training apps in the iTunes store. Poker training has evolved a lot over the years. Originally it was books, and then training sites (like Cardrunners), and then you began to see a lot of private coaching. I think apps will be the next big innovation in training. This app is a book with a few extra features, but I'm sure over time these apps will evolve quite a bit. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

I'm working on a series of articles on PLO8. They are not coming out until probably January, but I'm planning the outlines right now. I'd like to get some suggestions for specific topics. If there is something that I didn't cover in my book or hasn't been covered in Cardrunners video that you would like to see, please let me know. Or if there is something I have already covered but you would like to see me expand on it that's fine too. You can either leave a comment or send me an email at campfirewest@hotmail.com.

Its been a little while since I've made a post, so an update is overdue. Basically I've been busy with a variety of things and just haven't had much time for blogging. Pokerwise I haven't been doing too much. Playing a little on Carbon here and there, but no serious volume. I have been thinking about some more PLO8 articles, so expect to see some over the next few months. I did get Tommy Angelo's new book on my Kindle. I'm not too far into it yet, but so far its been pretty good.

Between my corporate job, family, working out, golf, and a side business (not poker related) I've been working on getting started, and a little bit of options trading, I haven't had a ton of free time. This season I've really re-devoted myself to golf. I've taken 3 lessons this summer, and my swing is getting a lot better. I have a 1 handicap, and really want to finally get it to scratch. The guy I'm taking lessons from is a total badass. He qualified for the US Open at Pebble last year and made the cut. He has the rare combo of being about to play and teach golf at a super high level. I signed up for a tournament that takes place in a few weeks. I used to play a ton of tournaments, and since kids I think I've only played one. Next year I want to play a bunch, so I thought it would be a good idea to get at least 1 in this year.

I'm not going to go into detail, but my job has been pretty awesome. After investing all of the time and money into the MBA its nice to see it paying off. There is also the possiblity I'll get to travel to Hong Kong and Singapore in October. Look for some cool pictures if that happens.

That's all I have time for right now. Look for me to get back to weekly updates and more poker content.

Had a bit of a bad run last week, and I'm not even talking about poker. First thing to hit was the AC compressor for my house dying. Then 3 days later my TV blew up. A brand new condenser unit was about $2600. Fortunately, big screen tv's have come way down in price since the last time I bought one. I was able to get a 1080p 50" plasma for $700, so that wasn't too bad. Bad things always come in three's, and I picked up a screw in a tire on the way back from the store with the TV. Not a huge amount of money, but pretty damn annoying.