A couple of weeks ago I ordered the Jeff Hwang book (PLO Poker - the Big Game Strategy www.amazon.com/Pot-Limit-Omaha-Poker-Jeff-Hwang/dp/0818407263/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1 ) but it wasn't available in the UK, so I had to wait until friday of last week for it. I also wanted the two new Harrington Cash books, but the only place I could get them was the High Stakes bookshop in London (great ormond street). While there, I found a couple more books I wanted - the Joe Navarro/Phil Helmuth book on tells, and I thought I'd get the two Schoonmaker books, 'Your worst poker enemy' and 'your best poker friend'. Consequently, I decided to take a week off the grind and just read.

I've finished the Hwang book, and was pleasantly surprised. Although he's quite weak-tight, and it's not really that useful to anyone who's accomplished in PLO, it's certainly a fantastic starter book.

The 1st Schoonmaker book seems good so far, but it's more for my girlfriends' benefit, as she tilts quite a lot. I don't so much anymore. I'm hoping I'll find more use from the second one.

In any case - one of my students has hooked me up with a great deal: 45% rakeback, $22.5k worth of monthly freerolls, and the possibility of sponsorship for live events like the GUKPT if I'm raking more than $4k/month. This is a great incentive to work my arse off, and I've racked up 4.5k hands since then, in 4 days. Playing quite well, though I feel I've made a few bad river calls.

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I've still run like dogsh1t, though, about $4k under equity according to pokerEV.

For my video - part of the reason I decided to take some time off and just read was a crisis of confidence, as it were. It's back, though, and I hope to upload my first video tomorrow. If I haven't, and anyone sees me at the tables from monday afterwards, $100 goes to you.

wazz

Just to take a little break from my normal PLO cash grind, on saturday night I thought I'd play a NLHE tournament on full tilt. Played supertight (by my standards), got lucky quite early on to 2-out aces with jacks after the flop, and basically won all my flips. Probably the toughest field I've ever had to negotiate.... everyone on the final table either had no entry on OPR or was seriously +ROI. In any case, once I got a big stack I was running over the field. Got it down to heads-up with a 3-1 chiplead, and P0kerPr0 shoved over my raise with A4, I instacalled with 77, and he hit the turn. No bother. FT froze up the very next hand, and we didn't get to finish, but they chopped according to stacks, and I got $4.2k, my biggest online cash.

In other news, I'm running pretty nicely online. Got pretty lucky today with a bare nut flush draw 3-way against a set and a straight for a $3k pot, but otherwise playing pretty decently. I seem to run pretty good when I'm coaching and people are sweating me, so I'm gonna look to do a lot more of that in the future.

I was waiting for a microphone from cardrunners to do my first video, but apparently they're out of stock, so I'm gonna get my own one. As soon as that happens, I'll put up my first video - my current mic is pretty useless. Really looking forward to doing a video, but I guess that's coz I love the sound of my own voice.

Mike

Arg. Hands didn't load up correctly. Any chance someone can sort them out and let me know how to post them properly? I guess I could save a picture of them then upload that, but that seems silly.

Up this week, but losing on BB/100. A few of my big hands, didn't really play this one standardly at all, think I got quite lucky that he had the exact hand he did.

$5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

$5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
2 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

This one was vs Gothiclolita on iPoker who is supposed to be pretty good.

$5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

So, basically, not running quite as hot as I was doing. I had 11 losing live sessions in a row, finishing two weeks ago, so I'm not gonna be playing live for a while. That really hurt, as it happens, but I wasn't playing with my own money so it hurt a little less. I don't feel I'm playing bad live, I'm certainly not playing terribly and believe myself to have been +EV at all points, but OTOH I'm sure that there were lots of dodgy/loose calls and silly bets/raises in there.

Before I get back to live poker, I'm gonna reread PNLHE, and hopefully by that time the new harrington cash books will be out. I'm also near the end of the Tommy Angelo book, 'Elements of Poker':

[img]http://www.tommyangelo.com/images/EOP_front_cover.jpg[/img]

If you don't own it already, I suggest you go and find it. It's really well-written and engaging, and there are lot of important, over-arching poker concepts in there that any poker player, thinking or unthinking, can use to increase their game plenty.

I've also just bought a few more books by my favourite fiction author, Kurt Vonnegut. You don't have to be interested in his vaguely sci-fi style, you'll still find him fascinating. Not that I have time to read at the moment, but it's always nice knowing that I have a bunch of new books to read before I can even think about rereading some favourites.

My first PLO video should be out soon, the next couple of weeks or so. It's still in the planning stages at the moment. In other news, in the next couple of weeks I'm gonna be taking on some new students for coaching @ $150/hour, $650 for a block of 5. PM me here or 2+2 if you're interested.

Hey guys, I'm new to this game (blogging) so go easy.

So it's good to be on cardrunners. I've been watching and benefitting from the videos here for a few months now, and the effects are visible in my results.

February wasn't a fun month for me lifewise - crippling toothache for weeks, then off to the hospital with newly-diagnosed diabetes. I got some hands in, but not as many as I would like. In any case, I seem to be running very hot, and PLO is the sort of game where if you A) run hot, B) play good, and C) are up against donks, you get a nice little payday. Since the beginning of february:

For the sakes of discussion, does anyone think I should artificially try to bring my river AF up a little in line with my high flop and turn? Or bring my turn down a little? It feels like I'm making a few too many thin river value bets, tbh, but maybe I'm being that little too thin on the turn.

So, a little about myself, I guess, after the brag.

I'm Michael Piper, 23, and have been playing poker professionally for 21 months now, online PLO being my main game. I've been broke once, and online busto a few times, but I play lots live and do ok there too, including a couple of nice tournament wins. I can't for the life of me, however, online or live, get past the 2nd hour in any event with a buyin £300 or over, out of something like 15 tries, and it's getting frustrating. NLHE tournaments are probably my second best game behind PLO cash, but I don't play that much anymore.

I'm excited about my first video - not entirely sure what I'm going to talk about but think I have a few useful things to say about preflop, where I think my style is notably different from a lot of successful players. Postflop dynamics change so much in 3 and 4-bet pots, and I really enjoy the battle of adaptation that you get against good players and the pure EV against the bad ones, that IMO a lot of people are leaving value on the table against by not being more aggro. I remember seeing someone say on 2+2 that PLO is a game that, when played properly, results in small pots, and that everyone should be ultra tight. That might have worked 3 years ago but online poker ain't easy anymore.

I met my girlfriend, Sarah, at the casino about 5 months ago. Well, actually, we went to the same school, but hadn't seen each other in 5 and a half years. We used to smoke outside hammersmith broadway every day, but just fell out of contact. I recognised her immediately and asked her to sit next to me in the Vic cardroom in edgware road in london while she waited to remember who I was. Since then we've basically spent > 50% of our waking hours together, we play poker together and have a few other common interests. It leads to funny situations, though - on tuesday night she tried to bluff me off my 4s full of kings on a K4348 board in PLO for a £1400 pot at £1-2 stakes, then I runner runnered her flopped nut straight + nut flush redraw against my second nut straight + 3 flush which became a rivered flush, for another £800 pot. Angry sex doesn't even cover it.

She was in for £400, I was in for £600 - she'd got her stack off Ollie - who promptly f***** me repeatedly for about £2k worth of sklansky bucks. I flopped mid set with JTT8ds on a JT4 board, him with the nut flush draw and a gutshot., and managed to get it in for a £1200 pot, £60 before we saw the flop. We ran it twice and he won both. My last two months live have been horrible, littered with this sort of thing (though for smaller pots), but I don't care so much coz I'm doing ok online.

Well, when I sat down to write this, I couldn't think of what I was going to say - turns out I've just babbled a little bit.

In any case. I'm gonna stop playing live anymore coz it sucks and old men who play poker seem not to like showering. Online seems to be my thang, at least for now, and all seems to be going well. I'd like to play at least 20k hands this month, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully my next entry will be a little more colourful.

Mike