Project: $50-->$500 PLO, part II

Last time it took 22K hands and I run a ****load over EV. Let's see what happens this time.

First session down. 429 hands, $7.44 profit. Was quite fun to play PLO2, as the ranges of opponents are sooooooo wide. One problem is Jamie Gold-syndrome. That means the villain thinks he has a strong hand, while he doesn't. So he plays it like it's the nuts, and sometimes it's hard to figure out if he has the nuts or something weaker.

Like when board is 555AK, guy thinks 88xx is the nuts and raises river bet. And it wasn't for bluff.

Good luck on your challenge. Should be no problem for you ♦

Might try to find you at the tables, don't mind getting crushed by you at plo2. Won't hurt my roll at all ♦

Lol, couldn't beat russian 100/100/100 maniac. He literally played that way, opened 100% and 3bet 100% when he had chance. He shoved preflop J433 etc. I adjusted, but couldn't beat his luck. Couple of times I slowplayed and let him do the shoving, too bad he hit his 2-3 outers twice.

900 hands so far, profit of $8.95. EV profit is $14.26.

I have two color codings that I use in PLO2. Green for call-happy and yellow for aggromonkey. I run out of both of them today. It seems that there aren't any other type of players. Either someone is a calling station or 55/35/30 monkey. Today I really couldn't beat either one of those.

Total for the day was 1,7K hands. Profit of -$4.60 while EV was $12.82. So in the first sessions I run almost 9 buyins under EV. Welcome to my game.

Rake is nice too, I have paid $11 in rake. That is 32bb/100. Of course that gives me some points, I already used 70FPP to play a satellite, A3s < K8o.

I thought about posting some funny or interesting hands, but after I had marked few dozen of them I stopped. None of them were interesting, just opponents making some stupid things. Like going broke 400bb deep on single raised pot with AAKK, while the flop is AKQ. Tension wasn't built as he hit the quads on the turn and my JTxx wasn't that good.

If any of you readers have request for some kind of hand histories on specific concepts or spots, just let me know. I'd love to post some hands and explain my thought process. But for all the hands I have marked it's like "Awesome flop, I pot. Awesome turn, I pot. Worst river, I check. Oh, he had runner runner".

Of course it hasn't been all joyride dropping from PLO25/PLO50 to PLO2. It took some time to adjust properly. The first one is to NOT bluff anyone. I mean seriously, no matter how good bluffing spot it is, don't do it. Of course I can't follow my own rules, and I have made some bluffs. But I think they will fail far too often, as no one is folding anything. Therefore, I would say that don't even semi-bluff in PLO2. Just open all the good hands, 3bet all the good hands if 200bb+ deep, and then wait until you hit something. When you hit hard, just pot. Keep potting as long as you have a great hand.

There is 0% need for balancing out anything. You can go for maximum exploitation in PLO2. I understand how some midstakes regs would struggle in PLO2. All the tools they use in midstakes are useless in PLO2. Actually, most of their tools are -EV in PLO2.

Like if someone donks, it's 99% a set.

If you 3bet to isolate, you don't isolate. You just create a big family pot. I don't think I ever achieved HU pot while 3betting an opener.

If someone raises the river, it's always the nuts.

You can't put opponent into a range. Virtually impossible. I have seen such a weird calls, that it blows my mind. Better to just look your own cards and potpotpot when you have a hand.

Nightmare.

I almost failed, I was -$42 at one point, running 10 buyins under EV for the whole time. Story was the same, I get my money in with better hand on flop and turn, and river completes all the draws and villain donk shoves. Or I bet with monster draw on flop and turn, river is a blank and villain has bottom pair. Or total air that beats my draw. Someone might ask why don't I bet my missed draw on the river. I stopped doing that when villains call me with AAJ3r when the board is T9863 with flush completing on the turn. Just... Don't... Bluff...

Familiar maniac was on 4 tables today. I got 250 hands on him and he has lost 26 buyins in EV. Too bad he seems to hit against me and give away to everyone else.

There is a new trend in PLO2, how to play aces. Instead of committing 4bet preflop (against one opponent), they just call the 3bet. Then no matter what the flop is, they call the cbet. And then no matter what the turn is, the donk shove the rest.

Effective? ♦

It is, I got 250bb deep my money in on the turn against aces played like that. He had 2 outs, and for some that is enough to win the pot.

My EV is $1.47 after 3,6K hands, so I suppose I should bounce back up. This is a lot harder than I expected.

This is beyond insane.

Played a session, in the first 5mins I run three times against slowplayed aces. Everytime I had either set or top2 in 3bet pot. Quite sick. I just don't get it why people won't 4bet aces 100bb deep. They call my 3bet, and then hit the set. When I have Axxx in my hand. Sigh.

I played for an hour, and run 5 times against quads. Each time I had a hand. Run twice against straight flush, I had just the nut flush. Day of setups.

And the greatest moment was when I flopped Khigh flush in 3bet pot. Money goes in, opponent has just an ace of that suit. He thought he is drawing to a flush. Lol.

Well, I didn't lol when he hit runner runner fullhouse.

So it was another nightmare session. In the end I finally hit my hands, and got up from the hole. After 4,6K hands I am standing at -$17.32 and EV is $3.17.

I try to think positive, if this "luck" would have hit me in PLO25/PLO50, I would have quit poker for a month or so. Now it just annoys me but that's all.

At the lowest point of this project, I was running -45 buyins under EV since July. That gives some idea about required BRM in PLO.

This time to get $500 might take more than 22K hands. But I will get up!

Sick variance Kyyberi.

I'm sure things will turn around soon. Good luck with the challenge...

Well, it's nice to have some obstacles to cross. Last time I got a heater and it all came down pretty easy.

Played some yesterday, now totals are here:

5,5K hands
$5.15 profit
$9.76 EV profit
$10.90 rakeback (won one 235fpp satellite)

So total bankroll is $66.05. Few bucks to play at PLO5 now.

I haven't played much, school takes some time and all the other things in life. I managed to get 100 hand session at PLO5, winning a small amount of money. PLO5 was strange, tables were full of Russian nits. No aggromonkeys, no calling stations. Just Russian 8/8/0 nits. Dafuq?

Played little under 100 hands, and the totals for the project are:

5546 hands
Profit: $6.82
EV profit: $14.01
Rakeback: $10.90

Total bankroll: $67.72

Shot to PLO5 didn't go that well. Barreled 3 streets with nutstraight against idiot straight, he rivered backdoor flush. Aces lost to KKxx twice, and when I 4bet aggromonkey (his 3bet was over 60%!) with AKKQds, he had aces. Lost 150bb stack too with JJxx when I raise J63r flop, opponent calls and check-raises Q turn. He had bare QQxx.

So it's back to PLO2, I lost $24 in that shot (143 hands). EV was -$13.

Hard to beat them micros. ♦

Played a session at PLO2, 900 hands. Won $16 and run over EV a lot. Got enough FPP's to play one hyper, got ITM.

So totals are here:

6579 hands
Profit: -$1.23
EV profit: $3.45
Rakeback: $21.80

Total bankroll: $70.57

With that satellite money, it's time to hit the PLO5 dance floor again.

This is why micros are hard to beat:

PokerStars - $0.02 PL Hi (6 max) - Omaha Hi - 5 players

CO: 79.5 BB (VPIP: 34.04, PFR: 19.15, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 47)
BTN: 79.5 BB (VPIP: 46.79, PFR: 22.02, 3Bet Preflop: 10.20, Hands: 111)
SB: 199.5 BB (VPIP: 40.82, PFR: 4.08, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 50)
Hero (BB): 269.5 BB
UTG: 249 BB (VPIP: 14.42, PFR: 10.58, 3Bet Preflop: 5.63, Hands: 209)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5♦ 2♣ 8♥ 9♦

fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB raises to 27 BB, Hero calls 18 BB

Flop: (54 BB, 2 players) 9♠ 6♦ 5♥
SB checks, Hero bets 52 BB, SB raises to 172.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 120.5 BB

Turn: (399 BB, 2 players) K♥

River: (399 BB, 2 players) T♦

SB shows Q♦ 3♣ J♣ 7♦ (Straight, King High) (Pre 57%, Flop 28%, Turn 20%)
Hero shows 5♦ 2♣ 8♥ 9♦ (Two Pair, Nines and Fives) (Pre 43%, Flop 72%, Turn 80%)
SB wins 386 BB

I don't know what he was thinking, maybe he thought I am potting the flop as a bluff. Or he knew he was going to hit backdoor.

Played PLO5, lost $30. I really hate it when I get 90% of my stack in ott, and river is the hit for villain. And every time I shove AKKxds against someone with over 30% 3bet, they have the aces.

I know it would even out in the long run, but it looks like I would need to play PLO2 for the rest of the year. So I quit and focus solely in PLO25+.

Micros 1 -1 Kyyberi

Originally posted by Kyyberi
Played PLO5, lost $30. I really hate it when I get 90% of my stack in ott, and river is the hit for villain. And every time I shove AKKxds against someone with over 30% 3bet, they have the aces.

I know it would even out in the long run, but it looks like I would need to play PLO2 for the rest of the year. So I quit and focus solely in PLO25+.

Micros 1 -1 Kyyberi

Ouch. Looks like I'm the only one doing this challenge now. Hope you run better at PLO25 then!