Privet, comrades! Have you money for vodka?

So, two things I've changed in my play in cash games don't really have to do with my play directly. I've decided that I'm too unstable to just try to plow through good players (and I've marked quite a few regs, so generally I see when the tables are full of players I consider good), so I've decided that I should table select.

It's a bit of a perverse image of table selection, actually, because of the fact that I play 16 tables at once. I don't select individual tables. I look at the 2/5c PLO tables, and if I like what I see, I join all the waiting lists, if I don't - I either play 1/2 PLO or don't play at all.

Second of all, although I already play by a very conservative bankroll management because of how much tables I open and how swingy I play, I now force myself down to PLO2 the moment I realize I'm off my game. It really won't do to plow away at a higher stake if I'm just trying to get my game back together.

Well, I've had some more good sessions, including a 12-hour session from 6 PM yesterday to 6 AM today. Haven't played such a long one in a while. Managed to keep my concentration! ♦ I hit another $50 VPP reward and cashed in all the ones I hit this year, so altogether my bankroll now stands at $1120. Quite nice.

hey! I saw you at the tables, I play the same limits, plo5.
I'll follow your progress.

Originally posted by housman314
hey! I saw you at the tables, I play the same limits, plo5.
I'll follow your progress.

Hope I wasn't donking off stacks at that moment, I've been fighting a downswing this last week and sometimes tilting. What's your Stars screen name?

"hauceman"
you had fulls against me today. twice. or it was missread
i've started to play plo one weak ago. so may be you marked me as a fish.
do you play with stats?

Originally posted by housman314
"hauceman"
you had fulls against me today. twice. or it was missread
i've started to play plo one weak ago. so may be you marked me as a fish.
do you play with stats?

Huh, didn't notice you, you probably hadn't made any crazy calls vs me. I don't use stats, but I take notes, and I don't remember taking any on you.

it's tricky to play a lot of tables and it's time to write.
I would ask what did you watch or read about Small Stakes Omaha?

Originally posted by housman314
it's tricky to play a lot of tables and it's time to write.
I would ask what did you watch or read about Small Stakes Omaha?

Not much... At first I just googled "Pot Limit Omaha", read the basics, especially about the common mistakes, and played very tight. And when I understood the game better I started playing loose aggressive. It's both more fun and more profitable, but only if you understand the game well. I guess Phil Galfond's videos on PLO helped me somewhat. Like I mentioned, I play by intuition, so I only study the basics, and then try to figure stuff out for myself.

Ok, so, I've had some up-and-down days while I was falling ill. Dropped $80, got them back, dropped them again, got even again... But today I'm feeling better and I played excellent (and got lucky, of course!), and brought in $47 to take my bankroll to $1157. As you can see, I am doing my best not to donk my profits away after an upswing this time around.

That's why I'm still staying at 2/5 cent PLO, for security. If I have a long streak of good play, I might take some more shots at zoom PLO10, but that thing is swingy as hell. I really prefer deep stacks, but there's not a lot of deep stack tables at PLO10, maybe 6 or 7 at once, and I prefer to have 16 open (or 4 zoom tables). I get really bored playing less. I guess maybe I should restrain myself and try to 6-table the deep PLO10 tables, but we'll see.

Heh, well I played like a half-hour session of zoom PLO10, dropped all of today's profits and won them back again. Crazy donk-ridden variance-fest, probably gonna stay away from zoom if I go up, I need some stability.

Stability my ass, blew back all profits at PLO5 to donkluck and hands like K337. So it goes.

Well, feeling much better today, normal temperature, no headache, came in with a crystal clear head... and started dropping moniez. I was playing perfect, but getting really unlucky, but I just let it go and went on grinding and managed to turn it around and make a $30 profit and end up at $1144.

On one hand I had a royal flush, and the board was paired, and I had 4 other players in the pot... so it was paired, three-suited and connected... And every one of them just folded to a bet on the river. That in a session where I got called down by 6688 which hadn't made anything (while I was betting a wrap and a turned nut flush draw).

But still, it ended well, so I'm not complaining.

Just finishing a bottle of Russian Standard as I am going through your blog, keep it up, bratushka Greetings from Bulgaria

Originally posted by DoubleStandard
Just finishing a bottle of Russian Standard as I am going through your blog, keep it up, bratushka Greetings from Bulgaria

Haha, thanks.

I'd like to note that I realized why I have no PLO tourneys in my lobby... Because I have Omaha selected, but Pot Limit games off. I just thought they don't do PLO tourneys.

Played a $4.40 zoom PLO tourney and maybe could have folded my way to a mincash (I was 4 places away from the prizes), but I gambled by opening the pot in late position and committing myself with KKxx (I had 5BBs). Maybe shouldn't have done that because there were two or three huge stacks still to act and I was basically guaranteed one and likely two calls, so it was pure gamble. But I guess with 5BBs you don't have too much choice. I was one of the smallest stacks.

There was one spot I'm not happy with. So I was the big blind, and one guy opened for a minraise and another guy called. I had AKxx double suited with nut spades and I called too. This left me with about 8000, which was around 13 big blinds. The flop was QTx with two spades, I checked and so did the others. The turn was a blank, so I decided to try my luck and bet around 2000, 1/4 of my stack, a little under half pot. The first guy folded, but the second guy had a solid calling hand and I didn't hit my draws on the river. We checked it down and I lost.

Now, I'm not happy with this, I think I should not have made the turn bet, probably should have check/folded at that point. It's the kind of board where I'm very likely to get a call - QT hits a lot of hands that you'd play - and risking 1/4 of my stack there was just too hopeful. But what I really should have done was to commit myself on the flop by leading with a pot bet, because I would have shoved to a bet anyway on such a flop.

The way I played it, I basically set up my elimination, otherwise it would have been much easier to fold my way into the min cash (3 big blinds in your stack make a pretty big difference).

Also had a disappointing finish in the monthly Goldstar freeroll. There were around 9-10k entrants and the prizes started at 1k with around $20. I made it to like 2k people and had a short stack, but one double up was enough to secure a min cash, so I was all-in with AK and lost a flip to JJ. Would have really liked that $20.

Couldn't sleep, played PLO2 and PLO5 all night, raised $60 and got my bankroll to $1200. Fish night!

So, had some rough sessions. In one I was playing PLO2, then PLO10, dropped $60, then went on a super-aggro frenzy, turned a profit of $30 at first, ended with a $10 profit. Also dropped some money on tournaments in which I had no luck (been trying $4.40 zoom PLO in particular).

One hand in a $3.30+R PLO mtt was just absurd. I had put about $9 into the tourney (started with a rebuy to a double stack, and made an add-on), I was going very well. I was avoiding risky spots. But in one absurd hand I got knocked out.

I limped with a good AAxx, since I was minimizing risks, one guy calls, second guy raises, blinds fold and I just call (because we're pretty deep), then the first guy MAKES A SMALL RAISE. BRILLIANT. Second guy calls, now I pot it since I can put a decent part of my stack in preflop now, and because I really expected both to just fold, or to play all-in with the fist guy (who I had covered).

But first guy folds, second guy calls, flop 482 with two diamonds, I pot it for most of my stack, he gets it in with Q5A6 (no flush draw, just a double straight draw) and catches runner two pair. Disgusting. If my hand had held up, I would have been totally cruising, basically guaranteed a cash, and probably a decent one.

By the way, must be a pretty frustrating way to read about hands with people usually using the hand history to make a graphic post of it, but I'm really too lazy to save the hands, I don't think about writing about them here until I sit to make a post. And, as I've said, I don't use any software, so I can't just comfortably browse my hand history.

Stars has a promotion going right now where at certain times there is a special $0.02/$0.04 zoom NLHE session for 1 hour and there is a pro playing, and if you profit through him, they will give you 10x your profit. Didn't really expect to make anything, just decided to play some NLHE cash when I saw such a session open. Haven't played any NLHE cash in a while, only tourney. And now I remembered why - I run much worse with 80% in NLHE than with 50% in PLO. Every time I 3bet with a good hand, I got a fold, every time I 3bet with trash, I got 4bet, if I got it in with a bigger pair, opponent caught a set, if I got it in with a set, opponent made a flush or smth. Good old hold'em. Only dropped around $10, but it was unpleasant.

But after that I decided to play a bit of PLO5 to relax and it was fish night again. Made a profit of $40. Would have made even more, but the fish did put some painful bad beats on me.

So overall my bankroll stands at $1245. Met some bumps in the road, but still going up so far. I'll probably make at least another $50 VPP reward by the end of the year (remember, before I barely expected to finish my previous one).

Played a small session and added another $15 icing to the cake.

But the reason I made another post is that I've suddenly realized just how much more consistent than usual I've been the last month. Think about this: this month I've earned 1/4th of my yearly VPPs and 1/10th of my lifetime VPPs.

Usually I play great, hit a streak of bad luck after good luck, tilt, burn through a big portion of my roll, stop playing, cool off for a week or three and start very slow until the next big streaks. This time I'm really fighting to control myself.

What I really hope is that this time when the Micromillions come rolling in (which is very soon) I'm in good form to play. Last Micromillions I was a tilted wreck and didn't play, despite really wanting to play during an upswing. Not that I'm a hot tournament player, I suck at tourneys and especially at luck in tourneys. But it would be fun to participate. I've definitely got the spare change.

So... Guess what? That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I couldn't sleep again! I continued my PLO adventure and turned my upswing into a huge heater - my total profit over the last 24 hours is around $100. My bankroll now stands at $1310.

Well, I woke up early today. I don't have a job, but there is somewhere I have to be (play a bit of bass in a band), so I decided to have some fun in a $2.20 PLO zoom MTT to pass the time. I was thinking of busting quick, just so I don't be late for sure, so I played loose and fast, not my usual nitty PLO tournament play, and... well, I came first out of 284 players and bagged $116.31.

Puts my current bankroll at $1445. Wheeeee! ♦

Well, I was having a terrible run the last week, went down to about $1370. Sat down to play fresh today, took a shot at the deepstack PLO10 tables. One of them had a guy I had marked as donk with around a $60 stack and another guy with a $100 stack who also turned out to be a donk. After half an hour and a couple of fortunate hands I had covered all my losses of the previous week and went into profit. They were still sitting there, but I pussied out and decided that this was enough for me for one session. So, bankroll now stands at $1465.