Micro exPLOsion or just some PLO

Hey guys! Just wanted to write a weekly summary for the blog so here we go

The week was quite nice in terms of running over EV and catching up to the nice orange line that was lying above me green one for so many hands Just want to show you the graph for this week:

These results are really sick if you ask me...I mean it is just a small sample, but running that much over EV kinda sick, isnt it???

Or maybe it was some kind of "justice" after being so long under EV????

A lot of other hands were lost due to having to reinstall OM2 and not saving the database. I was runningn like 20BI under EV, so finally something like this feels really nice

Of course, I also was trying to improve my overall game and not only my luckboxing skills. I found out that I am often not really sure what I should do in some spots and so I marked a ton of hands which I might be able to look through with a friend of mine who plays way higher than me. That would be really really nice ♠_thumbsup:

There are also some things that I have to work on in general like:

c - betting
bet sizing
playing oop (vs villains with a wide range)
equity!!!
maths in general as I suck at that
SPR again and over and over (also meaning working through hands and examples)

mental part:

I sometimes wait for a good run somehow and loosen up my range cause "this time I have to hit....". That's what I think sometimes, so I want to work on that to really stick to the plan and try to play as clean "ABC" poker as I can
When I lose let's say 2,5BI after the first 250 hands or so I keep checking OM2 for the money I made and whether I am losing or winning. If I am in the reds I often think "cmon, only 1,82$ to break even, you can do that..." and stuff like that and keep focusing on numbers moneywise. I am really going to try to stop that.
I will also try to not always compare myself to other players who have a much higher winrate at PLO2 as they are way better than me atm. Therefore, I sometimes get frustrated (away from the tables) and start questioning what I am doing! It mostly takes like 10 - 15 minutes to get rid of that thought. In fact, I want to get rid of it in general. Only thing that I can do is try my best to become better ♠_thumbsup:

I think these are the most concerning points mentalwise atm. Ofc, I will try to notice more mental flaws and probably going to write a little journal for myself, as I dont think that someone in here is really keen on reading this. Only if I can maybe find some ways to tackle a problem that helped me I might share it with you guys to help some else maybe...who knows!

I am not so sure for the goals for this week as I do not know how much time I will have. Time is going to be high variance, but I am going to try my best to play as much and learn as much as I possibly can. Unfortunately, I could not play a single hand today...but I am going to try to grind a couple of hours tomorrow and maybe earn some $$$ ♠_biggrin:

As a finisher:

Starting Bankroll: 124,32 $
Profit / Loss: 33,39$ (23.39$ + 10$rb)
Current Bankroll: 152 and some cents ♠_biggrin:
Goal: 1750$

Wish you the best at the tables - may the EV be with you guys ♠_thumbsup:♠_drink:

I could not play a single hand today

So that's the reason why I was so successful yesterday!

Good job! And I think I just copy/paste your list of topics to work on into my blog - looks very solid. Hopefully you come to a better solution regarding bet sizing than me. Up till now I have read and heard so many theories and pros and cons to literally every possibility - I got nowhere. Ok not completly true maybe I'm a little better in reading the opponent and comprehend what the point of villains bet size was. But when the action is on me I'm more likely to level myself. That said I really hope you will be more successful!

Go on with your good work attitude and continue to run well!

@Rhodriguez hehe thx you Yeah sure man copy/paste the hell out of this blog

Regarding bet sizing in non 3-bet pots I always try to look at the fold to cbet stat of villain(s) and then decide for the right amount. If the stat is high i just bet half pot / bit more than half pot and it works out fine atm. Should the stat be quite low I just cbet value hands and try to get the most out of it. That's it. I do not think that villains try to make ready on you because of your bet sizing so it does not really matter that much I think.

It's often really difficult in 3-bet pots though When I c-bet and villain calls, I often do not know what to do on later streets as a c-bet is quite costy ott and especially otr if I do not hit. In fact, I do not really know if it is worth barreling the turn if you do not know if it is correct or not so I stopped bluffing in these spots and just go for value when I have a good hand. Ofc, it always depends on villain!

I guess the best way to win money at these stakes is to just play straightforward most of the time and only try to make any "fancy" plays when you think that villain is able to fold.

Wish you all the best of luck as well ♠_drink:

So I tried to make a shot at PLO5 and here is what happened:

The first couple of hands were a little bit harsh as I way always playing with some kind of fear of losing as I could not affor to lost more than 2 BI and so tried to play too nitty I guess and lost a lot of value. As I was playing there was always the little voice in my head that told me to be careful, don't spew money, should you really bet here, don't lose and so on...

After losing a couple of BI I went away from the table to just think about it and came to the conclusion that it does not really matter whether I win or lose as long as I try to play as good as I can. So I played a little more of PLO2 to get some money back and made another shot and really tried to play my A game and trusting my guts. Luckily, it worked out ♠_biggrin:

Still, I am often not sure whether I should bet, check/fold or something completely different. I guess the instinct for the right moves at the right time also comes by playing a lot. Basically, I really think that the best way to win money, as mentioned above, is to play straight forward and make those "fancy" plays that might work at a higher level. People at PLO25/PLO50 probably have a different approach to the game and think more about blockers, floating and so on. In fact, I watched a ton of videos of pros who play .25/.50 and .5/1 live sessions and also listened to them closely. Ofc, I tried to incorporate that into my game, but it mostly makes no sense to bet the river when the flush hits and you have the A blocker as people are going to call. So ABC / straight forward / value poker is the way to go if you want to win I think. At least at these limits.

Unfortunately, I did not play as much as I wanted to and still have some serious weaknesses that I have to work on. I am going to try to find the right balance between studying and playing (probably a bit more studying in the next couple of days).

What i found out / planing to do:

Learn more about c-betting
Think about the HUD that I am currently using as I am not sure if it fits perfectly
Learn more about 3-betting and how to play in 3-bet pots IP as well as OOP
Try to find good videos about stats and how to use them in the most profitable way as I think that I am not giving enough credit to it
Look through my database and try to find difficult (at least for me) river decisions and think about it again

Villains at PLO5 not only push AAxx, but have sometimes a wider range and often show hands that I did not expect at all
Villains are afraid of rivers as they do not really know how (me included most of the time) how to play them correctly. I have tried to vary the river plays dependin on villain(s) of course as checking is not the way to go in every spot. It seems that most of the players in this player pool do not bluff the river, but prefer to bluffcatch people by check/calling. So, betting the river for value is not my worst enemy. Ofc, some kind of fear plays a role...and I am trying to get rid of it.
Villains chase draws till' death
Villain do not really value the power of a flush and often do not care about nutflush if they have a flush themselve.

Trying to work on my "fear" of losing money back as I often think:" Hopefully I win, because then I will not have to "catch up" until I am winning again. It takes so much time to get to the greens and shit... I want to be able to just play as good as I can and not care about winning / losing / catching up...as long as I have the feeling that I make the right moves. In case they are wrong I can go over the hand again as I have probably marked it and see if it was good or not.
Don't let my ranges suffer because of having the urge to catch up as I have the feeling that I play looser should I lose a big pot or two. I think it's really important to not let if have an impact on your game (too much...) as it probabl takes some time to be able to be close to 100% neutral about the outcoming of an AI.
Trust in my guts when I have the feeling a certain move is correct,especially on the river. As long as I do not try it out I will never know if it had been successful or not. I tried to bet the river for value (and it works) and also to bluff the river when e.g. the staight hits ott and the flush otr (does not work allof the time, so I have to go a bit more in depth and what exactly to look at and how they correlate and stuff...).
Try to minimize procrastination!!! I am sometimes way too easily distracted, so I also have to work on that.
Sleep some hours more as I have had trouble with falling asleep a lot lately

Try to run hot ♠_biggrin:

So I think that's about it. Maybe I will play a bit more later, but I do not know as I only slept 3,5h last night (went to sleep at close to 8am) and I somehow do not "feel it" / not in the right condition to play well, so I might just do something else...

Just to clarify all the points I mentioned above are mostly for myself as I do not want to forget the things that I have to work on / did work on. A blog just seems to be a really nice way to keep track of all that ♠_thumbsup:

Last but not least:

Starting Bankroll: 124,32 $
Profit / Loss: 36,42$
Current Bankroll: 188,53$
Goal: 1750$

Hopefully the good run continues!!! Wish you good luck at the tables ♠_drink:

10-20 buyins under/over EV are quite normal for PLO. That's why it is so important to have a trust for your gameplay and gameplan, so even when you run bad you know you are doing the right things.

Hey there!

So I am not really sure if i want to revive this blog, but I am just posting after a rather long break (guess 6 months or so)...
I took a break from poker and cashed out all of my account and stopped playing PLO or any other game.

Reason for that is that some rather bad things happened irl and I just did not want to play or dedicate myself to something i want to take seriously. In fact, some of the "bad things" I mentioned triggered me to just lie in bed and pretty much do nothing all summer long except playing some computer games from time to time. I also isolated myself from irl relationships as I was very very sad most of the time, so I did not want to have any company whatsoever. Moreover, I went to my aunt's house as she does not have a connection to the internet there (pretty old school right?).

But, things luckily got better, everybody in my family is healthy again (bad things were related to family members, but I do not want to talk about that in detail or tell you the whole story as I do not think there is any need to do so. Moreover, I do not want anybody to think:" OMG that poor guy, wtf..how sad is this n stuff...").

Long story short, I am back and I am hoping to be able to stick to it once and for all. In fact, I do not have any clear goals atm and I do not know what to do but just play, study and hope for some winnings. I dont know why but somehow I had about 6$ left in my account and played them up to 12$ now. I am probably going to deposit a lil sum like 50$ or something to have some safety for the PLO game as it can be quite swingy from time to time.
Also, I want to opt out of the bankroll challenge (idk if I have ever been part of it, just saying now as I only had the title in the name of the blog ♦ )

So the goals I am sure about atm are:

study
grind
hope for the best

Oh and I have a question in case someone really reads this: Do you know any good books for MTTs? I somehow want to pick up playing MTTs as well, but just for fun. I just want to play some and hope for a heater and eventually get a lil bit of money from em. So any suggestions much appreaciated

GL at the tables

Hello Michael,

Welcome back
Sometimes a break is worth while as it makes us stronger when attempting to succeed.
Good idea to start with small goals too.
Not sure about books for mtt. I will have a look for you and post some links to articles you may find of interest too later for you.

Regards

Matt

Originally posted by metalmonkey80

Not sure about books for mtt. I will have a look for you and post some links to articles you may find of interest too later for you.

Thanks man, appreciate it a lot

So I went back to the grind and I do not know if it is good if i just deposit 50€ next month...maybe I should just try and grind it up, but not really sure about it.

Here a little graph for the first couple of hands after the break:

BR is at around 30$ again with the PLO winnings and some winnings from NLHE.

Cant complain I guess, but I am not happy with my game as I oftentimes do not really know what the correct play is. I have to go through the starting hands strength chart again and also which hands to 3-bet as this stat is rather low and very much focused on AAxx combos + some premium rundowns when facing the right opponents. Guess I could pressure villains more with 3betting a bit lighter as these spots are quite tough for PLO2 guys, I think.

Anyway, gonna go and do some studying! GL at the tables @ll

Been playing a couple more hands and it went quite well

Could not grind as much as I would have liked, so I might set myself a challenge for next week, but not sure about that yet as I might not have access to the internet all day.
Still, I do not have the feeling that I am playing that well...I sometimes have no clue whether my plays are correct or not, but trying my best. Really gotta go over some equities again and also some maths stuff...
Also, I could watch more videos and see others playing.

BR is now around 40$

Anyway, gonna keep you updated!