"All-in cashout is worth it for your mental game" - Kyyberi

We chat to our PLO coach on the state of Pot Limit Omaha, solvers, the Bankroll Challenge and rescuing two dogs from Ukraine.

From your PLO coaching for PokerStrategy, what are the biggest leaks you think otherwise good No Limit players bring to Omaha tables?

Kyyberi: Most common is to over value made hands in certain spots and under value draws. In PLO equities shift a lot, meaning that a really strong hand like top set can be just a bluff catcher on the next street.

How is the state of PLO these days, are the games better or worse this last few years?

Kyyberi: Depends on the perspective. Arrival of solvers has changed the field, as now even small stakes players have access to solver strategies. Preflop solver strategy is relatively easy to implement, and I think that has been the biggest change in last years. The average preflop skill of regulars has gone up. Recreationals will always be recreationals though.

With all the solver stuff, poker schools and internet content out there, the popularity of PLO has gone up too. So on the other hand games are tougher than before, but there are more recreationals and games too.

If you know when to play balanced strategy and when to exploit, you should be ahead of most of the fields still.

Does most of your EV come from otherwise good No Limit players who don’t know how to adjust, rather than just gambler fish?

Kyyberi: If someone is good at Hold'em, he probably adapts quickly to PLO. At high rake games, like small stakes, majority of the EV comes from recreational players. They might be passive and call happy, or aggressive gamblers. And due to the laws of mathematics, that will never change.

It's worth losing 1BB/100 to have a strong mental game

What are the PLO games like on partypoker?

Kyyberi: Fast Forward is running well on peak hours. Player pool is mostly filled with regular names, so making notes and adjusting is very important. There is a lot more aggression than usually at fast poker, which is a bit surprising. As balanced aggression is one of the hardest strategies to achieve, most aggressive players are very unbalanced in their aggression. Giving a lot of EV to those who can adjust against it.

What are your game selection considerations with a format like PLO, where some sites have low traffic?

Kyyberi: One should always choose games that help to achieve the goals. As my goal was to make profits, I chose Partypoker Fast Forward because I estimated it had the best EV with games running on my playing hours and promotions.

Rake is always an issue at small stakes PLO. If the rake is high and there is no rakeback (or other promotions), it's harder to be profitable unless the level of playing field is really low.

You use the cashout feature on party, is it +EV or is it just worth taking a small hit to avoid the variance in PLO?

Kyyberi: To the question if it's +EV the answer is yes and no. In a vacuum, it's always -EV as you have to pay small fee to use it. Somehow using cash out generates a lot of discussion, where some say that one should never use it as it's -EV. I think that approach is very limited, as we do a lot of things in our lives that are -EV in pure monetary sense. Buying candy is -EV in monetary value, but might create life +EV.

When I was streaming on my own channel, I got so tired to explain my thoughts about it that I created a youtube video for it:

To make it short, I think that the only thing that can prevent me from making profits is mental game issues when running really bad and/or variance. With cashout, I can pretty much remove both of those for a less than -1bb/100 affect on my winrate. I have estimated that it's +EV in the long run to use it. And on a sidenote, if someone says that he doesn't have mental game issues or flaws, he is lying.

Solvers have changed the study of PLO

No Limit is very solver focussed, is there anywhere near the same level of study materials available for PLO? 

Kyyberi: Solver has really changed the studying aspect of the game. And at the moment there is only one public solver for PLO preflop. And using it for preflop requires a lot or RAM from the computer, meaning that most can't use it without renting servers for it, which makes it very expensive to use. Also making post flop simulations is quite slow, as there are so many different hand combinations and you can't effectively run the whole post flop at once.

This leads to situation where the access to solver strategy is a bit limited. Also no one is capable to implement solver strategy as in PLO it's impossible to memorise everything. In Hold'em you have very limited ranges post flop in terms of hand combinations, but in PLO the ranges are so wide that you have to use solver to learn concepts instead of strict strategies.

What solver has done for PLO is the understanding of using blockers are variables when to bluff, valuebet, call or raise. But as in Hold'em, some players misunderstand the solver strategy and misuse it at the tables.

We rescued two dog from Ukraine

You joined our Bankroll Challenge – why and what do you get out of it?

Kyyberi: I am working on a project that lasts from August to the start of June. Meaning I was unemployed for June and July. I decided to employ myself with poker, and spend my summer with grinding. I really like the bankroll challenge thing at Pokerstrategy, and wanted to join it as I was going to play daily for 2 months. I like our PLO community and to hang out at the forum.

And I am very happy to achieve my goal despite running REALLY bad at the start of it.

10. How do you spend your time away from the tables?

Kyyberi: As we got the dogs at the start of the summer too, they pretty much took care of the spare time. And normally I work in a day job at school, which I like a lot. I have also been doing taekwondo for over 30 years now.

11. You mentioned in your blog you were rescuing two dogs from Ukraine, how have they settled in?`

Kyyberi: Very well, although as they have never really lived indoors the whole concept of apartment building is new to them. As well as TV and toys. They are rescue dogs from Ukraine, named Peppi and Lotta. Lotta is 2 years old dam and Peppi is her 1 year old puppy.

What is the Bankroll Challenge?

In the Bankroll Challenge we encourage our members to get better by blogging about their poker journey and setting some ambitious goals. 

Our members found that having a blog kept them accountable to their goals and it's a great way to help them get to know their fellow PokerStrategists. As the saying goes 'what gets measured, gets managed' and simply having a blog keeps you on your A-Game. 

To help you on your journey and with a little bit of luck you can win $100 that we will raffle once a month among our active bloggers, regardless of where they play, accompanied by a special badge for their forum avatar for anyone succeeding in their first Bankroll Challenge.

How to join the Bankroll Challenge

The challenge is open to all PokerStrategists and you do not need to be tracked to us to participate. All you need to do is:

• Start a blog in our forum.
• State your starting bankroll, your regular stakes/games and your poker room in the first post.
• Set a long term bankroll goal of at least $500 and/or a minimum of five times your starting bankroll.
• Sign-up to the Bankroll Challenge in our registration thread, with a link to your personal blog, your initial bankroll and your goal.
• Post at least once a week in your blog.

Once a month we will raffle $100 among all eligble PokerStrategists participating in the Bankroll Challenge regardless of where you play.

Do you use all-in cashout? Let us know in the comments: