Originally posted by adamjjj
hey, any closer to getting out of your downswing?Im bored of reading NL blogs as i play PLO myself so you need to update to keep me entertained
Hey sorry guys for not updating the blog and all... It's been quite a tough time, so I wasn't on the right mood to write anything funny. Besides that I thought nobody was reading so...
But I'll come back again tomorrow with some thoughts. In actuality I had a very good session yesterday in which I played a LAG style... had positive SD and non-SD winnings... something not very common to me.
I noticed that if I just manage to keep my non-SD winnings around zero, then my SD winnings simply skyrocket my general winrate. I do this by constantly isolating limpers, people who have a strong tendency to check/fold the flop when OOP and also by second-barreling any turn card that does not complete any obvious draws. Add this to my actual hand equity, and I win big.
I'm playing like that from now on. I'll post some graphs tomorrow... I'm about to going to bed now! ♠_biggrin:
Listen up, company!
I just had the idea that I should turn this blog into something useful for the reader... something more useful than the sight of the hot chicks (and this is a damn difficult task, btw... after all, how can you compete???) ♠_biggrin: ♠_biggrin: ♠_biggrin:
So I'm starting here a column called "Common mistakes in PLO". They are basically mistakes that I make while playing and take note of. After this I'll try to develop them here and educate myself better, as well as whoever reads. I'd like to transform this into a series of articles in the future, so here goes the sketch. I won't put a lot of text here right now, but just some few hand examples.
Hopefully you guys will give feedback and leave comments that can be incorporated into the real text.
Now I don't want to waste more time, so...
Common mistake in PLO #1: Converting Showdown value into a bluff
This hand happened just about 1 hour ago...
IPoker Network $10.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 1405796
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
CO: $12.51
BTN: $14.23
SB: $16.72
BB: $18.35
Hero (UTG): $11.85
Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with 3♦ 9♥ J♦ T♥
Hero raises to $0.20, 2 folds, SB calls $0.15, BB calls $0.10
Flop: ($0.60) T♦ 8♠ 9♦ (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20, SB calls $0.20
Turn: ($1.20) 7♥ (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30, SB calls $0.30
River: ($2.10) 6♦ (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.50, SB raises to $2.50, BB folds, Hero folds
Final Pot: $3.10
SB wins $2.90
(Rake: $0.20)
Villain was a tricky fish, as I call. His stats were 54/4/1.3 (VPIP/PFR/AF), with an AF of 4.0 on the river. My intention here was to extract thin value out of any straight that might have hit this board (and there were plenty). Then I bet just about 1/4 of the pot and get raised pot. What the hell should I do now?
We could argue that I should have called, that he was bluffing, that rarely anybody check/raises the river with the nuts (because of the risk of having his opponents checking back), but this is not the point. The point is:
WHY THE HELL DID I PUT MYSELF INTO THIS SPOT, ANYWAY?
I think this is the question to think about here. If my flush was good and not to the nuts, why get fancy right now? Why not take to showdown? Now I was left wondering.
Do not do that at home, kids! ♠_cool:
AND HERE YOU HAVE THE SCROLL-DOWN BONUS, YOU FILTHY COYOTES!!! 
:f_eek:
Hey blackops888
Very nice blog, I will read it with interest.
As for the hand, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have raised this hand from UTG at first place. Mostly, because of the 3 
. Even though the 3 makes your hand double suited, they are all low suits. And as it happened on the river - you hit the flush and you got yourself into a tough spot. You'll get much better opportunities to play similar or better hands in better position...
Originally posted by LetchLord
Hey blackops888Very nice blog, I will read it with interest.
As for the hand, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have raised this hand from UTG at first place. Mostly, because of the 3
Hey man, thanks for commenting, first of all!
It is right from a hand structure perspective, but the implieds were HUGE at that table. Anytime I hit a straight, I can get payed off big. It's iPoker... it's insane, you see.
Other than that it was just a min-raise, so there was not an awful lot to lose there. I didn't even want to steal the blinds with a pot-sized ope-raise because they were calling like 60%+ from there so. Also, the BU was a nit and I thought I could buy it cheaply.
It had some reasoning behind, though. ♠_biggrin:
I have made a video about "10 most common mistakes in micro-omaha" and this was there too.
In your hand that is not the worst of it. You had 4th nuts (if you don't count straight flush) so against certain players bet-fold is ok there. But let's say you have just that straight and you bet? Then it would be typical "turn your valuehand to a bluff" situation.
I won't reveal those other 9 common mistakes, I'll let you tell your opinions first. 
Originally posted by Kyyberi
I have made a video about "10 most common mistakes in micro-omaha" and this was there too.In your hand that is not the worst of it. You had 4th nuts (if you don't count straight flush) so against certain players bet-fold is ok there. But let's say you have just that straight and you bet? Then it would be typical "turn your valuehand to a bluff" situation.
I won't reveal those other 9 common mistakes, I'll let you tell your opinions first.
Hey man, it's nice to know that I "picked" one of the mistakes. I swear I didn't watch your video! ♠_biggrin:
Where is it, by the way? Is it gold? I never saw it...
I usually call what you described as "turn your valuehand to a bluff" as "value-owning myself". ahahah ♠_cool: ♠_cool: ♠_cool:
I even have a few of those mistakes on a notepad here with me so I will post more of them along with hand examples from my games. Hope we can have a very nice discussion here!
Originally posted by Kyyberi
It is silver, but it's in Finnish. ♦
Just like I said then, i didn't get the idea from your video! ahhaa
But anyway, I still have a bunch of notes here and I'll post more tomorrow because it is when I review my hands and then can copy the HHs. I don't want to do that now because that would imply that I look at my graphs and session results and I don't want to do that!
How do you enter "The Zone"?
Exactly. I'd like to see you guys sharing your "rituals" for entering that state of mind in which you are able to do your best before sitting to grind.
I came to notice this "zone" thing becoming more present in my game exactly in this awful spot I find myself into, and now I am pretty sure I am coming back to track because of it. When I am playing, I have a sustained sensation that I can see everything, that I know exactly where I stand, and so I manage to lose almost nothing on my losers and, eventually, make the maximum on my winners. This is the best you can ask for in poker.
I like to watch the high-stakes PLO games at PokerStars before playing, so I can get in "tune" with the game before sitting to grind. When I see something really well executed there, I get eager to play it right and make the most of it. It's quite nice, indeed.
What about you? Share your thoughts!
And bellow we got something else! ♠_grin:
This is the bottom, right?
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
It is funny to see that the EV line is now going up. When the green line is skyrocketing and the EV is pulling down, you'd better worry. Maybe the opposite is true?
I can't even remember anymore how it felt like before all this started, booking every session +3 or +4BI and thinking "well... that's normal". Now if I break even after 6 hours of dedication it is almost like winning.
Hope this ends soon! ♠_biggrin:
Hey blackops888
Great thread-saver in the second to last post, loved it ♦
On the other hand - very ugly graph in the last post 
The bad thing is that it has happened over so many hands... May I ask how many tables do you play (sorry if you've mentioned it already)? When I suffer a big downswing I always decrease the number of tables, start targeting the fishes and paying closer attention on what each fish is doing and this really helps a lot.
As for the "in the zone" question - I usually ride a bike or do some jogging, or any kind of sport exercise to freshen up a bit and get the blood moving ♦
As far as I am seeing, that EV is not going up at all
Hope you can improve your game, to get those lines up.
Originally posted by LetchLord
Hey blackops888Great thread-saver in the second to last post, loved it ♦
On the other hand - very ugly graph in the last post
As for the "in the zone" question - I usually ride a bike or do some jogging, or any kind of sport exercise to freshen up a bit and get the blood moving ♦
Yeah... I`ve been playing 4 tables, but last night I came to the conclusion that I should now go for 2 tables. Besides that, I am very concerned about my non-SD winnings. I am pretty sure that the vast majority of my losses are related to it.
Today I will review hands and watch some videos, as well as review the tricks on Hwang's book "Advanced PLO", which I happen to have (a must read btw, guys!!!!).
I was looking for micro-plo graphs on google last night and ran across some very interesting results on 2+2. I saw people having slightly above zero non-SD winnings and winning huge moneyz with their sd-winnings. It is on their stats analysis thread, on the SS PLO forum. It is worthy a look:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/38/small-stakes-pl-omaha/official-ssplo-stats-thread-878196/
I came to realize that I have to exploit people more fearlessly. I saw the stats of those guys, and the best winners are those who keep like 30/20 or so PF and moderate aggression post-flop. What they do, I think, is playing a high-volume positional strategy, which means playing most hands from CO and BU and calling openings from EP and MP quite light, just in order to exploit them in HU confrontations post-flop via floats and raises. That`s what I`m about to do now.
It will work, and if it doesn't I have already lost so much... I don't care.
But it is a sound strategy anyway... it is not maniac stuff nor a desperate measure. It is the only thing I did not try yet.
It even happened that one given day last week I tried this because I was very frustrated and the results were awesome. My red line fluctuated around zero the entire session and my SD-winnings accounted for +3BI that day. It is a spike in the last hands of the graph. After that day I did not try that anymore and came back to "default"strategy, which by the way has led me to the downward trend once again.
What you think? Have a look at that link... it is quite surprising. I'll start this stuff tomorrow... I've been grinding the last 6 days for like 6-7 hours a day so I deserve some rest, even though my brain keeps urging me to get back to the tables and try to push those lines up! (yes, I have workaholic tendencies ♠_cool: ♠_cool: ♠_cool: )
And here is something else!
Originally posted by blackops888
I saw the stats of those guys, and the best winners are those who keep like 30/20 or so PF and moderate aggression post-flop. What they do, I think, is playing a high-volume positional strategy, which means playing most hands from CO and BU and calling openings from EP and MP quite light, just in order to exploit them in HU confrontations post-flop via floats and raises.
That's the way to do it in PLO. Just don't over estimate your ability to own people postflop, as in micros folding equity is usually less than in higher stakes. But as they say, there are 3 important things in PLO:
Position, position and position.
But you have to also know how to use that position. And that is to pot control, and to push your opponents off the pot.
Originally posted by Kyyberi
What's the biggest leak #2?
Opening the poker client?