Since moving to Melbourne I have pretty much been living in
backpackers, so that’s 10 weeks or so.
Currently the Back Packers I am staying in is 154AUD/week
and is in South Melbourne. To live in an apartment/flat for that price it is
going to be a pretty rough house. I am a good sleeper so having snorers/ people
partying does not bother me. And there are some awesome and interesting people
who come through the back packers. However there is definitely an unspoken
etiquette that should be followed. I will list some of the things that I can
think of:
-When you first meet the people in your room, AT
LEAST acknowledge them an introduce yourself. Nothing more awkward than staying
in the same room as someone and not knowing there name.
-Keep your stuff in the same area. It is not
hard, there are others in the room and it is not cool to have to walk through
the room and walking around other peoples stuff to get to your bed.
-If you have ear phones, use them, especially
late in the evening.
-Make an effort to get to know the people in your
room, where they are from, why are they here etc.
-Friendly conversations each day. Currently have
a French guy in the room and he is mega awkward.
-Hmmmm oh if you are going to go do something on
your own, ask a fellow roommate if they would like to tag along.
-If you have to leave 1st thing in the
morning (before 7am) get what you need for the next day ready thenight before so there is no massive noise
etc. in the morning.
-Scenario: Me, German 1, German 2: We introduce
ourselves, then when the Germans speak to each other they switch straight back
into German. They can speak fluent ENGLISH! Seems rude to me at least.
In general 75% of the people who I have met have followed
these guide lines however those who do not are so annoying. Not being racist
but the large majority of those who do not are Asian, not sure why but many
people agree with me when the topic has come up.
So last Wednesday I started a job, it is my first job
since finishing University last year. It is at MLC which is the Wealth Division
of NAB (National Australia Bank), it is not a fancy job and is only for a 3
month period but I like the idea of experiencing what working in a big
corporate company is going to be like. I missed the training week that was a
couple weeks ago so I have been jucked into the role and am pretty much
learning as I go. I actually did not know what exactly my role was before my
first day, I hate talking on the phone which was the only way I could
communicate with my boss, so sort of just said I will take it then turned up on
the Wednesday clueless.
Once the 3 month period wraps up there is likely to be a
chance to go permanent, have no idea what I will do at this stage, who knows I
may be a PLO BEAST by then and gap it to Thailand for a few months before
coming back to work in the Aussie summer for a few months while all the sport
is on, good weather etc. then head to Europe in March. That would be an ideal
plan actually, but I am only playing the micro stakes PLO at the moment, but am
learning a TONNE recently.
My computer is not happy. I have been playing 4 tables
with overlap as I have to use it in safe mode cause it just freezes otherwise L.
But that is okay, I am at Melbourne airport at the moment, heading back to
Wellington to graduate for a few days. That is another reason I took the
position at MLC, they were happy to let me have days off for graduation, other
jobs said that would not be possible. I decided to come to the airport mega
early, and with no internet here it gives me a chance to study lots of hands
that I have saved is Word from my sessions in last couple weeks (HEM does not
work in Safe mode hence hands are in Word). Hopefully a friend can fix up my
lappy while I am home as safe mode also has no sound and I miss watching TV
shows online and stuff.
Hmmm Random Stuff
-I think I am going to start a thread in 2p2’s
Poker goals and challenges to document my PLO progress daily, and make more
substantial updates here each week or two.
-I have a Boost Juice voucher, it opens at the
airport at 5:30am, I get a 2nd one for a dollar, getting excited for
that!
-I registered for a Social Ultimate Frisbee
league so when I get back from graduation I have that to look forward to,
should be exciting!
-PLOJunior.blogspot.com, gotta keep posting there
more!
-Played at Crown Casino 3 times in the 6 weeks or
so I have been in Melbourne, not into live cash games at the moment. Want to
play some tournaments, the Melbourne Champs has just finished but with the new
job and struggle to get FTP cash (GaryBenson was charging high fees for his
service for a while, and MoneyBookers is not available, I decided against
playing a bunch of the tourneys)
-Gutted to not be heading to Vegas this year,
feel as though after last year I know so much more about what to/not to do to
have fun. Hopefully some DCers can take a bracelet or four!)
-
Hmmm, you can tell I am just writing what is going
through my mind as I write this!
For the hands that I am to review of my own hands I am
going to use this format:
PREFLOP:
What is our hand structure:
Why is this hand going to be profitable post flop:
General good and bad qualities about this pre flop hand:
FLOP
Vitals (SPR/IP or OOP/No. Players/what do we have):
Flop Discussion:
TURN (if needed):
How do villains
and hero’s hand range change) :
Turn Discussion:
RIVER (if needed):
What are ranges for both us and villain, how strong is
each part on a scale of 1 – 10:
Implications:
What reads do I gain on villain:
Something like that anyway, going to be dumb with no PPT
access, but can do that another time. Just need to think about my thought
processes for now. I hopefully will go through 4 – 5 hands super thoroughly
before my time to board.
So i have finished all of Bugs' 12 Articles on the basics of PLO. However have decided I need to get back into good habits when learning about poker so I am now going to publish all my learning notes here: http://plojunior.blogspot.com/ I am surprised this is not used by more people as you can just write your notes up in Gmail and then you can just email them straight to the site. So all my Bugs' notes are there. Its good how I can now access them from any computer! I will be emailing something to that site at least once a week to ensure I keep learning an do not stall, especially as I am still a noob at PLO. I will start a new job in a couple days hopefully, so will start to play PLO primarily then. I keep stuffing up the paper work though so probably will start next week!
-Part 6 we look at 4betting/facing 4bets.
Although they are rare at micro stakes, it is important to ensure our overall
grasp of PLO is extensive pre-flop. It is generally math based and involves
hand reading and using distributions and odds against these hands as we
normally have one PSB left after a pot sized 4bet.
-4 bet pots are big therefore important, can be
solved with mathematics.
4BETTING OURSELVES
-We may 4bet to avoid playing deep stacked OOP
against a wide and balanced 3betting range.
-By 4betting we eliminate his implied odds,
however if 5bet we have to call as we need 31% odds, where against AA** we are
34%. If we have AKKTss, AA** is unlikely therefore we can push any flop post
flop and cannot be exploited as we essentially have AA**.
-4betting AKKTss gives us extra outs in terms of
back door draws that assists our equity is we do get out flopped.
Our core 3betting range:
Premiums (Premium AAss+ /2 broadway/pair/connectors,
Broadway wraps with an Ace, ss+, JJ**+ at least suited with a connectors or
high pair)
Speculative (Good suited rundowns, suited Ace rundowns) =
~1.6% of all PLO hands.
Premium AA** = 0.8% all PLO hands (32% of AA**), Premium
Broadways is 1.63% all Broadway, Speculative = ~1.7% all PLO hands therefore
total of 4.8% of all PLO hands
approx(IP).
-We don’t want to attack a tight 3bet range with
a light 4bet range.
-An aggressive ‘tight’ 3bettor threshold cuts of
at roughly max of 7% of hands.
-Light 4betting means range of Premium AA** and
selected premium non-AA** hands.
-When we 3bet good high premiums, they less
likely have AA** and our high pairs can act more like AA**.
Therefore our core
4betting range is (can be looser/include premium suited rundowns):
AKKx + AQQx, at least single suited to the ace with broad
way kicker.
AKxx, as least suited to the ace with broad way kickers.
This is 2.8% of all hands, primarily all AA** (85+%).
If we get 5bet, we are only ever making a very slight –EV
play by calling with non-AA** if they only 5bet AA** - soon as we know they can
5bet with non-AA** we should call as it provides better future image.
-4betting a better balanced range reduces our
opponents equity of calling and playing fit/fold post flop with run downs etc.
DEFENDING AGAINST
4BETS
-Important if we exploit our position by 3betting
light as more we 3bet, more AA** gets to 4bet.
-Standard against 4bet = assume villain has AA**
play accordingly hands that flop well and calling off where we have minimum
required equity. 5betting AA** AI (we do not 3bet trashy AA** so we have odds
regardless to 3bet/5bet our entire AA**).
-Need to find the hands that play best versus the
4bet – given 100BB stacks. We need 31% equity on flop to call off when all pre
flop has been pot sized bets (we have 62.5bb remaining in our stack).
-Remember our 3bet range includes Premiums,
Speculative and bluff hands.
When we 3bet for value and get 4bet by AA**
-Obviously 5bet AA** all in.
-Broadway
wraps (ss+), preferably with an Ace: Fold when they have an Ace in the
hand.
-Premium
JJ**+ (ss+), connected/high pair: High double pairs can be called, at least
single suited. QQ** and KK** must be double suited in order to call. Other
pairs lower that are connected can be called with just a single suit (they have
more straight possibilities than QQ/KK**) although we do not 3bet 7765 for
example. High pairs with an Ace in them need to be played very well in order to
be profitable.
-
When we make a speculative 3bet with suited
ace rundowns; premium rundowns.
-Suited rundowns are robust against AA**, even if
there are a couple gaps.
-Suited ace rundowns (A765) are good when they
are double suited, when they are single suited they are marginally profitable
however it is okay to fold them and you won’t lose much.
Bluff 3betting facing a 4bet.
-We do not
have a definitive range for bluffing so tough to look at closely even if we
3bet with a minimum of coordination
-But ultimately rundowns are very robust against
AA**. As long as they have some straight potential (gaps are ok), single suited
hands can be profitable but require less gaps. Q965ss is profitable for
example.
-Remember this is assuming we are against AA**,
if we end up against a balanced 4bet range as well as a multi way pot we do not
fare well due to their limited nut potential.
-Important to note link between pre and post flop
play. First we want to steal pot or be heads up against an opponent whom we
have good control over. This makes post flop play reasonably easy, if we get
4bet and we know its AA** it is easy if we have position and have a hand that
flops well versus AA**.
-So position, straight forward villain and
minimum coordination are the requirements when we choose to bluff 3bet.
-Note: Having a coordinated hand against two
likely AA** given your reads means we can get it in with awesome equity in some
situation given money in the pot already.
4bet
pots are a craft rather than an art as we end up all in on the flop normally.
Run simulations to get better!
Part 7:
This article discusses setting up your HUD and looking at
various statistics pre flop. I won’t be taking notes about this at the moment
however I have read the article.
Part 5 is about 3bet/4betting pre flop and begins to transition into post flop play. - Know why we want a big pot pre flop. - Don't give up to easily post-flop, you have invested lots in the pot, don't be weak. - Big pre flop pot = less multi street planning, more knows your odds vs range and go! - SPR <1 = Ultra low (call or fold in 4bet pots so stack off light) - SPR <4 = Low (generally raise or fold territory when facing a bet) - SPR 4 - 13 = Medium (multi street play begins) - SPR 13+ = High - Low SPR = Big POT = more important your hand connects with the flop often.. - If we can get at least 1/3 stack in pre flop we will 3bet all AA** (good versus short stack to ensure they cannot exploit you) - Border of 3betting Premiums and speculative hands is fuzzy. - Have a hand that can gain equity on turn but cant stand getting check-raised on flop? Preserve equity and check behind if you want. Opportunity to tak a free card on flop in position is HUGE. - If we bet a street, we often want worse hands to fold as when we get called we can be put in some very tricky river situations. - WA/WB concept doesn't apply in PLO as equities are much closer. So bet-fold marginal hands is generally better than checking behind/check calling which we would do in NL. - Flaws of 3betting trashy AA** are we are often 'forced' to c-bet, our equity does not fair well on most flops. See worked examples for further implications. Don't always 3bet trashy AA** OOP 100 bb deep. Not having a non AA** 3bet range OOP can be exploitable as. - When facing a 3bet, not considering side cards to AA** can be a small mistake as they may only 3bet premium AA**. Playing against a 3bet- Dry pairs and A*** does not play well - not many good flops for us to continue on (we would need perfect info/conditions).- Generally call more IP than OOP as we can pot control, win more when ahead, steal opportunities. - Call more versus bad players (those who 3bet/overplay trashy AA**) - Call more versus a well defined 3bet range. - Against tight 3bettors (AA**), remember it’s not preflop equities that matter, its equity distribution across different flops - Against 3bet of 2.5% or lower likely to be AA** as that’s the % of times we are dealt AA**. We play lots of speculative hands post flop versus these players, playing fit or fold in general and stealing when given the opportunity. - Against a balanced 3bettor we should call less to avoid getting the wrong end of coin flips on the flop.
Will include a song from a kiwi band in blog from now on. Most kiwi bands do not make it big internationally so hopefully something new for you all.
Kiwi Song: Opshop (Maybe)
This (http://en.donkr.com/forum/plo-from-scratch---part-4-533526) chapter looks at getting a bit deeper into pre flop play in terms of playing speculative hands in position and over limping/isolating. The thing we will be keeping in mind throughout is that preflop/postflop play in PLO is closely integrated and by playing well preflop we can set ourselves up for profitable post flop situations especially if we build big pots preflop.
Although we want hands that do play postflop we can play marginal hands in late position that do not flop well often and tend to be non-nutty (T875ss) for example as we have a lot of steal equity and we run into the nuts less 6 handed. But the looser we are the more skills we need post flop, also the blinds may alter there strategy so it is okay to fold trashy trashy trash.
Over limping is best when we have a hand that does not hit many flops but when they do they hit it hard. Suited Aces, rainbow rundowns, lone pairs etc. These hands bank on there implied odds so the higher the SPR on the flop the better for these hands! We also need to consider that people limp/call 95+% of the time....limp/fold is super rare in PLO.
Non-nutty hands however tend to play better HU so if we can isolate a limper we should go ahead and do so. If we are going to have to bank on showdown equity in these spots though we highly consider folding. For example T984ds can be used as an isolation hand due to it playing well in 3bet pots, we hit lots of flops where we are happy to get it in on the flop, we seize initiative. Q953ds on the other hand can be mucked, we miss lots of flops.....therefore turn cards do not help us if we take a free card, we have no wraps that are good, its just to un-co.
3BETTING
Normally in PLO we will be 3betting with Premium hands where we have an equity edge over PFR's range. However we may 3bet speculative hands when we mainly plan around steal equity with some SD equity, and occasionally as a bluff where we go for steal equity primarily.
3bet more in position, only premiums out of position as we want to maximise steal equity IP. We also should only 3bet speculative hands HU, MW gets yucky. The more straight forward an opponent plays post flop the more we can 3bet them with speculative hands, the better the play the less speculative 3bets we should make also.
When building big pots preflop: Don't build a big preflop pot in situations where you are setting yourself up for often having to fold postflop
We 3bet to: 1. You expect to often flop a hand god enough to continue past the flop 2. You expect to often steal the pot postflop
3betting for Value -> Focus on point 1. (Look at the 8 examples if need be)
Our 3betting with speculative hands theory is: In situations where we have good steal equity, we are less dependent on showdown equity. This allows us to relax our starting hand requirements.
Hands that fit this are good suited run downs(T987ss) and Suited Aces with good rundowns (A876hh), less gaps the better and of course we want the gaps to be at the bottom. See example 4.9/4.10.
3betting as a bluff is taking an extremely speculative hand and 3betting and banking on lotsa fold equity to be profitable, although at least some kind of SD value should be there - we do get 4 cards! We should never do it OOP/vs. more than 1 player/when we expect to get called. The conditions need to be very favourable so as a beginner I should probably disregard 3bet bluffing to start.
Facing 4bets: When we get 4bet in PLO, we should assume we are up against AA** and play accordingly. Remembering what hands have the best equity and note how deep our stacks are. We should 5bet AA**, and call and 'cherry pick' flops with hands such as 9876ss.
If we look at KK** vs. AA** graphed we know that we are going to have at least 50% equity on the top 19% of flops. And in these top 19% of flops we will have an average of 78.4% equity. What does confuse me is that our total equity is 14.3%, this does not makes sense with the other number but I will look into that at a later date.
A hand such as 9876ds has a very even flop distribution against AA** meaning that it hits a lot of different flops in some way as we expect so it plays well in big pots against AA** as we get enough equity to commit. Even when we are facing a 4bet pre-flop, we are still making a slightly losing play when we know all the money is going in on the flop.
AKQTss on the other hand has a slightly lesser flop distribution. It tends to either hit the flop hard or not so much compared to 9876ds which makes sense as the AA has blockers to our hand and we cannot flop back door draws as often. The Ace in our hand is very bad for our hand as it makes us pretty much only have 3 playable cards, therefore this does not bode well for us in 4bet pots. It still is okay in the single raised pot and reasonably in 3bet pots. In 4bet pots we have already committed a significant amount of chips so hitting fewer flops is not great for us. So if you are facing a 4bet and you are certain it is AA**, FOLD! unless you are mega deep stacked.
KK72r is polarized in what flops it hits well on. There are few, but they are very good when they do. We are essentially set mining vs. AA** as we do in hold'em often therefore we cannot afford to play a big pot with this hand when we are highly likely to be facing AA** and check folding lots of flops is never fun. Even facing a 3bet, we may be best just to fold as we have to be sure our villain stacks off against us.
Ultimately KK72r and AKQTr play similarly, but we definitely like to have 9876ds when playing vs AA** no matter the situation. 4bet pots -> Lots of flops we hit fairly well > few flops we hit really hard!
Given that AA** doesn't lose to any hand in 4bet pots if we know the stacks are going in on the flop, we can be unexploited by getting in at least a 1/3 of our stack in pre-flop HU then push in on any flop (it may not be the most +EV).
In the future we can use this method to analyse situations!
The first step for me on my road to mastering PLO is to read all of Bugs' articles 'PLO from Scratch', I have herd great things about them and the best thing is that it says the views of the page....and its only 329! So that means that all though they have had great reviews, not everyone knows about them. And no doubt many of those views are the same people 3, 4, 5+ times. Of course not all great PLO players will read these articles, but it makes me happy as it shows that PLO is definitely a game that not everyone is competent in. If I can really study the material in these there is no reason why I cannot quickly excel at this game from the micros to who knows where.
I have skipped part 1 as it is a study guide, but I have covered this in one of my other blogs. I will be writhing these from the top of my head, and reviewing the articles more indepth over time and constantly reviewing them not as a goal to reach the level of bugs, but as a tool as I obviously want to become the best player.
Part 2 Summary: When being dealt 4 cards, there are more different structures to hands that we receive so ideally we want all the cards to work together to enable us to hit more flops and give us more outs to draw to. Danglers reduce the value of our hands A LOT.
Position is way more important in PLO than hold'em, and we know just how important it is in hold'em. If we are not drawing to the nuts when we are out of position we will not know what we are exactly doing with or hand, and given that our in position villain has four cards they are able to represent the nuts a lot more easily if we show any weakness.
We base our pre-flop selection generally around showdown equity and steal equity. As I said above, our steal equity is going to be dramatically less OOP so that is why we need to be tight and play hands that we know are going to have great show down equity....essentially we want to have hands that when hit are going to be the nuts. In position however is a different kettle of fish, we can play more liberally as we can take dow many more pots post flop when checked to, so in position if we have a hand that has a tonne of showdown equity we will 3bet all the time as people a lot as they will play weak hands out of position with minimal SD equity and no steal equity giving us a HUGE edge.
To being for me, I will be playing really really tight in position, as this is what slowed my growth as a player in hold'em - I did not appreciate position enough.
With all this DOJ / FBI stuff happening many US pro's are
considering moving abroad, I have seen all countries being thrown up there.
Personally, I moved to Melbourne, Australia at the beginning of this month from
Wellington, New Zealand. Although it is only a 4 hour plane ride from home it
is still a significant change as we are so isolated down there in the Tasman
Sea.
Why I moved?
I had finished University last year, I had sort of given thought of playing
poker for a couple years, however I ultimately felt that the opportunity cost
of me not getting a job/further study was greater than what it was worth. So
once the summer holidays had finished, and all the weekly concerts/events had
finished and everyone was either back working full-time regularly or at Uni, I
was left in limbo.
I could have got a job with my degree, but ultimately there is not a lot of
jobs in Wellington at the mo, and our pay is shit! So I decided to book a
ticket to Melbourne for the following week and here I am.
Why Melbourne?
Why not really, I had been to Brisbane and Sydney but never Melbourne, however
had only herd good things about it and many said that the culture was similar
to that of Wellington. I also knew a few people who live here so it would not
be me totally on my own. The cost of living here is slightly higher;
however the income earned comfortably overcomes this deficit so I will be able
to channel more into savings for later travel. Even though this would happen no
matter what country I went to, travelling further abroad is significantly
easier and cheaper (unless I want to go to Rarotonga etc.). Also, if I did not
like it here it is easier enough for me to jump back over the ditch but that
would be a weak play, I would likely head to Europe or something.
Who should move
country?
Everyone’s circumstance is different in regards to their
online situation, but I feel as though if you are in your early – mid twenties
with no essential obligations (family to think of, sic parents etc.), playing
as a profession there is no reason why you should not move country. You are
lucky in that all you need is a laptop and an internet connection to be able to
play. Also, given that we have seen how uncertain the online world is, there is
no reason to sit around being unproductive making that dreaded resume gap even
bigger than it is. At least you can justify it, by saying you travelled abroad,
no need to mention you played poker while overseas. Personally I wish I spent a
couple months in Asia over summer as the opportunity for me to do this will now
decrease given I am looking to go into the work force. But; no regret as the
pokers is ultimately a game that I play well when I am 100% enjoying it, which
is max 20 hours per week.
This is getting a little lengthier and off track to where I expected so going to
finish it up for now. Maybe will make a bullet point style version in a couple
days.
