Jubs Blog

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.