PLO Pimpin'

What’s Up Degens?

First off, I don’t think I really covered it in my last post, but I’ll talk about it here. Saturday was a pretty funny day, but something I hope doesn’t happen again any time soon..

I woke up at 11am MST by my roommate who says “Dude, aren’t you going to play the $500+35 PLO FTOPS?”, to which I respond “of course”… The only problem was that I had a lesson scheduled for noon, and I also wanted to at least try to qualify for it, and hadn’t even brushed my teeth yet!

Anyway I cancel my lesson, hop out of bed and immediately fire up FTP. I see there’s tons of qualifiers running, but unfortunately since it’s so close to tournament time, they’re all super turbos. If you don’t know what this structure is like, let me give you a little refresher. You start with 100 chips with blinds at 15/30… So it’s basically just a variance fest, which PLO generally is anyway.

To make a long story short, I join a ton of them, thinking even if I win more than once I can just use the money or whatever. Unfortunately I bubble three of them, and end up spending $1600 in tournament qualifiers for a tournament I didn’t even win an entry to! Now I’m on massive tilt, and am unsure if I even want to buy in now. I end up just direct buying (yay for $2100 on a $535 tourney), and proceed to get probably the worst table draw in the whole tournament. Bussa Buss is on my left, Gboro is on my right, and another solid 10/20 reg is two to my left as well. Sweeeeet. To make a long story short, I felt I played very well, but busted a few levels in as a favorite against the nuts http://weaktight.com/1371653

This might seem kind of ranty, but I’m going to use this time to basically talk about my undying hate for tournaments. Anyone who knows me personally will be familiar with my take on the intrinsic fishiness it takes to win tournaments, so fast forward if you’ve heard this out of my mouth before. They seriously take a small fraction of skill to be a winner in comparison to cash games. Look at some of the people who have won giant live tourneys. Jerry Yang, are you serious? Darvin Moon is the chip leader of the ME? I can’t remember the last time I played a tournament and wasn’t completely dissappointed when it was finished.

Anyway, I mentioned in my inaugural post that I was on a bit of a downer, so I figured now was the perfect time to go through my database in the last month or so and analyze my biggest losers and see if I’m really losing hand reading skills, or if I’m just running into a rough patch of variance. I think I’ve found it’s a little of both. I have what I’ve dubbed “cocky spewey” syndrome, which usually kicks in after I’m an hour or so into my session and already up a couple of buy ins. One of my biggest strengths is using my aggression effectively, but it definitely works against me as well. Something I need to work on is realizing that the rest of the table is beginning to adjust to how aggressive I’ve been playing against them, so I should expect them to start calling me down lighter. I kind of forget to implement this concept, and get looked up very light towards the end of the session, which just makes me want to get it back right away which in turn induces some “cocky spewey syndrome”. Anyway, here’s some hands I’ve played lately, maybe you can decide how much I suck.

This guy is one of the most aggressive players I’ve ever played HU. He 3b every hand, and was just generally kind of tricky to play. 4b PF is standard against someone like this, but is there any other way to play the flop? I wonder if I can c-bet smaller to induce a c/r with worse draws, or if betting full pot is super standard because it’s a 4b pot and I just want to get the money in? I’m assuming the latter, but maybe I could see a spot for doing the former.

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $787.45
Hero (BTN/SB): $1403.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN/SB with K K Q 7
Hero raises to $12, BB raises to $36, Hero raises to $108, BB calls $72

Flop: ($216.00) 9 7 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $216.00, BB raises to $679.45, Hero calls $463.45

Final Pot: $1574.90
BB wins $1574.40
(Rake: $0.50)

I’m pretty embarrassed about this hand to be completely honest. He was super passive, playing a 60/5, and the iso PF is very standard. Post flop is where I really messed up. First of all, a player this passive would never ever donk on a flop like this without anything but a set imo. Sure once in awhile he’ll do it with massive draws, but having the As in my hand makes this less likely, and from my experience players who are this passive will c/c basically all draws, rather than donking out in situations like this. I understand what I was thinking at the time though. I thought there was a decent chance he has a set, but I had a T and J in my hand, so I decided to see a clean turn and just close my eyes and ship it if he bet pot on the turn. Looking back though, if I would have thought it out, it would’ve been an easy fold. I’m either destroyed, or a slight favorite there. *Note to self, when passive players donk pot, fold, lol. obv. Part of being a good PLO player is getting used to making folds like this routine. He’s just never bluffing there. I hate this hand!

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (MP): $486.05
CO: $626.80
BTN: $1258.40
SB: $527.00
BB: $55.80
UTG: $1697.65

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is MP with K A T J
UTG calls $4, Hero raises to $18, 4 folds, UTG calls $14

Flop: ($42.00) 2 J T (2 players)
UTG bets $42.00, Hero calls $42

Turn: ($126.00) 5 (2 players)
UTG bets $126.00, Hero raises to $426.05, UTG calls $300.05

Final Pot: $978.10
UTG wins $975.10
(Rake: $3.00)

This one is pretty basic, but I want to go over it. I had a problem earlier this summer with bluffing fish, and the problem here was I didn’t know who he was. I hadn’t been at the table very long, and the only read I had was that he was from Estonia (wtf is that?). I actually really like my line, and I think it works a ton, but if I would’ve known then what I figured out later in the session I never would have tried it. He ended up being a monster fish. Don’t naked ace bluff fish!! I definitely like my line though.

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $644.70
UTG: $135.10
CO: $846.40
BTN: $1555.60
SB: $211.55

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BB with 9 A A 8
1 fold, CO raises to $12, BTN calls $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($38.00) J 5 4 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $19.00, BTN folds, Hero raises to $48, CO calls $29

Turn: ($134.00) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $101.00, CO calls $101

River: ($336.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $321.00, CO calls $321

Final Pot: $978.00
CO wins $975.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Standard.

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $440.40
CO: $470.10
Hero (BTN): $493.50
SB: $378.00
BB: $72.50

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN with K T 6 K
1 fold, CO raises to $14, Hero calls $14, 1 fold, BB calls $10

Flop: ($44.00) 4 K Q (3 players)
BB checks, CO bets $36.00, Hero raises to $148, BB folds, CO raises to $456.10, Hero calls $308.10

Final Pot: $956.20
CO wins $953.20
(Rake: $3.00)

I like my turn c/r here (65% equity), but beyond being a favorite, I think they fold here tons. I don’t like my bet sizing on the flop though, should definitely be 9 or 10.

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $271.00
UTG: $770.90
CO: $382.00
BTN: $400.00
Hero (SB): $400.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is SB with K J 3 9
1 fold, CO calls $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, BB checks

Flop: ($12.00) Q 8 2 (3 players)
Hero bets $7.00, BB calls $7, CO calls $7

Turn: ($33.00) K (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $16.00, CO calls $16, Hero raises to $97, BB folds, CO calls $81

River: ($243.00) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $243.00, CO raises to $274, Hero calls $31

Final Pot: $791.00
CO wins $788.00
(Rake: $3.00)

This hand seems pretty standard, but I wonder if I can ever find a fold here. On the turn, I felt like Marty is leading half pot with draws almost always. I’ve found that most people bet closer to pot when they have strong hands on wet boards (correctly so), so this just looks super fishy when he bets that amount. The reason I raised was to rep QT to the player behind me so he didn’t come along with draws as often, and to charge marty for his draws as well. I was a little confused by the call from the player behind me, but figured it was never QT because the stacks were such that he would likely just stick in QT so he wouldn’t make a mistake on the river. I guess since I repped QT, he must’ve thought I in fact did have QT, so he didn’t want to be getting freerolled. wp I guess? River is standard; there’s no value in betting, but he can try to bluff me with missed draws (which I felt was the majority of his range at this point).

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $309.10
BB: $761.30
Hero (CO): $430.40
BTN: $356.40

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is CO with K 9 T 7
Hero raises to $14, BTN calls $14, SB calls $12, BB calls $10

Flop: ($56.00) A J 8 (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($56.00) 9 (4 players)
SB bets $28.00, BB folds, Hero raises to $68, BTN calls $68, SB folds

River: ($220.00) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $220.00, Hero calls $220

Final Pot: $660.00
BTN wins $658.00
(Rake: $2.00)

I’ll post more hands tomorrow, but I just wanted to get some out there for now. I’ll save the best for last…

Party Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $222.50
Hero (BTN): $450.50
SB: $120.00
BB: $394.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN with 9 9 A A
CO raises to $14, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, CO raises to $150, Hero raises to $450.50, CO calls $72.50 all in

Final Pot: $451.00
CO wins $449.00
(Rake: $2.00)

Ok it doesn’t show his hand, but he had KKKQr… wp sir.

Hope everyone is having a great week, I’ll try to post more tomorrow! Taking a day off from poker has been great, and I probably won’t play again for at least another week, although my IronMan Status is getting crushed!

Much Love,

JB

PS – I don’t know why, but the converter isn’t showing my opponent’s hands in the results? If you want to know what they had just message me or something, lol.