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A couple of weeks ago, Tri contacted me to ask if I would be interested in reading his new e-book and writing a review for it in my blog. Having read his first PLO book about a year ago, I quickly accepted. By the next day I had received a rough draft of the book through my e-mail and was excited to start the whole process.

The rough draft didn’t include a table of contents, so I decided to quickly skim through the e-book to get an idea of what I was going to read later. The draft I received is 139 pages long, divided into 6 chapters, as follows:

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Visibility

Chapter 3. The Stop and Go.

Chapter 4. 40 Hand History Reflections.

Chapter 5. The PLO Quiz.

Chapter 6. The PLO Solutions.

After a short introduction to the Workbook, you get to Chapter 2: Visibility. I wanted to keep on scrolling down but I had to read these couple of pages. I knew what Tri was talking about, it’s an essential concept a successful PLO player has to understand. Basically, it’s about not only knowing where you are in a hand but also where you will be in future streets. Not comprehending visibility or more specifically how it affects your decisions to move forward in a hand is a leak many SSPLO players have and throughout this book you’ll find many good examples of this concept at practice.

I also quickly read Chapter 3: The Stop and Go. Here, Tri describes a well-known play where you check-call flop and lead out on the turn. Extremely useful and important play in PLO and he explains why. I was only on page 8 when I ran out of time and had to leave for the day, but I remember spending at least a couple of hours that night thinking about these concepts and how to apply them at the tables in different situations.

Chapter 4: 40 Hand History Reflections is exactly what it sounds like. Forty interesting and common situations that will repeatedly come up throughout your PLO career. The format for this chapter is basically the following: A) Hand history, usually from pre-flop through river. B) Tri’s original reasoning throughout the hand. C) A reflection on how he played the hand and how he should have played it. Most hands also include player dependent notes and alternative lines you can take.

Since I am an active poster in the forums, I went through my habitual process when reading hands. I played the hand myself, deciding what I’d do on each street before reading what the actual player did. This was most helpful. Not only did I get 40 interesting hands to play, but I definitely found some good arguments in Tri’s analysis I had not taken into account on some tough hands. I would definitely recommend anyone reading this chapter to use the same method, I’m pretty sure you will improve your PLO thought process and identify more leaks this way.

The only negative point on this chapter is that important reads are sometimes given after the hand has played out, so solving the hand yourself isn’t optimal since you are not considering these reads beforehand. I think it would be most beneficial to the reader to point out relevant reads before each hand history. I would’ve also liked to see more 3bet and deep stacked hands.

Chapter 5 and 6 are basically a PLO Quiz and its answers. Tri puts you to the test with 35 more interesting pre-flop and post-flop situations. Answers include equity calculations, opponent dependent notes and alternative lines you could take. Reads are also not present in these chapters beforehand, but that may just mean you should think about what you should do in these spots against different opponent types before reading the answers.

All in all, I have to say reading the PLO Workbook was definitely +EV. I'm sure it would benefit most players playing micro and small stakes pot-limit Omaha. That said, you should definitely be willing to do the work involved. Don’t expect to be told what to do. Play the hands yourself first and be ready to constantly think about the concepts presented in this book whenever you are on the tables. If you do this, I would seriously expect you to make a substantial return of investment from buying this e-book. 

According to Tri’s publishing site DailyVariance, the final version of the book will be 200 pages long and will include two bonus chapters from his upcoming psychology book. The estimated release date is July 15th. I would strongly suggest that if you’re considering buying the book you do so now, since there’s 3 days left on a pre-order special price at $297 (regular price $397). I would also recommend watching this Interview with Tri Nguyen on PokerStatic. Within you may find a bonus code for an added discount.