PLO Style

Man, if you haven't heard, PLO is a high variance game.  Had you heard that, probably not, but it is, for real, no joke.

My first like 20k hands back playing regularly have been a huge roller coaster.  I started out pretty taggish and ran hot and won at a good clip.  Decided to loosen up and play like 5 tables...this leads to me spewing, not playing terrible but getting pretty laggy (for me) and playing like 33/20/12 and swinging a ton and just relying too much on running good because people don't fold that much especially if you're playing fast.  I went back through my hands and I never really got my money in "bad".  Meaning I always had at least 30% :oP 

So that was yesterday I played like 2k hands, I've been playing a ton more since I quit my job.  Played mostly at deep tables with antes and dropped like 15 or more BI yesterday, but actually wasn't tilting, much, and played pretty solid lag game I thought.  Just ran a little bad, like 12BI below EV if you ask HEM, especially against the other guys who were willing to get the money in the middle.  People play so bad! 

So today I got back to my nitty ways and tagged it up for a bit.  I do much better this way.  I don't get my money in nearly as much, but it's a much lower variance style.  I realize I can play a taggy grind style and still play a smart aggressive game post flop, in fact it gives me more ways to win pots than getting the SPR as low as possible and shipping pair+draws every other hand.  So I'm a better nit than a lag, and as long as I don't let my ego get in the way and try to outplay all the wannabe superstars out there I can grind out a nice winrate and move on up in due time.  On that note despite my little downswing thing this month I feel good about my game. 

I also played a $10 PLO tourney with rebuys on FTP today.  The tourney was actually a breeze but took so brutally long.  Fullring PLO + Tournament PLO = totally weird compared to 6m cash.  I just nitted it up and let people shovel me their chips when I had the nuts.  Seriously nut flush got shoved on by bottom straight on river, top boat shoved on by something retarded, Top set on K9xr flop all-in 3ways vs. 2 big stacks with JQTx hands.  Ended as chipleader a big chunk of last 1/4 of the tourney but lost half my stack deep in the money when a guy peeled a KQxr flop with naked ATxx and hit his gutter vs. my KKxx. 

But I ground out my medium stack to the final table and pretty much just nitted up more and played for ICM and chipped up the money ladder for a while letting everyone else monkey off their stacks.  Actually I literally only got one playable hand the whole time and took down the blinds with it.  I had anywhere from 5-40bbs during the final table.  Doubled up a bunch of times and made to 4 handed where we all traded chips for like 2 hours.  It got to the point where the rotating big stack was 20bbs and everyone else had like 6-12.  I waited for 3 handed and we ended up chopping for ICM value.  Short stack had like 12bbs, I had 14 and big stack had like 18.  It was retarded.  That deal calculator thing Full Tilt has is pretty cool, I had never done a deal before.  I ended up taking home ~$1700 for my $51 investment.  So it's like yesterday never happened! 

So I finished May by quitting my job because I'm moving from here in Oaklnad to Portland, OR in a few weeks.  Spent last week in LA visiting friends and family.  Played one day on my laptop while I was there.  Didn't really play well and ran god awful.  Just took the rest of the time to chill by the pool and drink many beers, like a lot.

An old friend of mine from high school lives in LA we hadn't hung out in like 10 years and we reconnected.  He's an executive chef for Wolfgang Puck and runs one of the Bar and Grills.  His restaurant is right across the street from the Staples center next to the Nokia Theater.  It's pretty sweet.  He hooked me and some family up with a dinner one night.  It was sooo good.  Would have been like $400+ with all the stuff he kept sending out our way, but we just paid for our drinks, like 80 bucks!  So awesome. 

One night when we were hanging out we went to Wurstkuche in downtown LA.  It's a beer bar that has sausages and fries.  Really good sausages, but they don't make them so I don't give them too much props there.  The beer selection is decent, but I'm spoiled because I have had the The Trappist, http://thetrappist.com/, as my go-to specialty beer bar here in Oakland.  Anyway, while we were there drinking and eating sausages none other than Will Ferrell is a table away enjoying some brews and tube steaks!  LA is so weird.

So now I'm just planning on playing as much as I can this month while I pack all my stuff up for our big move.  It's actually pretty sweet.  We found an awesome house right in the heart of the Sunnyside neighborhood right between Belmont and Hawthorne at like 33rd st in SE Portland.  We also got my daughter Ruby into the pre-K program we wanted!  Sometimes things just work out. 

I'll take it.