PLO Style

Finally got around to writing this all up.  Sorry for the delay. 

I was given the opportunity to check out an advanced copy of Tri "SlowHabit" Nguyen's new book The Pot-Limit Omaha Workbook:  Common Spots, Uncommon Profits.  This is a book for honing your skills at Online 6-max PLO cash games.  Probably best suited for someone who has been playing a bit but looking for more of an edge in the current games.  I can't say whether or not the book is worth the money for you, that's a personal and financial decision.  I can say that there is potential to learn a lot about PLO in this book.  I know I did.

My thoughts in short.  The theory section is brief, but interesting.  The HH section is thorough and contains a lot of valuable insight into common situations.  The PLO Quiz is my favorite part and provides a lot of opportunities to test your knowledge and see what SlowHabit has to say about those spots.  The more you've played I think the more you'll be able to get from the various sections since you'll be better able to evaluate the information, lines and answers provided and to determine how they fit your game.  However, I think there is something here for everyone. 

The short opening theory chapters are interesting pieces to consider.  They compliment SlowHabit's first PLO book and seem like good concepts and tools to spend some time thinking about.  The first concept of visibility is a little more theory based and conceptual while the chapter on the stop and go was easier for me to conceptualize and incorporate.  However, I would have liked to see them referenced more in the hand history analyses just to drive the concepts home.

I found after reading just the first few hand histories that I was immediately seeing lines that hadn't come to me before and that I could implement right away in very common spots.  There is a ton to think about here and opportunities to learn how to squeeze value from both less competent and more seasoned PLO opponents.

If you play a lot of hands of PLO you should recognize several spots that come up here.  If you don't recognize them you'll start to the more hands you get under your belt.  SlowHabit does a good job of verbalizing his decision making process and seems to make an honest attempt at assessing his play at the time of the hand, for better and worse.  It's definitely not a bunch of obvious spots he plays well, there are plenty of misplayed hands.  They are all worthy of revisiting and offer learning opportunities that include standard lines to take or to expect from your opponents; specific player-type notes to consider; and consideration of alternative lines. 

While the hand analysis is valuable in itself and consists of both standard and, to me, less standard lines I think the most value comes from the times he goes beyond the initial hand analysis and gets into particular things of note, like reflection on his in-game thought process and alternative lines he could/should have taken.   For example if he should have 3bet pre-flop despite what he said earlier or if check-raising the flop needs more consideration in that spot.

I was bothered a little bit when he simply explained a decision by saying "I often do X action, but this time I chose Y, there is no particular reason why I chose Y instead of X."  Like I usually raise, but this time I called, I have no reason or explanation.  He could probably just say he chose it to mix up his play or at least told us why he one is his standard and how the line he chose affects the hand.  These are usually in less consequential spots and he does go into a lot of detail about most of his decisions.  There are also some typos and small editing errors throughout that can be distracting but don't really take away from the analysis.

The PLO Quiz, this is my favorite part of the book and I think a top notch learning tool.  It puts you in spots with opportunities to consider what you would do and then read a detailed explanation of what SlowHabit thinks is the best play and why.  He also provides many alternative lines, notes and other considerations for each scenario.  Whether you knew the best action or not, you can learn a lot from the analysis in the answer section.  I also like how this sections provides lots of opportunity to consider different boards, hands, actions or opponents in the given scenarios and try to piece together the best actions to take. 

Again I'll say this is a book for honing one's skills at current online 6-max PLO cash games.  Probably best suited for someone who has been playing a fair bit and is looking for more of an edge in the current games.  I can't say whether or not the book is worth the money for you, that's a personal and financial decision. 

I think The PLO Workbook has a lot to offer the serious PLO student.  

Pricing and more information can be found at http://dailyvariance.com/slowhabit-plo-workbook.html