well, after about 4 weeks away, i played for a few hours today. a few reflections...

- the time off really gave me some time to think about my game. i find that i'm making really good decisions much more consistently that i was before (see below).

- one thing that i really focused my thoughts on was position. everyone says it's important -- and it is -- but it takes a lot of effort to really understand why. i don't think that this is really written in any books, and i'm not sure it can be. position influences what hands you can and should play preflop. the catch is that this matrix of hands is not static -- it changes depending on the table texture. one simple example -- you don't want to play primarily drawing hands when you have a lot of maniacs at the table. you aren't getting the right odds to chase most of the time. on the other hand, you can play lots of drawing hands on passive tables. furthermore, position gives you a HUGE advantage in managing the size of the pot making decisions about whether to stay in or not.

- playing any four. i've been advocating this idea a lot recently, but i realized that i haven't been doing it enough myself. first, you can raise any four in the right games. if you can get it HU, it takes remarkably little to drive the betting (forget about playing the nuts) and take down pots. i was mocked today by a few players for raising with admittedly junky hands (it was a positional pfr) and hitting a big hand. needless to say, this got me a ton of action on my other hands. fwiw, this is one reason why i like to play only three games (maybe four slow ones) -- you really have to be paying attention to get a feel for the texture of the table and the hand in order to make these plays successfully.

- observation of opponents and notes are invaluable. i started off my plo8 career playing with a very mechanical style (not a bad idea for beginners) which entailed mostly playing my cards and making obvious steals. now i realize that careful observation can allow you to completely kill your opposition. i was able to abuse the 25s and 50s today because i had great reads on my opponents and they had no idea what i was doing when i bet or raised.

- plo8 can be an evil game to play. you can be in juicy games with people playing janky starting hands and showing down crap, but life can suck if you don't get a hand to play or run up against the goods. as i mentioned before, i killed the 25 and 50 tables, but lost it all back at the 100s -- card dead at one, a few whiffed monster draws on another, drawn out on when ahead on a couple of others. what was worse was that my monsters (you even get them when running bad) didn't get paid off. i used to think that this negative variance was due to a leak in my game, but i am realizing more and more that it's just the ebbs and flows of the game. if your opponents have crap, they can't even call a min bet. you only get paid off when you both have hands and yours is better. i realize that this is definitely my +EV advantage at the tables -- i am able to get good (small) value from my mediocre hands and maximum value for my monsters while rarely paying off when i'm beat or behind.

- i think that minimizing your losses is one of the biggest keys to success in plo8. the big pots when you have monsters will take care of themselves, but you can lose a lot of money in making loose calls looking for those monsters (esp. on the turn). i made a lot of big lay downs today and didn't regret one of them.

- most "tight" players fold too much on the flop. this may seem to contradict my previous statement, but please keep in mind that this is contextual. sometimes it's right to call a flop bet when you've got a draw to a draw (or two). i irritated the hell out of some of my opponents today when i hit some of these. on one hand in particular, i had a low pocket pair, a gutter, and a draw to a flush draw on the flop. the draw to the flush draw came on the turn, and the str8 hit the river. i was calling down the bets the whole time and bet the river when i hit. villain was pissed. i don't think he understood that the $1.50 or whatever small bet was on the flop was definitely small enough to give me correct implied odds to see the turn. once i had two draws on the turn (and two pair with my overs may have been good, too), the call was easy to make just on pot odds alone (iirc). the fact that he paid my straight off on the river with his two pair was just gravy. anyway, try to take a look at how many turn cards will help you in terms of draws -- all of a sudden you game opens up a lot and your ugly flop hand will turn into a beauty by the river. this is especially true in loose games.

- i hate to do this, but i think i have to. follow the advice in the previous point at your own risk. if you don't understand it, ignore it. if a light bulb went off, give it some more thought. you can lose a lot of money by chasing in the wrong spots.

- interestingly, i find bluffing is harder to do successfully at higher levels than at lower levels. there seemed to be a lot more showdowns at the 100s than the 25s. the str8s didn't seem to care that the board was paired or that the flush was out... they would call. this is great if you have a hand, but it does mean that you have to slow down on the bluffs (just image bluffs in small pots). again, know your table (see comment above).

- one of the best parts of plo8 is the lower variance. i thought i got abused at the tables today (while playing well) with bad cards, missed draws, getting outdrawn, and not getting my big hands paid off, but i only lost about $20 playing the 25s, 50s, and 100s over about 800 hands. given that run-of-the-mill heaters over the same number of hands can net several hundred dollars, i'm not complaining. in the past, i used to think that something was wrong if if was more or less even over 800 hands. i now realize that this is my "negative variance" in plo8. fwiw, my worst run is losing four buy-ins last summer clearing a multipoker bonus (broke even after bonus) over about 1500 hands. after reviewing the HHs, i realized that about 2.5 of those buy-ins were due to stupid loose calls. that was my first lesson in learning how to lay down.

- finding a good plo game is easier than finding a good plo8 game, but i enjoy plo8 so much more. sigh... what to do?

- europeans are more fun to play with than americans -- both in terms of game play and chat.


comments?

kuso, there's a lot of wisdom here, although we definitely differ in taste regarding O8 (which I haven't even tried yet, admittedly) and PLO (at which I'm becoming an addict). They also seem to me to be almost entirely different games--perhaps as big a difference as between NLHE and PLO... well, maybe not quite, but close.

I wish you would explore some of these ideas in separate threads, as I think there are a number worth focussing on and considering in greater detail--e.g., playing any 4 sometimes, the function of raises, reads and how to vary your play depending on them (I think the latter is really the main reason why I've been able to do fairly well as Omaha beginner, as my NLHE experience has allowed me to get pretty decent at Omaha reads pretty fast).

Oh, one other one that I REALLY liked: When they mini-bet, considering whether you might pick up a strong DRAW on the turn. I've done that maybe not a lot but at least several times to very weak bets, and I'm sure profitably. The implied odds on runner-runner are typically quite high. I do think you have to look pretty carefully at how many/how strong your draw might become to avoid bleeding away more than you win on this move. But it's a good one if the price is very low relative to pot-size and you have a decent number of outs to a strong draw (e.g., minimum bet in raised pot and you're wrapped nicely around just one card on a rainbow board--I'll probably see the turn in that situation).

Anyhow, lots of stuff very much worth exploring in greater detail here.

One additional comment: Russians and Frenchies are usually the craziest!

thanks for the comments... i'll reply more later.

btw, Ais, the reason i like plo8 is that the split aspect adds draws that increase the complexity of hand analysis. it seems like a lot of people don't understand this well (even at higher limits), and that's +EV for me. it sucks when you split against a 'tard because he had a stupid high and a janky low, but it washes out over the long run.