OK, so I was on my usual stomping ground of the PLO ring games last night (I'm back in action this month - see my journal) and I feel I'm playing reasonably well, although the multi-tabling aspect had me slightly harassed for the first hour or so of the session, once I settled into a nice groove I felt very in control once more.

However, I've taken a bit of a step back and noticed some slight problems in my game which may be construed as leaks. Perhaps this has arisen as a product of my poor run in July, though I have a suspicion there are some errors in my game that go back a bit longer.

Perhaps the most notable one has been my occasional passive play when I can make late value bets, on the turn and river in particular. This, I think, is potentially a real product of my bad run; for one, I kept losing big pots on the later streets, and secondly, I kept losing in UNEXPECTED ways, such as betting top set all the way, the board pairs on the river, opponent checks, I bet, get raised all in, and lose to quads. These occurrences are very rare in PLO, as are river check-raises or re-raises without the goods. Certainly rare enough to make
NOT betting with LIKELY winners a -EV proposition that can lose a significant amount of value.

Take this hand from yesterday's session:

I call preflop, and see QQ2 on board with two clubs. It's checked to me (I had AKQ2 in LP) and I bet the pot. I get one caller from EP, I started the hand with $260, he started with $130 so there's still a decent amount of money to bet. Turn brings a 6[c]. Checked to me again and I fire, this time about half the pot. Hard to believe he's racked a 6 to go with a Q. River brings a 7, he checks AGAIN, and I check to showdown. He flips up A[c]x[c] for the top flush, and my boat beats his no-outer.

Although I didn't have a read on this guy, I think I should've been more aggressive on this hand. I like a pot bet on the turn far more than a half pot bet (if he has something like QAKT he's chasing only 3 outs for the win and I can make good money off him by pushing harder); although the half pot bet did have the merit of getting another call out of a flush. Checking down the river was unforgivable, though; he'd shown no signs of trickiness so a river check-raise bluff seemed extremely unlikely, and the 7 was a good card for me (anything connecting with a Q, such as 9-A, would be more likely to have given him a better boat if he was just playing the bare queen). I checked it down because I was scared of getting bet off the pot (if he check-raises here I probably can't call without a read suggesting that he's tricky on the later streets), when in reality I missed a prime value-betting opportunity. Of course, quite often he'll just fold a missed Q, but if he has AQ or any sort of flush he'll quite probably call a small bet. Another possibility was that he had an under-boat (22 for instance), and thus will probably call a milking bet. Sure, I only would probably have got another $20 or $30 out of him with the flush, but add that to the $35 I missed by making an error (because I was a bit panicked with the multi-tabling and failed to raise the nuts) at PLO8, and that's the equivalent of an hour and a quarter's poker winnings for me.

These are the sort of leaks you need to iron out to really squeeze all the value out of your games; at the moment, mine seem relatively tight (200 PLO especially, with the exception of one night this week at Stars, seems unusually rocky at present) so when I have a big hand I need to make it pay.

Another area I'd like to work on is my aggression preflop. I feel, playing multiple tables, that my VPIP% is about right in the low to mid 20s (i'd probably look to 30% or so in a live game, depending on how deep the stacks are and what the opposition is like), but on the other hand I'm probably losing some chances to take the lead in the hand and win some small pots (even some blinds) by being too passive with decent hands and also on missed flops where no-one seems to have anything. I play small-pot poker pretty well in general, but I think I need to raise more often preflop, especially in good positions. I might consider raising more often with high-pair type hands, narrowing the field and getting more value out of my top sets, especially in later positions.

I'm not sure what my PFR% is but I think in the relatively loose, relatively passive games I play, where you can often push the blinds out of a hand with a late raise, I could pick up a bit of value by being a bit more brave with my PFRs, and also perhaps build a slightly more LAGgy image for myself. I don't have my PFR stats to hand (if I recall, however, they're rather low, a couple of %), but suffice to say I think I'm going to have to start putting in a few more raises and see if it helps open up my game a bit.

Hands like a mid-high pair with two touching cards (TT98 for instance), mid-to-low wraps (5678) and two medium strength pairs (JJ88) that I normally limp with from any seat, I think I need to start raising late on, if only for image purposes. Any pair of kings or queens with a suited ace would be a good raise in many spots in most of my games, again I often limp this, and I could perhaps even start raising some of the better three-legged dogs (AKQ5ds etc) in LP in tighter games in an effort to win more small pots.

Certainly don't want to turn into a Xaston-esque hyper-LAG, but raising maybe 20% of the hands I see a flop with would be a good start.

Anyhow, food for thought.

Monk
xxxxx

Just some random thoughts: first, as you know better than me, a lot depends on table texture. If I feel that my opponents play rather predictably and have some respect for me, then I raise with quite a lot of hands. If there are tricky players who make big bluffs, or simply people who pay you off than I play a much more nut-peddling type of game.

It also depends on the number of tables I play. When 3-tabling or more, I play much more conservatively. If you play one table you sense when it is the time to make a move or to snap off a bluff; that I simply lose when I have 4 tables running. Consequently, I don't want to see huge pots before I see the flop.

Hands I like to raise with when I feel I have control over the table (in LP; in EP I'm much more conservative and let someone in LP do the raising) : any good wrap-type hand, suited or not, any big pair if the sidecards are decent, hands like A789 suited to the A, two medium pair.
This works great against people who play according to a basic sound strategy and who assume that when you make a big raise you have big cards. If you raise with 5789, get one caller and the flop comes A74, then you will take it down since they put you on AA. On the other hand, if the flop comes with a nice wrap (i.e. rags in your opponent's perception) they will try to move you off the hand and you can win a huge pot. This seems to work as well against decent regulars if you haven't played a hand for a couple of rounds and you raise from EP.

Anyway, I like to make these kind of plays provided I have the right type of opponent (moderately thoughtful and not of the wild gambling type).

Never played the $200 on stars (but I get raped by variance in all the other stars games, with the exception of the .04./08 stud hi lo we played) but these things work in the $50 and $100 UB games. And somehow there is more joy to making a good move than to hammering the nuts....

Pieter