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PLO and other topics
Sunday, August 28, 2005 As some of my readership knows, one of my goals for the next year of my poker life is to learn how to play many games very well. I'm not a total fish at any game, but the only games I claim to know very well are Limit Hold 'Em and No Limit Hold 'Em. Since there are World Series of Poker events in lots of other disciplines, and since the biggest cash games in the world (which I might I aspire to play in, some day in the far distant future) are almost always mixed games, I think it is about time I became a stronger all-around player. The upcoming WCOOP, in which I plan to play every event (assuming I'm not still in a Borgata Poker Open event at the time) seems like a great opportunity to further this goal. I decided to start with Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), high-only. I'd heard that the $10-$20 PLO games on Party were extremely good, and the PLO rebuy event is the first non-Hold 'Em event of WCOOP. So for the last week, instead of playing four $30-$60 Hold 'Em games when I played poker, I played three $30-$60 Hold 'Em games and one $10-$20 PLO game. I also read Lyle Berman's PLO section in Super System 2, although I don't think I learned too much new strategy from it. PLO is really not that complicated a game, in my somewhat uninformed opinion. Big draws (like nut flush+straight and high straight wrap) and big hands (top set on a non-straight board, the nut straight with a flush redraw) warrant getting all the chips in. Top two pair is pretty much the lowest ranking holding that can be considered a real hand. And no hand is a big favorite over any other hand before the flop, assuming the two hands are reasonable. Sure, aces have 100% equity against 2222, but that's not a matchup you'll ever see in real life. In a more realistic matchup, AAKK double suited has only 60% equity against T987 double suited (assuming no shared suits). So it's a game where a lot of different hands might reasonably look at a flop, and where two different hands have to commit to the same flop quite often. My initial PLO experiment has not gone well from a results standpoint, but I'm actually pretty confident that I understand the game by now. Almost every time I've put all my money in with a slight edge or in an EV-neutral spot against a good player, I've lost my entire stack. That's the way poker is sometimes. I really feel that I'm taking advantage of the fish, though. Here is one such example. Seat 5 is the button Seat1Dude ( $2367.52 ) Seat2Dude ( $1914.50 ) Seat10Dude ( $4554.24 ) Seat 7: Matt ( $1801.50 ) Seat 3: Fish ( $4023 ) Seat5Dude ( $310 ) Seat4Dude ( $1920 ) Seat9Dude( $2000 ) Matt posts small blind [$10]. Seat10Dude posts big blind [$20]. ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to Matt [ Qc 9s Kc Ad ] Seat1Dude folds. Seat2Dude calls [$20]. Fish calls [$20]. Seat4Dude folds. Seat5Dude folds. Matt calls [$10]. Seat10Dude checks. ** Dealing Flop ** [ 7d, Kh, Ac ] Matt checks. Seat10Dude checks. Seat2Dude checks. Fish bets [$77]. Matt raises [$250]. Seat10Dude folds. Seat2Dude folds. Fish calls [$173]. ** Dealing Turn ** [ 4c ] Matt bets [$577]. Fish calls [$577]. ** Dealing River ** [ 2s ] Matt is all-In [$954.50] Fish calls [$954.50]. Matt shows [ Qc, 9s, Kc, Ad ] two pairs, aces and kings. Fish shows [ Qd, Ts, Ah, Tc ] a pair of aces. Matt wins $3640 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and kings. When Fish fails to reraise the flop, I think it's unlikely he has a set, although the possibility is not totally ridiculous. More likely he has something like AKQx, or A7xx with backdoor draws. Maybe even QJT. I like the turn card, so I fire again. Now when he calls, I'm worried. I think he's got a set of sevens and has decided to play it slowly. The river, though, is another good card for my hand. At this point, there is $1731 in the pot, and $954.50 in my stack. Here's where I think I made a nice, nonobvious play. I value bet all-in. My logic was: I have enough doubt about my opponent's hand, that I can't check-and-fold for the price I'll be getting. But if I check, my opponent will surely set me in with any hand better than mine. He would probably check behind, however, with some hands I can beat, like lesser two pair, with which he might've called an all-in. I also don't think I can induce a bluff by checking, since there aren't a whole lot of busted draws to bluff with. Finally, he might even fold bottom set if I jam. So I jam, and my opponent calls with...AQ??? He can't even beat some hands I might bluff with, and that's why I label him Fish. By calling there, my opponent is praying I have QJTx, and I guess he's a genius if that's what I turn over. Seems to me that all the calls he made in this hand, save preflop, were extremely fishy. If someone disagrees, please drop me a line. Also, if someone thinks I'm a PLO fish based on this hand, I'd be interested in that opinion as well. One thing I find encouraging is that my river value bet logic came from a basic understanding of poker. The only PLO-specific thing about it was that I knew the relative hand values. But the idea of value betting first-to-act when you know your opponent will never check a better hand behind is game-independent. That fact gives me confidence that learning a bunch of new games might not be so hard after all. (I might turn the above into a CardPlayer column somehow--what do people think of that idea?) In other news, I played five tournaments this weekend with only one cash--a low one at Dise (of course). I feel strange posting a bet update this week, since my overall week was pretty much break even considering my PLO and tournament results. But many, many times I've won a bunch of money outside of the $30 game during the week, and never felt bad about posting only my $30 results. So I guess I should just keep posting my $30 results and not sweating it. Bet update: Total this week, +$7,867. Overall total, +$45,882. And finally, I'm going on vacation with Ivy this week. I'm not playing any poker until the first WCOOP event on Sunday. Expect updates and email responses this week to be even slower than usual. Everybody run goot while I'm gone. Slow Poker Week Monday, August 22, 2005 My brother got married on Saturday! It's a very happy time for my family. But as a result I played almost no poker last week and I have very little to report. I did, however, play my usual three Sunday tournaments, and missed the final table on Dise by one player (as my readers know by now, I don't play for tenth place). Bet update: Total last week, +$1,200. Overall total, +$38,015. What? An UNlucky Sunday?? Monday, August 15, 2005 I should've known things would go badly today when Pedro Martinez lost a no-hitter, a shutout, and the game in the eighth inning, as I sat at my desk trying to stay focused on poker. I actually got great chips in Party and Dise (out early on Stars, QQ v 77, all-in preflop for T1600 at the T15-T30 level). Lost almost all my chips on Dise against a five-outer with one to come and finished 18 out of the money. But Party was especially fun. They paid 220 players. So with 221 players left, I tried to get some chips (as I always do in such spots). I moved all-in in late position with J9 and the big blind woke up with aces. For the first time in a tournament that big, I finished exactly on the bubble. It was bound to happen eventually, given my style. I'd make the play again every time. I know going in that if someone has aces they're going to call. But the guy in the small blind said he folded a pocket pair. However big his pair was, he probably would've called with it once we got into the money (this assumes, of course, that he actually had a pair). He didn't even think about calling with it on the bubble. That's the reason the play makes so much sense, and it's essentially that play, and variants of it, that has been the key to much of the tournament success I've had. Oh well, let's save the big finishes for WCOOP. As I mentioned last entry, I had a nice comeback in the $30 games this week, after getting myself stuck about 150 big bets at one point early in the week. Bet update: Total this week, +$4,975. Overall total, +$36,815. Milestone Friday, August 12, 2005 Earlier in the week I thought I'd buried myself in the Party $30-$60 games to the point where I was unlikely to get back to my high water mark for at least another week or so. Well, not only did I recoup my losses from Monday, but I'm now ahead a little bit on the week. In fact, I won enough tonight so that for the first time, I have passed one million dollars in career poker winnings! (This is before taxes and expenses, of course.) Granted, 70.6903% of those winnings came in one shot, but I think it's pretty cool that I've been able to grind out the other 29.3097%. I won the vast majority of that latter chunk over the last year and a half--sure does help to have a bankroll. I first reached the million mark sometime mid-session, but I wouldn't have counted it unless I ended the session above a million. I went backwards a little, and actually had to win the last hand I played in order to get over the hump. Here's that hand: $30/$60 Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 11, 21:01:47 EDT 2005 Table Table 48954 (Real Money) Seat 5 is the button Total number of players : 9 Seat 10: Matt ( $4129 ) Seat 8: wmbldn ( $1478 ) Seat 5: bosschamp ( $1387.50 ) Seat 6: RaytheonL750 ( $1332 ) Seat 4: FarmerTedLA ( $1663 ) Seat 1: cm016 ( $767 ) Seat 9: BigBird669 ( $1380 ) Seat 7: atomicb13 ( $1869 ) Seat 3: mpdueces ( $1500 ) RaytheonL750 posts small blind [$15]. atomicb13 posts big blind [$30]. mpdueces is reconnected and has 20 seconds to respond. mpdueces posts big blind [$30]. ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to Matt [ 5c 5s ] wmbldn folds. BigBird669 folds. Matt raises [$60]. cm016 calls [$60]. mpdueces calls [$30]. bosschamp folds. RaytheonL750 folds. atomicb13 calls [$30]. ** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Jh, Tc ] atomicb13 checks. Matt bets [$30]. cm016 calls [$30]. mpdueces folds. atomicb13 calls [$30]. ** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ] atomicb13 checks. Matt bets [$60]. cm016 calls [$60]. atomicb13 raises [$120]. Matt calls [$60]. cm016 calls [$60]. ** Dealing River ** [ 3d ] atomicb13 bets [$60]. Matt raises [$120]. cm016 folds. atomicb13 calls [$60]. Matt shows [ 5c, 5s ] a full house, Fives full of threes. atomicb13 doesn't show [ Td, Jd ] two pairs, jacks and tens. Matt wins $942 from the main pot with a full house, Fives full of threes. Two words: Presto goot. I don't see a lot of poker players celebrating milestones. In a profession like this one it's very easy to get frustrated by the downswings, so I think it's important to celebrate whatever successes you can. I'm celebrating this milestone. And I'm hoping another million will (eventually) follow. Quick Update Tuesday, August 09, 2005 Because of family obligations, I couldn't play any of the big tournaments this weekend. I have, therefore, been a little slow in updating this journal, since not much exciting has happened poker-wise. I will, however, give the bet update from last week. Bet update: Total last week, +$3,203. Overall total, +$31,840. Unfortunately, this total does not reflect the start of this week, which went the wrong way by a few sigmas. I'll have my work cut out for me to break even this week. Can't win 'em all. One final note: WCOOP is coming. I'm psyched. An august July Monday, August 01, 2005 (Headline stolen from a late-1990s graphic concerning ex-Met Butch Huskey.) I had a nice end to a nice July by finishing eighth in the Party Poker Million Dollar Guaranteed tournament on Saturday for $25,000. Of course, I had chips at the final table and lost almost all of them in an extremely annoying fashion--holding a good hand against a guy who played tons of bad hands but happened to have QQ when I actually picked up a hand. "But Matt," you might say in the voice of Fezzik from The Princess Bride, "you just made two final tables against huge fields in one week, that doesn't make you happy?" Well yes, of course it does. This was a huge week for me, second only to a week last April when I played a tournament in Vegas. But unless you WIN them, tournaments are frustrating, and this one was no exception. I am not at all frustrated, however, with my recent run of tournament results. In my last thirty tournaments I have seven cashes and I am +381.8 buy-ins. The results include: 3rd place out of 1997, Party Poker Final four (deal made) out of 100, Palms Ninth place out of 406, Limit Hold 'Em event at WSOP 1st place out of 41, little $10 buy-in PLHE event on Poker Stars (hey, it still counts) 3rd place out of 2500, Party Poker 8th place out of 2119, Party Poker Man, I have been seriously lucky lately. And oh yeah, that's all this is. I didn't suddenly become a player who can average 13 buy-ins profit per tournament. I'm just running goot. The game is fun when you're running goot. Hope everyone runs goot this week. Bet update: Couldn't do much in the $30 game this week, although I maintain an extremely slight lead on Chris. (I don't think either of us are logging enough hours in the game.) This week: +$892. Overall: +$28,637.  September 2004 | October 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | October 2007 | January 2008 | |
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