Been a while

Since my last post I've been, well, effectively break-even... PLO style.

Ran up to like $4.1k mostly playing Cap, then played a little regular 200PLO to finish clearing my bonus, somehow managing to run 2 BI below equity in like 80 hands.

Ended up putting money on Cake, found out Cake is rigged. Dropped 10 buy-ins instantly to some of the worst players I've ever seen. I started out trying to play on Cake like I play on FTP (Aggro) which just doesn't work when you get called down by any two pair, or by sets on 3-flush boards. A more passive, abc wait-for-good-hands strategy is necessary.

God I hate Cake.

The software's pretty ugly, it's not PT/HEM compatible, the server's slow, and I run like absolute dogshit. As soon as I'm able to withdraw my money in like 6 minutes I'll do it and head over to UB. I just can't enjoy playing on Cake.

Luckily to keep my head above water I've been crushing the games on FTP. Played the HA tables a lot, those are fun, definitely attract some fish. Today's session was interesting. I thought I played extremely nitty (played like 16/12 COMBINED in the two games over a ~700 hand sample, I have no idea how that happened) and had to get lucky to win like $150. Also ran into a disgusting hand that I'm not likely to forget soon, detailed below. Overall that session ended quite disappointing for me, and I was left feeling quite empty.

I came back a couple of hours later to see 6 Cap PLO games running, so I decided to sit... in all six. I don't know why I do this sometimes. I know that anything above 4 tables makes me play awful. I just don't have time to think and pretty much go with every hand. I mean, I ran bad since I should have won a few of the hands where I was a 2:1 underdog, but I was playing quite poorly. Ended the cap session down $500. Luckily I then made back $400 playing the 100BB tables.

PLO's version of break-even. It seems pretty absurd comparing PLO and NL graphs, there's just SO much more variance in Omaha. The 5-6 BI downswings are just blips on the radar. Then again I am the proud owner of this NL superswong:



The hand I mentioned above can be found here. Absolutely horrific spot IMO.

Cap PLO

I've broken my promise to post interesting PLO hands because, well, I've taken to playing Cap PLO lately. If you're not familiar with this, it's just PLO with 40BB effective stacks. This does not allow for a lot of interesting spots. However, I've taken to it quite nicely:



These games are just so so so soft. Normal PLO games are soft, but at least you'll run into some good players. There are just no regs at these games (until now). I run like 21/15 at normal PLO, but I'm running 30/24 - about 45% VPIP on the button - at these games. They're infinitely loose/passive and put up absolutely no fight post-flop - as you can see, I'm crushing at non-showdown.

Winning at Cap PLO requires relentless aggression and a very good knowledge of equity. Players don't know either. I really don't blame them for not understanding equities... I didn't either until I did a lot of work on it lately. I think the lack of PLO on TV is 100% to blame for this. I don't know about you, but I watch a ton of poker on TV, and it's because of that, and not Pokerstove and such that I have such a good knowledge of NL equity. Without doing the research, you're just going to be forced into a guessing game.

I'm about 1500-2000 hands away from clearing my last FTP bonus, which should be done on Monday. When that happens, I'll leave $500-$600 in my account for other commitments, get a 6-month CR membership from the store, and I'm going to start on the rest of my bonus-whoring adventure. I'll start off with Cake and Pokerheaven's $500 deposit bonus simultaneously. I don't think either site has enough PLO games running for me, so I'll need two sites, and either way that should save me time with bank transfers and such. Making $1k off of bonus and likely another $500 or so off of rakeback is going to be sweet next month.

I've started off the year so hot I should probably re-evaluate all my goals. I was very pessimistic with my $1k goal for January - combing poker, rakeback and bonuses, I've made about $3k so far. That will increase my year's earning exponentially and I assume I can shatter the $15k goal I suggested. I hoped to finish the year at 2/4, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think that I could be playing 5/10 by the end of the year.

Oh, here's one hand I find interesting. This was the first time villain had raised in ~80 hands or so, so I decided he almost certainly had AA** or KK**. His bet on the flop seems to say the same thing, thinking along the lines of "I have a set but don't want to c/c a big bet so here's my price". I could have raised here, but that's a little marginal. His turn bet was also kinda weakish, so I decided to call and re-evaluate in position.

On the river, I have a bluffcatcher against a very tight opponent, which doesn't seem like a great situation. However, given my read that he has AA** or KK**, with the Ad and Kd on the board, his other two cards have to be exactly Qxdd or Jxdd for him to be potting for value, and I have three of the remaining 10 diamonds myself, so I snap him off.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 $40 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 3 players - View hand 17824

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



SB: $106.75

Hero (BB): $207.00

BTN: $1553.80



Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 7 6 8 4

1 fold, SB raises to $3, Hero calls $2



Flop: ($6.00) 2 K A (2 players)

SB bets $3, Hero calls $3



Turn: ($12.00) T (2 players)

SB bets $8, Hero calls $8



River: ($28.00) J (2 players)

SB bets $26, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $26



Final Pot: $80.00

SB shows 9 K K 9 (three of a kind, Kings)

Hero shows 7 6 8 4 (a flush, Ace high)

Hero wins $79.00

(Rake: $1.00)

PLOL

Played my longest session in a while, and it was an interesting one:



Shipped 5 buyins and then climbed back to a 1/2 buyin winner in 769 hands... standard 4 BB/100 session I guess. There are a lot of positives to gain from this session:

1. I've started to win, or at least break even at non-showdown in my last few PLO sessions.
2. I shipped 5 buyins with minimal - although not nonexistent - signs of tilt.
3. I played a long (for me) session and didn't lose focus as it wore on, instead I played even better down the line.

Now for your viewing entertainment, a couple of hands without much strategic content, but they do show just how sick I am. Some nice bluffs:

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 10370

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG: $187.45

CO: $332.15

BTN: $177.50

Hero (SB): $100.00

BB: $407.05



Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with J 7 5 8

1 fold, CO raises to $3.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $11.50, 1 fold, CO calls $8



Flop: ($24.00) 2 9 A (2 players)

Hero bets $16, CO calls $16



Turn: ($56.00) 8 (2 players)

Hero checks, CO bets $28, Hero raises to $72.50 all in, CO requests TIME, CO folds



Final Pot: $112.00

Hero wins $109.00

(Rake: $3.00)




Now, if I didn't go for this next one I just don't deserve to play PLO. An absolutely perfect time to go for the naked ace bluff, since I just look so so strong... the call pre-flop sucked, but I thought the ace was suited instead of everything else. Also, I think the flop raise should've been smaller, like $44, since that's what I'd do if I had it.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 10372

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



SB: $176.95

BB: $292.70

UTG: $425.55

CO: $206.70

Hero (BTN): $131.50



Pre Flop: ($1.00) Hero is BTN with A Q 5 T

BB calls $1, UTG raises to $4, CO calls $4, Hero calls $4, SB calls $3, BB calls $3



Flop: ($20.00) 9 2 4 (5 players)

SB bets $3, BB calls $3, UTG raises to $15, CO folds, Hero raises to $60, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds



Final Pot: $56.00

Hero wins $53.20

(Rake: $2.80)

Very short session

Played a little this afternoon, finished up 1.2 BI, and experienced something new: The combination of being to the right of someone who is 3betting so light that it makes sense to 4bet light (light, in PLO terms, meaning anything but AA**) AND the opportunity to do so.

This is not something that you'll run into a lot at small stakes - many players don't even RAISE anything but AA** let alone 3bet wider than that - but occasionally you'll run into some 60/40 type who'll be ramming it up, or a good LAG reg. Obviously, 4betting light will be HUGE variance. The first type of player will very very rarely fold to a 4bet (I don't want to say never, but yeah never), while the reg will often only be folding a KK**ds hand. You'll then be forced to play shove 'n' pray on any flop.

It's certainly more profitable to play against ultra-passive opponents, but it sure is a hell of a lot more fun to play in an aggressive game. Here's my 2 light 4-bets today (keeping in mind I only played 140 hands). Both of these villains certainly fall under the spewtard category... and by the way, I run kinda good.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 8454

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



BB: $160.80

UTG: $100.50

Hero (CO): $108.15

BTN: $164.20

SB: $289.15



Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 4 Q K K

1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN raises to $6, 1 fold, BB calls $5, Hero raises to $24.50, BTN calls $18.50, BB calls $18.50



Flop: ($74.00) J 8 2 (3 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $74, BTN raises to $139.70 all in, BB folds, Hero calls $9.65 all in



Turn: ($241.30) T (2 players - 2 are all in)



River: ($241.30) A (2 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: $241.30

H

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 8455

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



BTN: $200.55

SB: $20.00

BB: $168.70

Hero (UTG): $100.00

CO: $112.80



Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with Q K K 9

Hero raises to $3.50, 1 fold, BTN raises to $12, 2 folds, Hero raises to $37.50, BTN calls $25.50



Flop: ($76.50) J A A (2 players)

Hero bets $62.50 all in, BTN folds



Final Pot: $76.50

Hero wins $73.50

(Rake: $3.00)