Play poker, think poker, write poker

Now this ought to be more interesting, than the winning ones

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298341 - I tend to play good trips with high kickers and an ace, very fast. I am like 40% against a boat and I am 57% against other trips, so usually it is a flip and once the pot is raised, we both have no choice. However, he is a bit optimistic with his 3bet.
2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298372 - The short stacker goes all in and this guy minraises with 4 people to act behind him. Does he minraise the nuts here and give odds to every set and flush draw to chase? Does he minraise naked 74 unsure what he would do if raised? Does he minraise set? After these thoughts went through my mind and I pushed hopind that he has the hand he had and that he would fold. Unfortunatelly even though he is like 25% against a bare 74 and even less against 74 with blockers he called. Maybe my reasoning is wrong. I should try to play straight forwardly for a while.
3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298380 - Terrible push by me. The guy was a maniac and has been betting and raising every possible trash recently. However in this spot every king has me crushed. I should find the fold button once.
4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298694 - Another bad play. After the small check-raise I put him on a top two or set. I figure I have 6 clear outs and I can bluff flush cards. However now I see that 6 outs are too few. Anyways the turn opens more outs for me but I make another mistake and push. I see no point in this push, since he is already commited and never folding.
5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298698 - My hand is the best one I can get against aces. In the worst case I am 40% if both my flush draws are covered. All I need is a bit of support from the flop, which I don’t get but still have close odds to try to outdraw aces. Pushing flop gives me some minor chance he could fold and I am calling anyways.
6. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298707 - Now this was an interesting spot. Paired boards are usually good for aces in 3bet pots. However a T,9,8 and J are the most probable cards in two hands that know are drawing against aces. I would say 50% of the time one of them has a T and I am hoping to have 6 clear outs. Against a random hand with T I am around 17% and I need a bit more than 20. Against good draws I am even a favorite, so I in total I fugure this to be an OK push.
7. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298716 - Serious leak noted. I need to play more carefully with weak trips. Here half of the range he raises with, beats me well and 99 is one of the few hands I am not such a huge dog against. I am not sure if I could fold the turn. He seems to have a boat and against most of boats which I have 3 outs. But then once I call the flop maybe I am commited. I am not really sure.
8. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298725 - I go for check/raise on flop, because there are a lot of cards that hurt me on turn and I would like to solve the hand on the flop. One of them comes, I am upset I gave a free card and lead. Someone clearly shows me he has T8 against which I am 23% and I call !?!?!?! I am pushing every paired river also
9. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298741 - It seems that I keep putting myself with the worst of it. Here I figure to have good equity against a flopped str8 (almost the same against set with str8 draw) and since it is even money anyway I push. However It is a bit of a losing play and I figure to lose like 10$ every time I make this play.
10. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298754 - Kinda failed 3bet and then I am not folding top two when I only need 0.33 ev
11. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298759 - Episode 1438743874 of me overvaluing the equity of overpair with weak draw. Even against naked two pair I have only 30%
12. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298773 - Check turn, reevaluate river, eazy game
13. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298983 - I am completelly lost in this hand. Bottom set in limped drawy pot sucks. He might have good draw but generally he will have higher set often enough to make me want to play small pot. On the turn I decide to cut his bluffs and to price all the draws, he calls with position. I get a safe card that only changes the value of top two, but I don’t expect him to float turn with naked top two. I check to represent 54, he does not push but bets small. I am not sure I can fold here, but how often is he bluffing here. I am lost!!!!
14. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299000 - I get good hand on the turn and I chicken out not to get pushed off my hand from a KT. At the river the only draw hits and I still call ?!!?!? Disgusting
15. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299016 - Nice call, man.
16. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299022 - OK, some of these hands are like… WTF was I thinking? I guess I was tilted…Value town me, pls.
17. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299034 - His bet size on the turn, brought him another street of value. Honestly, who bets 12 here with str8. I guess it makes sence if he intends to fold it to raise and to charge draws, but still…but then I should be raising the turn for value.
18. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299052 - The calling station is back. Didn’t want to raise the turn, since he looked like set or str8, I didn’t have the guts to push the naked ace bluff on the river. I should have folded the turn.
19. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299076 - Both against aces and against his hand I have like 39% chance to win, which is approximatelly as 31$ to win 77.
20. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299086 - It seems that I seem to keep getting involved in postflop situation in which I am behind but have the odds to call an all in. Maybe my preflop style is too loose. Maybe I need to give up more hands on flop
21. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299119 - Such a miss of a second barrel should be punishable.
22. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299135 - Jennifer Tilly was on my table, she just knew I had the kings

I am disgusted by some of the plays on this page. But now I think I know where did some of my money go I am going to do similar pair of reviews in a week. If you took the time to read through all of those hands and you have comments, it will be a loss for both of us if you don’t share them…

Popularity: 47% [?]

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294114 - Villain is very agressive and playing 50/30. I figure it to be a good reraising spot. However he 4bets me, which until proven otherwise is always aces. I have a pair in my hand, which always reduces the number of flops I could hit, but otherwise my hand is as best as it gets and he is commited. It turns out I am 40/60 against aces preflop and on the flop he is commited and I have position.
2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294120 - I 3bet position again and get called. I flop top two+gutshot+backdoor FD, but there are many turn cards I don’t want to see. I lead small to represent scared aces and to give him the impression that he has fold equity. I don’t really have balanced range for this move as I am not going to do it with AA or KK. Only the nuts, sets or good semidrawing hands. If the board is suited I might do it with aces also since I will repping a nut flush draw. Once he raises me if he has 76, I am around 33%, which is not ideal, but I bet small to induce bluffs, so now I have to go with it.
3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294130 - I am always leading this flop. I think it makes my hand transparent, but the effective stacks leave less than PSB left so it doesn’t matter. When he just calls, I put him on a drawing hand or top pair + coordinated kickers, like QJT7. The king is a pretty bad card since most of the peeling hands with Q also have a K in them, but with less than PSB I have no choice.
4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294138 - A terrible push by me. Against two pairs I have around 30% and against set ~16%. None of these is good enough to put 140$ to win 350$.
5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294156 - Preflop, I can reraise since my hand plays better in hu pots. His 1/2 pot raise is rarelly AA and with a pot-size re-raise I can make the hand easier to play post flop and give him less implied odds. As played, I am mostly set minning. I hit the set and go for check-raise, he obliges and that’s that.
6. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294171 - Here he is generally either with a set or we are splitting and he might be freerolling me, or sometimes he has air. I expect him to bluff with air and the freerolls and to check the sets. Maybe bet on the turn is better and I am trying to be too tricky.
7. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294177 - The initial raiser was tight and he rarelly has 64 in the hand and leading into a shortstack gives credibility to my hand since I am getting called in this spot often. However I figure to have enough equity against a possible shortstack calling hand. ~22% against sets and str8s and ~40% against two pair. Given the fold equity seems like a good move. If I am to be raised by the PFR I will have to fold.
8. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294193 - Similar to the previous hand. I use the short stack protection also with the fact that the PFR does not have a hand often enough and that there are no flush draws down.
9. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294196 - I hate my flop c/r here, but the turn is basically a dream card on which I go on to represent my top two.
10. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294199 - On the flop, if he leads I might give up, since he was loose enough to 3bet T9 and probably he is going to lead them here. Once he shows me he missed the flop I go for double barrel as I set up the things with small bet on turn to look as if I feel unbeatable with T9. He calls, he might have flush draw, top pair, or simply AA that does not believe my small stab. Then the river comes and A, now he knows his hand looks like AA alot, So if I lead full pot into an A river, it seems as if I decided he cannot fold his AA now and lets get payed off. It is a risky play sicne some people just cannot fold a set, but I had some respect for him.
11. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294210 - Preflop I should probably raise. On the flop, unknown leads for full pot into 3 other people. Now he might be leading a good draw he is ready to stack, a T9 not very probable, a TT is very probable and maybe 22, but not many people play 22 even from SB. So if I raise his calling range is either a flip against me or crushing me. I choose to see the turn and reevaluate. The turn is one of the few bricks and he leads small. Now he should never do this with TT on a board like this in 4 way pot OOP, so I am sure I am bets now and go ahead to protect my hand.
12. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294222 - My raising range from SB mostly misses a lot this flop. Hence I check here with all my range against an agressive player in the BB. He doesn’t disappoint me and leads. Now I can raise here, but If I am 3bet I will have to fold or if he happens to call I will have tough spot on most turns, so as most of my OOP pots I go for the passive line. He of course leads te turn into me again. His range here is many bluffs, pair+draw, sometimes sets and str8s. I am in the situation where I either have the best hand or the best draw and against almost every hand I have at least 30% equity.
13. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294230 - I raise preflop from the SB, so I cbet to represent AAJ. On the turn, I expect him to have mostly better sets, J9 or AJ and I since he doesn’t have even a PSB left, I am not sure how much I like my turn bet. Most of these hands he is not folding, maybe except for J9.

Stay tuned for some “losing” hands review soon…

Popularity: 45% [?]

For the last three months I have seriously been learning PLO. I haven’t played any NLHE cash games probably since June. I only play occasional Sunday major, but I rarely can find a free Sunday in my schedule anyway. However, back to PLO. So PLO is a crazy game with crazy players, crazy variance and crazy tilt. In the beginning I started playing 0.25/0.5 and had to go down to 0.1/0.25. From there, I climbed up with a 40/6/1 style that was perfectly OK for beating these levels. The style is see many flops, wait for the nuts, wait for the nuts and get payed when you still have it by the river.

There are many ways in which PLO is different than hold-em and here I will give a few of my ideas on the subject.

1. Patience.
   Yesterday, I played against a player, who for more than an hour sustained 100/80/3 stats. He actually ended up winning 7 buy-ins and tilting almost everyone at the table. I was immediately to his right. He was raising and re-raising me every time. I started by playing my 28/15 style, but then the first few hands got into some marginal spots against him and the loose players behind him that were calling everything and waiting for a hand against him. So I had to options: to leave or to tighten up significantly. I chose to tighten up and stick around for an orbit or two too evaluate how loose is he postflop. If he is too tight or too passive postflop, I was leaving immediately. I saw him stack a gutshot for 150bb on the flop and hit and I decided to stay. Every hand OOP I was very tight calling only my good speculative hand and folding most flops. However I had my moments when I have a good double suited hand OTB, I raise he re-raises and thus squeezes the other 4 players that limped the pot. The first time they called his 3bet(since we were all deep) and I pushed. Next two times they were just folding after his 3bet and I was playing deep pot against a random hand in position. However waiting for these good spots really required discipline, when you see the maniac splashing chips around and stacking bottom two on flush boards.
2. Folding the nuts, the second nuts etc.
   Now this is something that happens all the time: a limped hand, I am BB w 7753s, 4 players to me, I check and the flop is 864s. I bet, one player raises,SB re-raises. Perfect spot to fold the nuts, you never have good odds here. Or I raise QQxx ds OTB, only BB(a passive nitty player) calls. Flop comes low cards giving me a flush draw, I cbet, he calls, the flush comes on the turn and he leads PSB into me. I call, the river is a brick he PSB into me again. I fold. I could also fold K high flush here.
3. Folding to chasers that lead when a draw gets there
   This is related to the above point, when the only draw hits the river and your opponent who until now called two PSB bets OOP, leads for full pot maybe is time to fold your top set.
4. Know your numbers
   PLO is a game of numbers. The numbers questions come all the time, like: I raise OTB KQJ9s, the SB who plays 30/5 3bets me from SB. I call. Flop comes K73suited, without my suit. He leads for PSB, do I stack or not? What is my equity against aces with or without flush draw. Another example, I raise OTB J975ds, 40bb short stack calls from the BB, flop comes T65suited with my suit, he leads for 7.5bb into me, is this a good flop or bad flop for me? Should I want to push the remaining 36.5bb into the middle?
5. Aces, Kings and Queens are mostly speculative hands. Every omaha hand is speculative hand.
   In hold-em if you have AA, there are very few flops that will convince you it might not be good. In PLO, no matter what hand you have, at least half of the flops are terrible for it. However aces in omaha are special, aces are the hand which if you manage to get it in preflop, you are probably favorite or against other aces.
6. 3betting and 4betting
   On the lower levels, every 3bet is aces. On the higher levels people start 3betting lighter IP. The problem is that many of the raising hands from early positions are aces, many people raise only aces and even loose players will have aces often when they raise. Hence, no player can sustain a loose 3betting and 4 betting style as in hold-em since he will be against aces too often. This keeps most of the game postflop.
7. Stabbing
   To climb through the lower levels you need to see flops and wait for the nuts. Many of the players that go up the ranks and come to 1/2 or 2/4 keep this idea. They give up every hand that they don’t have at least 8 outs to the nuts. Hence there are a lot of pots to be picked up by stabs. When to stab? Stab on paired boards, stab when HU, stab when no one shows interest in dryish board, stab on connected non suited flops. And stab only if there are no noted calling stations in the hand, otherwise bet for value
8. Variance
   PLO is a game of variance. Most of the spots are 60/40, maximum 70/30. So it often happens that I play a 500 hands session, during which I play 4 pots for stacks and I lose all of them. One is AA against AA and I lose. Once I stack top set against flopped str8 and another time I stack top set against two other people on KT7s flop and they hit one of the draws. For desert, I am drawing to straight and flush against a top set and miss. And I finish my session, very disappointed with myself, thinking about my game, searching for mistakes, cursing my luck, checking pokerev and seeing that I had to be 2 buy-ins ahead and I am two behind.
   PLO is a variance game, I have been struggling for 3 months to get used to the swings. You need a large sample to understand whether you are losing because you play bad or is it just a swing and you are playing OK, however when you are on a swing you start questioning your game, start looking for leeks in the solid ideas that build your bankroll until last month.
   I have always played a tight, low-variance style in hold-em, results were coming regularly and I never had more than 2-3 losing session in a row. In PLO the style is looser, the variance is bigger and the swings are longer. At the end it is really a mind game with yourself.

OK, this would be the last generalization post for a while. I am going to focus on session review here more. Any comments are welcome

Popularity: 54% [?]