Thursday 17 October 2013

Adventures In The (Micro) Fastlane

Sorry readers! I started planning this post 2 months ago but I never got around to actually writing it. Much has happened since my last post, although I don't think I can get through all of this in this post.

I feel that recently I've been neglecting the Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) aspect of this blog. The truth is that I don't play PLO as often as I did before as I now play more NLH Turbo SnGs. I'll try to make up for it in this post by posting ALOT of Zoom and normal PLO hands. I'll also supplement it by posting some fun graphs.

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Announcement!
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 I've officially joined Twitter! I put it off for so long in the past because I never really felt that I would use it. Heck, the only reason I joined now to be honest was to increase the size of my dropbox haha!

Here you go:
https://twitter.com/BluffTwice

So, add me/follow me (whatever they do on Twitter) I'd love to hear from anybody who reads this blog! I'll also tweet updates of my blog and/or poker progress.

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PLO & PLO8 Hands - Zoom and more!
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In case you're unfamiliar with Zoom poker (Rush on FTP). Its a game format offered by Pokerstars where you're automatically dealt a new hand and new opponents as soon as you press the quick fold button and I have to admit, I found it highly addictive. They offer several games and stakes on PS but I've only really played PLO and NLO8.

Since I started Zoom PLO games, I've encountered multiple difficulties such as:

- Max Buy-in is 100bb
I'm too used to playing with 250bb, I haven't really practiced my short(er) stack game.

- 6-Max Only
I'm too used to playing on Full Ring tables (9-Max)

- HUD not working
This basically means that I'm flying blind without stats on my opponents. I have to rely on taking notes on them once I see them play a hand strangely.

I don't know whether I was playing bad or running bad (or both) but I found it extremely difficult to consistently win while playing Zoom PLO.

Heres a graph of Zoom PLO play over a 3 day period in July:


As you can see from the graph.... it goes down. This put me off from playing PLO for awhile.

Thinking about it now, losing 19 buy ins over a period of 3 days is pretty terrible. I think the problem I had was my inability to control tilt while I was running bad and just generally playing for too long.

The players that didn't fold without the nuts, called me down no matter what when I was bluffing! Some days, it just seemed impossible to win. It was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone or more precisely a FUCKING ROCK GARDEN! Now, I'm generally a calm person who seldom gets angry but some of the shit that went on in there, put me on ape tilt! lol


However, this month, I decided that I wanted to give Zoom PLO another go while trying to make adjustments for my previous leaks. The biggest adjustment I made which has helped me the most is quitting a session early when I started to feel myself tilting. I also stopped 3-bet preflop so much from out of position, made slight adjustments for my preflop hand selection and started making more notes on my opponents.

Heres my graph for this month so far:


Am I just running good or playing well? Perhaps both. All I know is, I take different lines with hands, depending on who my opponents are and make much more value bets than before.

 I'll post some of the hands from these sessions but before I do that, I want to show you some of my observations while playing.

Microstakes Run It Twice
I believe this was at a normal 6-max PLO cash game. This is the first time I've seen run it twice used at this level. I didn't know that Pokerstars implemented it. As you can see in the screenshot, they got all of the money in on the turn and PS dealt out 2 river cards.


PLO Hand Equity in a 3 way pot
I found this hand extremely interesting. I believe the action went something like: I raised UTG and both blinds called. The small blind then donk pot bet (or close to it), the big blind called and I raised. I was pretty sure I was behind and tilted but screw it, I had outs.



The small blind had (JT)(T7) - The nut straight with blockers.

The blind blind had (AJ)K3 - The nut flush + a gut shot draw.

Me - (AQ)Q2 - Top set

What do you think our equities in this hand would be? who do you think is the favourite to win? I think you might find the answer interesting like I did.



I was the favourite to win with almost 40% equity! and the player with the flopped nuts was the underdog! What the fu..? Wow, I did not expect that at all, I thought I'd have around 25% equity at best. This is why I love PLO, it keeps on surprising me!

Oh and here is how the hand played out for all of yous who are results orientated.



 Interesting eh?

Zoom PLO Hands
These are mostly some hands from July.

Hand 1: AAXX (Mostly) All In Preflop 3-Handed.
I'm on the button with AAJ8ss. I could 3-bet here since I have position and a relatively strong hand but I didn't want to give my hand away while having to play in a mid-high SPR situation postflop. Luckily, a player behind me decided to 3-bet, so I had a chance to get most of my stack in preflop. The rest was left to the PS RNG.


Hand 2: 4-Bet Preflop, Flop Wrap In A Multiway Pot.
In this hand, I have AJT8ss in the big blind.  I cold 4-bet preflop because I wanted to isolate the 3-bettor since he was so short. He puts in a dead raise to go all in and another player joins in, okay...on to the flop. I flop a wrap on a paired board, theres really only 1 move here and I've represented AAXX so well, theres no way he could call with anything but a Q or a similar wrap right? Its an amazing call with just a pair of 9s and a backdoor flush draw by my opponent. Idiot.



Hand 3: What happens when I tilt.
I have a sexy looking hand, AKQTss while facing a 3-bet preflop. At this point, I was getting pretty sick of being 3-bet and was feeling myself tilting to an extent that I wanted to just get hands in preflop. I put in a 4-bet and he called and with less than 1 SPR postflop, theres not much else I can do but shove and hope that he folds. My god, TJ65ss.... Nice hand Sir. Idiot.



Hand 4: Unlucky Turn Part 1.
I suppose this hand was pretty standard. Theres not really anything I could have done in this hand to get away from it. I raised in the cutoff with 89TTss and flop overtrips, I C-bet and get called. I decided to check raise on the turn as an anti-float measure against his overpairs and a weaker 8s. Of course he could've had a better kicker or have already filled up but the only hands I was drawing dead to were 8JXX and JJXX. OF COURSE he'd hit his 2 outer on the turn... Awesome.




Hand 5: Unlucky Turn Part 2.
This hand....fuck me, this hand. This is a similar theme as the previous hand except for the fact that I was more comfortable getting this hand all in than the previous one. Once again, I check-raised the turn since I picked up the nut flush draw so even if he did have a higher set, I'd still be live. But seriously, what is with these miracle turn cards?



I'm having a slight problem with blogger at the moment which doesn't allow me to upload a load of images. I've already written the descriptions for the hands but I guess I'll have to make a separate post for them some other time. So until then readers, I hope you look forward to it and I hope you all run good.