First ever session of PLO8

Inspired by a recent PokerRoad Cash Plays with Andy Bloch discussing Stud 8-or-better, I got to thinking that it is a much more complex game than I had imagined. The more I discover about other games, the more that I realise that NLH is over-rated. When Doyle and the boys were on the road, there is no doubt that it justifiably earned the reputation as the Cadillac of Poker. Since then, it makes for good lowest common denominator TV viewing. Online, it is falling into the category of HU poker, academically solved. Hence it is difficult to exploit the young kids with far more time on their hands than us oldies to perfect the game.

Omaha is a great gamble game. I still feel so naive compared to some of my opponents but I'm holding my own reasonably well. With a bit of study, I may even get to be a winning player. Tonight, I moved on again, this time to PLO/8. Adam from the 2+2 PokerCast often talks about it and the importance of scooping the pot in split games.

A2xx is a great starting hand if it makes a qualifying low, but you can lose money with the nuts when you get quartered. Also, if an A or a 2 comes you need to be careful that the low you make with your kicker is deceptive in how it can be beaten. Strong PLO hands with no low value, if you can limp in, can scoop if there is no qualifying low. Aces are gold, playing high and low. Beyond that I don't really have much of a clue.

I'm hardly bankrolled for PLO100 so jumping in to 2-tabling PLO8 at 100 was crazy to say the least. I guess I reconciled it in my own mind that I would get to experience it the way that it was meant to be played. Interestingly, after my small sample size of almost 400 hands, I have the impression that the variance may be a lot lower than PLO. In PLO8, you know when you are beat for sure. You know when you are putting a lot of money in HU with the prospect of getting half. Lots of opportunities to get away from hands on the flop. Similarly, you know when you have the nuts.

One of the many skills that I haven't mastered yet which is deciding whether you want to bring callers along for the ride or close hands out with a pot-sized raise. This isn't as obvious as it might sound. Anyway, after my first session, I lost just over $25, to be expected I guess, first time up. My PTO Stats showed heaps of leaks.

The first and most obvious one is true for any beginner, I've seen significantly more flops than anyone else - 46.88%. Average for the table was 25%. An interesting stat was WtSD, all those with >40% were winners, those below were losers. Makes sense really, winners decide on the flop if they're ahead or not. A bit like Limit poker ... I'll see you at the river. Another interesting observation, winning players seem to never fold their blinds to a steal. Maybe there aren't many steals, hence 0%.

To see whether I had been lucky/unlucky, I fired up PokerEV. If you haven't used this program before, it's pretty cool in that it works out your Sklansky bucks and tells you if you are running above or below expectation relative to when the money went in for hands that get to showdown. How did I fare? Actually, I ran pretty hot, so at least now I know that my almost breakeven flattered my performance.

Then, I remembered that I have my Hutchison system Prefloper application. I fired it up and played a lot more sensibly. I made a comeback from that point. I did ignore it quite a few times, almost always to my detriment, again I reasoned with myself that it was experimentation but in reality we all know that it is the desire to see more flops and get lucky. As PokerEV confirms, I did get lucky. If only I had the discipline of BCG and the Blindman, I reckon that I would turn a healthy profit at this game. Maybe next week :-).