Hey guys,

As many of you who watched my last video on Zoom PLO will know, I've decided I'm going to make some videos covering the different stakes from 10-50PLO. As part of this, I spent the best part of 12 hours yesterday 4-tabling the 10PLO games (I want at least 10k hands from each of the three stakes) so figured I would share some preliminary thoughts with the members here who either play in these games or are looking to do so.

1) C-betting works. I really cannot emphasise how important I think it is to c-bet flops a lot. Far more than anyone has ever recommended is standard. You hear various numbers fly around, 55%, 60%, whatever. My suggestions is we c-bet like it's Hold'Em (in 10PLO Zoom, not in all games). Bearing in mind that many pots would go multi-way, I maintained a c-bet stat of ~79% with a success rate on them of ~43%. Now, when you consider that my average c-bet size was 50% pot, that means I'm earning ~14.5% of the pot every time I c-bet. If we consider a normal, 6bb pot, that means each c-bet is earning me nearly 1bb. That's absurd! Basically, you should c-bet every time you don't have a compelling reason not to (great check/raise spot from the blinds, 4-way pot etc.) because you can just print money doing it.

2) Don't quick fold your BTN unless you have UTTER GARBAGE! Min-raises get through with a pretty good frequency which, combined with the absurd profitability of c-betting flops, means we can gain a ton of pre-showdown money in this spot. Getting a few extra hands quick-folding isn't worth what we give up with regards to available value, especially when you consider the rake (when the rake is SUPER high like it is at 10PLO, you need every edge you can find).

3) Big, complex bluffs aren't your friend. I found myself trying to be far too creative with certain hands, especially nut blockers, without any reason to think my opponent could fold. On one particularly dumb occasion, I bet the nut blocker, got check/raised, 3-bet the guy, and got 4-bet jammed on. Dunno what he had, but it couldn't beat what I repped and all I did was bluff off a chunk of money I could have saved. Equally, I often check/raised turns to shove the river only to see the Tflush hold on. If that's happening, we need to reconsider our lines! Now that isn't to say you can't make bigger bluffs (especially against people who introduce themselves to me as RIO members and therefore I expect to have the discipline to find a fold now and again :p), but you need to be reasonably selective in your timing because these guys don't like folding all that much.

4) Bet. Your. Damned. Hands! Just as they don't like folding, so many aren't huge fans of betting for you. Trying to check/raise with your strong hands will often cost you money as you won't face the aggression you were hoping for. You'll fare far better just putting the money in yourself. A corollary to that is that you should bet them big. My impression was that calling ranges weren't particularly sensitive to bet-sizing so there's very little incentive to go small in many spots - after all, every BB you don't get them to call that they would have tossed away is a BB you lost!

5) Value-cutting yourself is okay. Sometimes in these games you'll see people showing down hands they had no business playing so passively. You'll value-bet and get called by a monster you didn't think there was any chance your opponent could hold. This is fine and certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't try squeezing that extra money out because you'll equally get looked up by bottom two. To quote something I heard many years ago, "If you win every time you value-bet, you aren't value-betting enough."

Now I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say once I've had a chance to dissect the data I collected (and still have to collect), but I wanted to share these thoughts asap for any of you who might be interested. Finally, here's the graph of my day - as you can see, I don't run quite so well when not making videos! Got even though and had a positive redline!!! Found the redline result very interesting given I used to believe good play in the micros would have it plummeting.