benderino

First of all, thanks for the vids. I'm learning HU PLO and am often going on monkey tilt because of the variance and so many tough situations, but these kinds of videos bring back some sense to my brain.

25:15 you 3bet AAK5 and cbet QJ5r and then fold when you get raised.
My question is, what would make you consider to rather check this hand on the flop? And what advantages do you see in cbetting versus checking?
If the villain would call the flop and turn comes a ten, what is the plan? On which turns would you give up an why?

Thank you for your answer.

midori, I'm sorry for my misinformation, I was commenting on the villain's play.

MajinVeta:
"The flop play I can actually understand. If you are overstabbing, he can xc to rep an overpair."
Seems like a pretty expensive play.... And an over pair isn't that strong on a lot of run outs. There's now way he's realizing that much equity floating ofp with garbage.

Exactly. that's why I said this could be understandable if Joeik overstabs and then shuts down and villain is sick and tired of his stabs and wants to fight back. We're trying to get into the villain's head here and if someone is a reg at MS PLO, he probably uses some logic. It might be flawed, it might even be insane, but that's how I'd try to approach the situation. If someone is on monkey tilt, then of course there is no clear thought process behind it at all and once he calls the turn barrel with that hand, it really looks like there is a zoo inside his head. He could even think "ok, I have a pair and a gut, so I have 4 gut outs, 2 set outs and 9 two pair outs where I'll get my revenge on this overbarrelling bastard." If he actually thinks like this, it's a goldmine to know and understand this and adjust correctly.

Well, what are your flop stats when checked to in a 3b pot on a dry flop?
The flop play I can actually understand. If you are overstabbing, he can xc to rep an overpair. The turn will mostly go x x and on half of the deck he can get either a wrap, a flushdraw or a top pair. So when turn goes x x he can either bluff the river or actually have a hand there.

But the preflop and turn play seem overtilty, you can never know what's going on from their side of the keyboard.

At 38:15 table 4:
In position we 2barrel w/ 89JK on 4J79 vs a nitty SB flatting range.
We know he very rarely has 8T plus we block one 8. We do want to protect vs some draw completing rivers and occasional broadways that give him potential trips.
What is the reasoning for barreling w/ an 80%pot sizing, why so big? Is there any way to get any value at all from the part of his range that is behind our hand?

It could last up to a few years if you only play a 1000 hours per year and your winrate isnt huge. I would like to tell you a comforting lie, but that is the truth. If you are set in PLO and wish to continue, you can only work on improving your strategy and that will both lower the variance and improve your EV line. How big of a winner were you online and what games did you play? What is your reasoning for 3betting preflop? Is it a problem to get your money in postflop when you have a better draw than they do? If it isnt, why bloat the pot preflop?

I`m not a live player, but after playing for two years have for the first time experienced true PLO variance. And yes, the numbers are hard to accept, even impossible to comprehend until you experience it yourself.

What I have noticed though is that the downswing did affect my game a lot because of confidence issues lurking underneath that I haven`t noticed in the beginning. Only looking back and being completely honest and rational did I see the mistakes and started correcting them.

So yes, the swings are huge, but working smarter on your game can reduce them. Tell us more about the games you play in and the approach you take. How many seats, average preflop stats of the table, your style of play? Have you read that old book from Slotboom on shortstacking in full ring games? He makes a rational point because in very soft full ring PLO there are only a few edges that make sense pushing because reduced fold equity only bloats variance with giving little in return.

At 29:25 Phil says he wouldn't open 9T67s UTG and I have trouble understanding this. 

I know this hand doesn't flop many top two pairs but aren't we exploitable if we don't open this range UTG? 

I'd like to know what your opinions are on this and whether it actually makes a difference at low stakes.

I`m surprised only one person answered this. 

First I`d like to give you a warning that if you are going to exploit good maniacs preflop at PLO8, be prepared for huge variance. If you`re up for it, find out his preflop AI range and just reraise him mercilessly when your preflop range decently beats his range plus the rake. 

The art in playing maniacs is in figuring out their science behind the lunacy and adjust accordingly. If you really think that postflop he is a total maniac and it will mostly go HU, then play hands that play awesome HU (use propokertools for this, I`m not going to do your homework).

"Should I widen my preflop range?" 

You can experiment with widening it with your high coordinated cards, it`s the high cards where many people lose their stacks because they don`t expect others to have them crushed.

"Am I ever folding to his preflop raise IP? "

If you limped the correct hand then of course not. Position loses value when you know the villain`s most likely action will always be a bet.

"How aggressive should i be on the flop?"

Do you have any fold equity at all? If not then just valuebet huge. If he starts folding to your big bets, try smaller. Play around and find out what works well.

"Who else wants to see more PLO8 vids?"

Me me me:)