Last two sessions of PLO haven't been the greatest. Not the worst, either, but not the greatest. I have lost value in a few key spots, but I've taken by share of rough beats as well, as evidenced from todays BB posts. The good news is, I'm still in the black at 25/50, still improving my game, and I did cash in the Turbo Takedown for $150.

Let's deal with the tournament first. It was very uneventful. I almost never picked up a hand, the blinds were ridiculously fast, and players dropped like flies. I won one crucial race with AQ vs. 66 that allowed me to cash, doubled up with KK right after the bubble, won another 60-40 with AJ against a guy's K9, but finally got ground down, and pushed 5 BB from the SB with [5d 4d], getting called by [Kc 6s] in the BB, flopping a pair and gutshot, but getting caught on the turn and failing to river a winner. Oh well. A few hours, 5000 FPP, and $150 in return. No complaints, and I look forward to the next one. A chance at a really big prize with generous payout structure is really good value.

Today's PLO session was very swingy. At one point, I was down almost 4 buy-ins, but the total tally for the day was a loss of only 1/5 a buy-in, which means I'm positive for the day when Triple Draw is factored in.

Early on, I checked [Ac Qc 9d 3h] from the big blind and was ecstatic to get all my money in on a [Jh Tc 8c] flop (nut straight, nut flush draw, and a redraw to the A-high straight), figuring I had a near-complete freeroll. However, it turned out the other guy probably thought the same thing, as he held [Qd Jc 9c 8s] for the same nut straight, with two pair and a straight flush draw (but only the [7c] is live). The old 8-ball rolled off on the river to fill him up. Poo.

Later on, lost AAxx vs AAxx, which has become standard for me, losing that matchup 6 out of the last 7 times (splitting the other one). Poo again. Then there were several brutal hands where I got a set cracked. In one instance, the guy flopped an 8-out straight draw (NOT a good hand in Omaha in case you were wondering), called a pot size bet, turned a flush draw to go with it, and pushed into my set. Of course, he hit the river as more than a 2-to-1 dog, but who's counting? More brutal than that was the guy who runner-runnered a wheel to crack my set (going runner runner wheel or Aces full was literally his only way to win).

It wasn't all bad though. I did get all-in four ways with [Ad 9d Ac Js]. This time, I was lucky enough to flop a set (frankly amazed the other two Aces weren't in someone else's hand), and eliminate the drama by turning a full house to scoop a nice pot. Brutalized another guy who thought it would be funny to call 55% of his stack preflop with [Tc Ts 6c 5c]. He was lucky enough to flop top set, but I rolled the old Ace ball to take away the pot (I also had a nut flush draw on the turn), and of course I was the bad player on that one (yeah, calling half your stack hoping to flop a set or straight is genius btw) according to him. Priceless line was him asking "who was ahead when all the money went in?" Well, I guess he was. But I was a lot more favored when over half the money went in, so I don't think he has a lot of room to talk.

In general, I think I need to tighten up my game a bit and ratchet up the aggression in position more. Ideally, you want to play a big pot with most of the hands you choose to enter a pot with (especially against guys who play too many hands), so why not raise if I have position? That still leaves a lot to go in after the flop.

Edit: Today has gone better so far, up about 1.75 BI in the 25/50 game, and in an hour or so I'm playing in the "2X VIP" freeroll trying to make Platinum or if I'm really lucky, Supernova.