14 days of playing 6-max $0.10/$0.25 PLO on Stars, and I am currently up $80. Not great, but not terrible for a first serious effort at tackling this game. At my greatest extent, I was up $198, but this is obviously a high-variance game as many have pointed out in my numerous "bad" beat posts.

First off, sorry for the bad beat rants. I mostly post them as a sort of catharsis, and they don't bother me a lot after that (well, I still stew a bit, but I'm mostly done). I come off as a lot angrier than I actually am, but I'm an emotional guy, and getting it in with the *best* of it (even 51%) and losing still stings just a bit. I'm getting better at controlling my emotions, but bear with me. Anyone who reads my blogs knows I have emotional swings from losing to winning sessions and streaks. I try to be honest about the type of variance you can expect playing day in and day out, even just a couple hours a day, and as you can see, it's a lot of frustration. But it can be a lot of fun, too. So don't think I'm going to jump off a ledge or go crazy when I start posting "omg wtf this is such a bad beat, doomswitch suicide lol." Everyone needs a release. I usually just post the hand, give a quick rant, and kick a small woodland creature and I'm fine. Er, scratch that last part in case PETA reads my blog.

Anyway, my study of the game has produced some interesting results. I already threw up my post about starting hands and their basic theory, but obviously there is a lot more to the game, as is the case with pretty much all big-bet games where a lot of money goes in after the flop.

One leak I think I have noticed in myself comes with playing AAxx. A lot of players have leaks with this hand. Some have worse leaks than others. My biggest problem comes when I raise pot with this hand from the blinds and don't flop a lot, or when I flop the nut flush draw but still have nothing but an overpair. A lot of unimaginative players (the kind you usually find at 25PLO) will not push very hard on the flop without some kind of made hand or absolutely huge draw (ie wrap + flush draw). So when I pot after the flop with AAxx and have just a flush draw and an overpair, and I face a re-pot bet, I have to be reasonably certain that my hand is now an 11-out (at best, assuming no ace or flush blockers) draw, and unless the guy is pretty short, it's hard to justify putting in all the money with no fold equity and little chance that my AA alone is leading.

I have gotten to the point when I will often just call with my AAxx hands in the blind, unless I am facing a single LP raiser and only one player left to act. For one thing, it keeps the pot smaller, and preserves deception value if I hit an Ace (for some players, any time they get AAxx, it is just pot, pot, pot with no other consideration, and this is really bad). I know position matters in any game, but it's pretty damn important in PLO (I think draw games might be the only ones where position is more important). Since PLO has so many draws available, those draws that have 12 outs or less really aren't that special, so you pretty much HAVE to play them with position, and you have to play them with fold equity.

So, when it comes to a hand like [Ad Ac 7d 2c], we have to be aware of several things:

1. We have AAxx double-suited, and that alone is pretty powerful equity-wise. If we CAN get it all-in preflop, we're pretty much always going to be ahead when we do so, even if it's only 55-45.

BUT,

2. We have no connectedness, so even if we flop the nut flush draw, unless we get a set as well, we aren't ultra-ecstatic yet (but we're still in good shape, probably).

3. Playing big pairs in Omaha is kinda like playing small pairs in Hold'em or Stud: we're mostly playing them for the value or making a set (and consequently, top boat). If we don't make the set, we have to be careful about overvaluing our hand.

4. If we have only an overpair when the flop comes (no flush draw), we bet and get called, our goal should be to show down as cheaply as possible unless we get an Ace (which is much easier to do in position).

5. Say we flop an overpair and the nut flush draw, a guy checks, we bet pot, and he raises pot. At this point, an uncreative player probably has the nuts, the near-nuts (maybe 2nd or 3rd set, or the bottom part of a straight, like 97 on a JT8 flop), or an extremely high-equity draw (which is less likely if we hold the NFD, but if he has a FD also, he has blockers). At this point, our hand has gone from what believed to be the equity favorite to an equity dog (if you prefer, our hand has become an 11-out "draw," but I think calling some hands "draws" obscures what we should really be thinking about, which is equity), and we have only a couple options.

-With favorable pot odds, we can call, since most of the money is probably now in.
-If there is somehow still some money left to bet, we should pretty much NEVER reraise unless we think there is fold equity.

I think my biggest mistake has been shoving in situations where there is still money left to be bet but I have no fold equity (in which case every further dollar I put in is -EV). So the moral is, with good pot odds, I can draw at my 11 outs (at best), and with bad pot odds, I should fold. I should not just get shove happy because I bet pot preflop and bet pot on the flop. It is absolutely irrelevant that I raised with the equity favorite and got a nut flush draw on the flop if my hand is now an equity dog. In the absence of fold equity, I MUST now play my hand as a strict pot-odds problem.