**The February 2011 SSPLO Digest**
02-01-2011
, 10:11 AM
The SSPLO Digest
February 2011 Edition
February 2011 Edition
The SSPLO Digest has co-Editors! Thanks to monikrazy and SteelerPower for their assistance in compiling this month’s threads.
If you have an Article idea you’d like to submit to the Digest, a new feature you’d like to implement, or any other suggestions, please PM Leroy2DaBeroy or post ITT.
The February Poster of the Month is Jabonator, who wrote an excellent milestone on Donkbetting and who’s always willing to lend his thoughts in the strat threads. Congrats!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jabonator
I first learned about poker from the Swedish husband of my grandmother, who has played poker for decades, and visits Vegas on regular basis. I think I was like 12 when I first played Texas Hold'em. As years passed I grew an interest on the game and read Super System and started playing freerolls and no deposit bonuses. When I finally managed to get a bit of a roll to play with, I played some occasional tournaments and NLHE cash games. One time I just happened to try PLO and noticed that even though I had no idea of the game, the other players knew even less about it. I've played up to PLO200, with some shots at PLO400, but after a reality check, I'm now playing mainly PLO50.
Continuation betting.
By Elrazor
In many ways, the term ‘continuation bet’ is one of the biggest misnomers in poker. I frequently ask student and peers why they have bet in a particular spot and it’s a question they often find difficult to answer. ‘because we raised preflop?’, ‘I have momentum’ are two of the more frequent answers I am confronted with, and while they may have some validity it don’t really get to the heart of why after putting in the last raise pre flop; why we feel compelled to bet if there is no further action after the flop comes down.
If we look at the situation in its most basic form, the continuation bet reflects a psychological urge to continue attacking our opponents in a confrontational situation. Any time you call pre flop, you are basically backing off and handing that psychological edge to your opponent, and by continuing to assault on the flop it makes it much harder for us to actually do anything about it, much like a boxer with his opponent pinned on the ropes, we are forced into a defensive posture where while attack may be the best defense, it’s difficult to free your arms and start swinging.
So, while for a boxer to back off from attacking in that situation is infrequently the correct strategy, it’s something we have to do from time to time as a poker player, but the good news is that we can pick and chose these situations, and if we select them correctly then it will leave our opponents constantly guessing as to where they are in relation to our range, and more importantly once we build an image as a tough, solid player then they will simply avoid getting into these situations with us in future.
So, how do we know when to bet and when to check? Well, when I am looking at c-betting a situation, rather than ask myself is this a good spot to c-bet, I ask myself ‘is this a good spot to check’ and to augment this I ask ‘how much would it suck to get check raised here?’. So lets look at some examples.
First of all let’s look at every abc tags favourite spot to butcher, the paired board.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
PL Omaha $1(BB) Replayer
SB ($124.90)
BB ($165.80)
UTG ($137.80)
UTG+1 ($80)
CO ($141.40)
Hero ($141.20)
Dealt to Hero Q
A
A
3
UTG calls $1, UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Hero raises to $7, SB calls $6.50, fold, UTG calls $6, fold, CO calls $6
FLOP ($30) T
4 T SB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero checks
TURN ($30) T
4 T 9 SB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero bets $10, SB folds, UTG folds, CO calls $10
RIVER ($50) T
4 T 9 9 CO checks, Hero checks
Hero shows Q
A A 3 (Pre 75%, Flop 91.1%, Turn 77.5%)
CO shows J
Q Q 3 (Pre 25%, Flop 8.9%, Turn 22.5%)
Hero wins $48
CO wins $0.-50
In this situation, it’s almost certainly correct to check back when we have AAxx, and maybe even KKxx and QQxx, especially against an aggressive opponent. Betting on these boards accomplishes very little, as if we are ahead we have our opponent drawing to two outs, and if we are behind, we are down to two outs. So it’s far better to check back and keep the pot relatively small, while possibly inducing either a light call or a desperation stab from our opponent later in the hand. AAxx falls nicely into the “would it suck to get check raised here” category, so check it back and try and get some value on later streets.
Two flush boards are also a good spot to check back, and more precisely when we have a mediocre flush draw. If we look at this situation, we have bottom pair and a T high flush draw, plus some backdoor equity, and the board is pretty wet. However when we bet we risk pushing out all the hands we can potentially get value from, while getting raised by everything that has us crushed. Again, we can make some extra value on the turn and river by our opponents perceiving our range as weak when we check the flop.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
PL Omaha $1(BB) Replayer
SB ($127.90)
BB ($156)
UTG ($40.25)
Hero ($244.20)
CO ($100)
BTN ($64)
Dealt to Hero 8
J 6 T UTG calls $1, Hero raises to $5.50, fold, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls $4.50
FLOP ($13.50) 8
Q A UTG checks, Hero checks
TURN ($13.50) 8
Q A T UTG checks, Hero bets $10, UTG calls $10
RIVER ($33.50) 8
Q A T 8 UTG bets $24.75 (AI), Hero calls $24.75
UTG shows 3
2 A 5 (Pre 41%, Flop 32.4%, Turn 42.5%)
Hero shows 8
J 6 T (Pre 59%, Flop 67.6%, Turn 57.5%)
Hero wins $80
Which leaves the question; when should we actually bet? Well, when we get heads up, we can bet close to 100% of our range and check back spots like the ones above against aggressive players to get some value on later streets. Once we get 2-3 opponents then we have to consider board strength compared to our opponents range, and this is magnified once we get 4+. The good news is that once we get multiple opponents on super dry boards, we can often bet very small, maybe 25-33% of the pot and take it down, as this example shows.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
PL Omaha $2(BB) Replayer
SB ($261)
BB ($83)
UTG ($102)
UTG+1 ($149.15)
Hero ($281.15)
BTN ($76.20)
Dealt to Hero J
8 8 6 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, Hero raises to $8, BTN calls $8, fold, BB calls $6, UTG+1 calls $6
FLOP ($33) 3
K 3 BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $12, BTN folds, BB folds, UTG+1 folds
Hero wins $31.35
Overall, continuation betting is like most situations on PLO, where we have to consider stack size, number of opponents, opponents range, our perceived range before we even look at the board and assess our equity! I think that’s what makes PLO such a fun game in that it requires us to process all of this information in real time in order to get the majority of our decisions correct. So, good luck at the tables, and remember [some half assed boxing pun]
Miscellaneous
3Betting Profitably in PLO
PLO Note-taking
Jabonator’s milestone on Donkbetting – reread it, IMO
Preflop
In which Hero opts not to 4-bet a DS rundown
Solid Discussion on a 3-bet OOP and flop/turn lines
KK DS Preflop – to 3-bet or not to 3-bet. And then?
Facing a LRR with KQJ5ds
Flop
Fold flop or c/r turn?
Flop line with pieces
Bottom set on a straight board
Quantifying Implied Odds – the math-corollary to the above
AA on a paired board 3-ways with low SPR – shove?
Hero makes a play at the pot
Marginal hand and marginal draw Deep
Turn
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a SuperDraw!
Adjusting to floaters (insert potty-humor joke here)
River
A turn/river combo line discussion
Shove the underfull OTR (with bonus Leroy wants to c-bet discussion)
Fun Stuff
SSPLO Photoshop Contest
Heads Up Omaha Club (PS Homegame)
January Graphs Thread
02-01-2011
, 11:15 AM
02-02-2011
, 05:16 AM
thx for the effort 
02-02-2011
, 05:38 AM
Thanks for the honour, I'll carry the avatar with pride.
I made a concsious decision last month, that I'll try and post more in the strategy threads, to help my game, as well as others. I guess I succeeded. Also good job Leroy for putting all this together, and thank you Elrazor for a great article.
I made a concsious decision last month, that I'll try and post more in the strategy threads, to help my game, as well as others. I guess I succeeded. Also good job Leroy for putting all this together, and thank you Elrazor for a great article.
02-02-2011
, 10:19 AM
02-04-2011
, 01:59 PM
02-05-2011
, 04:29 AM
03-02-2011
, 10:49 AM