Aggression is the biggest factor of difference in my opinion. There is generally more bluffing opportunity's in PLO so the ability to make good lay downs/ calls comes in to play more. Additionally I think that using a hud has greater importance in PLO.

When playing an mtt session it unusual for me to play more than 4 sites. The quality of software for some of the smaller sites can really impair my ability multitable.

When I am playing cash I tend to stick to sites other than PS so can sometimes have a bunch of sites up.
I probably play an embarrassingly small amount of mtts in an average month compared to a lot of you guys. I have recently switched to trying a quality over quantity approach and will only really play more than 9 tables if I am running bad ( I tend to up my volume in break even stretches) or its a weekend. My favorite number of tables is around 6 if I can find enough medium to larger size buy ins. I think that a lot of the guys that play many many tables become very easy to play against so I try and stay the right side of this.

This a really good question that I have been thinking about a lot recently. Although recent stars schedule improvements have led to more volume there is a very definitive glass ceiling in o8 so I am always thinking about other options. The natural choice would be o8 cash but the games are not great at the moment and I just feel better playing mtts than cash where I think you have to be much more exploitative.

I have for a long time wanted to start studying nlhe again as that is where the biggest mtt prize pools are and my mtt skills would be directly transferable but I just hate the length of the mtts and I think I would struggle to get any kind of good work life balance.

Although this would not work without o8 I think I will be putting in a ton of work on my mixed games and plo mtts over the next few months and see where that takes me.

Ty m8!

He absolutely loved these!

Cool I never knew owls were that friendly.

Deserved Well mate.

Questions:

1. Has your study of psychology influenced your poker. If so how?
2. With your teaching background have you considered coaching?
3. Favourite MrScruff song?

Andy.

What was you first big win?

What is your biggest win to date?

I liked Devon. (We went there primarily to visit Dartmoor).

What subjects or grades do you teach?

Buzz

Do you find iPoker network PLO8 games lucrative enough? They (specifically €0.25/0.50) seem ridiculously nitty to me (as opposed to PLO50 even on the same iPoker), with close to no maniacs. People seem to not raise postflop without a nut-nut or at least a near-nut high + (on a board with 2+ low cards) nut low(draw).

I get bored (having opened a PLO8 table just because of a lack of good vacant seats at PLO tables in the first place and because PLO8 is in the same lobby tab as PLO at specifically Ladbrokes and, fwiw, Winner), fire a ton of promotional semibluffs and inevitably end up scooped by some unbelievable nut-nut where I'd have a much weaker range in opponent's shoes because Dan Deppen's book has taught me to bet when in doubt

I guess 80/60/40 maniacs just don't get hooked on PLO8 because its split-pot nature doesn't allow to quadruple up easily enough.

Hey Andy, I would not say Psychology has influenced my poker directly but it does tap into some skill sets. When/ if I tell people I play poker online the inevitable question that I am sure you all get is "how do you read people when you can not see their face?".

Its amazing how much information you can pick up by timings bet sizes and past history. I definately feel that one of my strengths as a player is picking up on game flow dynamics and this enables me to make some thin calls/ lay downs.

Has to be this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_CLIF1h-o

My first decent cash out was turning a 500$ plo roll into $7000 over the course of just over a week.

$28 000 from 2nd place in an MTT. Went into heads with close to a 2-1 chip lead but my opponent ran well in all in pots to leave me with 2nd. I guess I should not complain as I was crippled close to the money bubble and left with half a big blind which I manage to run up.



Yeah Devon is a beautiful place and has a special place in many English peoples heart as a holiday destination. It can be a little backwards though.

Why were you interested in Dartmoor in particular I imagine that you were not there to visit the prison?

I teach primary (elementary) children so I teach all subjects for children up to the age of 11.

It has been a little while since I have put any decent volume on ipoker. But as a general rule I have found on a lot of the smaller sites that the higher buy in games from 1.2> tend to generally have much more aggression and also more weak players who will rebuy as opposed to the lower stakes where the weaker players may drop a buy in or 2 but will generally leave quite quickly.

I know that this is a bit of a cliche but I do find I do better in bigger cash games but this is probably a lot down to how much I care about my buy ins.

Bad read me!

I thought you were going to go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uyF_RoXAQg

Very impressive!

Also very impressive!

That it is. (I agree).

We wanted to see a relatively untouched moor landscape including some stone circles. (Of course we visited Stonehenge too).

Several books I read in my late teens were set in the moors, and Dartmoor is a moor that is relatively untouched ("relatively untouched" I suppose because it's a national park). I wanted to be there, to experience what being on a lonely moor felt like. And that worked well for us. We stayed with a couple at a bed and breakfast place, played bridge and chatted with them in the evening - including getting some good advice from them, and had an olde traditional English breakfast each morning before setting off for a day on the moor. It was quite a nice trip.

The only thing I didn't like was sitting in the right hand seat while driving - and driving on the left hand side of the street. I never quite got used to that.

No. Not interested in the prison. Not even aware of it.

That sounds difficult and challenging. I imagine it's very satisfying.

Thanks again for hosting this well and answering my questions.

Buzz

are there any players u don´t like having on your tables?
are there any players(regs) u like having on your tables?
what were your weaknesses u got rid off with the help of your coach?

Didn't know you got coaching? (unless manndl misunderstood you coaching others) - But if you did, when was this? And I assume it was in O8 coach, so how did you find a coach, and was it worth it?

Describe your activity during a big day of a *COOP.

Apologies as I have been tied up the last few days but I am hitting the grind stone again today so will get through these questions a little later.

Well occasionally you come up against a really tough final table with guys such as BLxmaestro, flexmasternl, angryjuice ect. Recently dacus has been playing a lo0t of mtts and his desire to flip light deep can be annoying.

I think I will decline to answer this as I think it falls under the category of tapping the glass. But also because there are too many to mention

I have only had a very small amount of coaching. What I did pick up was mostly pretty basic stuff as I am self taught there were a few mtt errors I was making that were not specific to hi/lo.

Actually the coaching I had was not hi/lo specific but more general mtt stuff. It was a good while a go and was part of a very short live stake I had.

I have looked into o8 coaching but never found a deal that I felt was good value. I think a lot of guys over charge and some offers have been pretty ridiculous i.e much worse results than mine but a high rate per hour.

I have recently substantially changed the way I play big event days. In the past I would often get a little too excited seeing the lobby full of o8 sattys and end up 20 tabling sattys which left me feeling a little burnt out before main event starts.

Now I play sattys in the am where they are often the softest and then just play a deadline satty or two trying to keep my eyes firmly on the prize.

I also drastically cut down the other o8 mtts I play during these days. Generally 08 mtts get tough during these days with all the best players online so it is no great loss in terms of value and the ability to focus on fewer tables gives me a greater edge.

Yes to maestro and flexitime as long-term solid players with the ability to do the unexpected. Angryjuice also very good but maybe too similar to DaCus (wham, bam, thank-you ma'am) to be a threat to someone like you long-term?Yes I have had the privilege of "DaCus Light" lately. He has been running strongly since his return to the Free World.

This would apply to all MTTs and not just OHL but I think the difference between guys like you and say, DaCus, is that you have a 5-speed gearbox, whereas others only have 2-3 gears. For me probably the most crucial part of successful MTT play is knowing what gear you should be in and what gear your opponents seem to be in.

While it might be a very difficult thing to describe with absolute rules, if you really want to share skills with posters here, you should elaborate on what, "desire to flip light deep", means to you. Also if you could pick an example of a certain hand that you would play differently according to stack and stage of tournament, that might help some folk understand.

For example you hold Q (Q K) K (or say, (A 5 ) T J) in MP in level 1, level 20 and level 50 with small, mid and large stacks. My play would be full-spectrum fold, limp, raise, shove depending on stack and level, whereas to my mind, not as many as I expect make those adjustments. A lot of guys I play with will raise and shove (A 2) (7 8) with 10 or 100 BBs, whereas the serial winners would tend to take a flop first with larger stacks before committing.

Maybe you don't agree, regardless, thanks for doing the well

Nice well buddy...I agree with this. The pricing I have seen in the past wasn't worth it imo. There is some decent reading material out there as long as you can filter out the good/bad and realize to an extent on how the games have changed in the last few years and take advantage accordingly.

I may like to flip light, but gl finding people with a better ROI in o8 that play the same ABI , but fwiw you are def one of the better regs

Hey Valhalla,

You make some really interesting points and some interesting questions although not particularly easy to answer. When I have finished my grind I will see if I can answer this to some degree.

Thanks m8!

Just for the record im fairly sure that mentioning you in my least liked guy at the table list is definitely more of a compliment than it is an insult

I think you hit the nail on the head here especially when it comes to final table play. Of course it all depends so much on opponents style and chip stacks. I can think of a few examples recently where on two different final tables I have played a hand like Aj26 as the nuts or an easy fold to an open both with 4 players left. I think this is why I sometime have trouble answering generic hand questions in threads in this forum is everything tends to be game flow driven and without all the information about players and the way they are playing an answer can become meaningless.

Again this is very context driven as if I feel someone is getting out of line I may shove/ raise any four cards. However their are certain spots where we know we will never be better than a 55/45 and probably often behind and we are just not profiting enough from getting it all in the long run to justify it.

As an example we have 25bb with 14 players left in a nlo8 mtt that pays 7. A fairly solid reg opens UTG for a 2.5-3* blind raise he has us covered but not by much. We look down and see a hand like aq34 ds/ak55/at26 ds or something of this nature where we could well be marginally ahead but are mostly flipping or a little way behind. There is very little sense in shoving here without a solid raise as although we may have a good shot at doubling up which would put us in a commanding position and mathematically with the blinds and even possibly antis we may be getting decent odds for a call we are giving up our skill edge to variance where if patient we could find a much better spot. Obviously if we are short we could potentially take a flip with any of these hands and have decent equity especially if there is a decent amount dead money in the pot.

On the flips side of this I see people making awful folds time and time again with weak holdings that contain the possibility of a low or a high when they are short and the blinds /antis and pot odds make it a no brainer to call. People generally do not pay enough attention to pot size relative to stack size.