I starting playing poker at the early age of 16 (23 years ago). My dad is a poker player, mainly recreational, but it was always a source of side income.

I mainly play and played live cash games, and pretty much won at most of the tables i played at. Played a bit online in big hype in the early 2000s, but after going to university i quit playing. My wife didn't approve my approach to the game, considering it as a source of income, and felt uncomfortable me playing in high stake games (200 or 500$ buy-in).
We recently separated and i started playing again with a group i played with years ago.

I started with 200$ and slowly over the last 4 months built my bankroll to 2,000$. It's a soft game, so i'm not particularly proud. We play once a week for 4 hours.
I made a deposit of 100$ to ggpoker. Mainly for practice. But would like to take my online poker more seriously. I play micro stakes PLO. And would love to be able to make extra income playing online. I have a full time job and two daughters that spending time with them is very precious to me.

Back then it seems to me online poker was much easier than today.

I have set myself a goal of being able to cash out 1,500$ a month, within 12 months.
I can realistically invest 20 hours a week on the game: 16 hours of play, 4 hours of study.

I would love to hear your thoughts and advice on how to start this journey: poker software i should acquire, PLO courses to take and etc.

I would also like To use this board as an accountability board.

Hi, I recommend getting PLO trainer and using it to learn preflop and flop play.

Thanks, will check it out.

Hey,

GL with the journey . Also recommend PLO trainer . If you have access to some soft sites then that may be achievable within a year. Or maybe you’ve a natural talent, that may speed up the process . Iv been studying and playing on the side for over 2 years now and probably still BE/slightly losing and Iv put quite a bit more time per week into it. Plus with variance having goals like that are very difficult as until your crushing the games then swings in results are going to be very frequent . Admittedly Iv probably not taken the optimal line to improving but I would advise increasing study to play ratio quite a bit of if you want to improve faster. Probably more like 1:1 or even more study than play would be optimal . Anyway GL don’t mean to kill the dream , games are for sure beatable

I've been reading dusty Schmidt's "treat your poker like a business".
I also thought the learning ratio to playing should be closer to 1:1. His theory is that one needs to automate most decisions and gain volume (hands played).

last couple a days been playing mainly Rush-PLO, 3 tables at once.

I'm not sure this is the right path in terms of learning/studying my opponents, but i do get to see many hands, and play in different positions.

BTW, PLO Trainer is part of the PLO Mastermind?

Yes that’s right the side product of MM. visión is also a good tool part of the run it once brand . Think there is also a new version out much cheaper but currently only offering pre flop solves. Not sure what it’s called though.

PLO trainer is $189/month. That sounds pretty steep to me!

Maybe the value of the course outweighs the cost but it's a pretty sizeable investment for someone playing micros. I would think twice before firing off a bunch of money when there's information available for free / much cheaper.

good luck buddy. I wouldn't recommend getting a trainer or solver at your level, I am starting out with PLO as well and purchased From The Ground Up PLO from run it once, was like $100 and really helped me understand the basics.

Don’t play rush PLO if you want a good winrate, in fact don’t play on GG at all. However you want to learn preflop is fine, personally I find running drills to be more effective than watching videos. Honestly I wouldn’t bother with the 189 a month I’d get the 149 a month and ignore the videos. Just find some people that are more experienced to discuss hand histories with.

1:1 study isn’t effective imo, you really need to gain experience in order to internalize the study. Maybe 3:1 in favour of playing makes more sense.

Each to their own but that’s wrong in my opinion. No point mindlessly playing without knowing what your supposed to do in most spots . Just going to be clicking buttons a lot of the time as a newb

Here are some things you can do to learn which wont cost a cent:

1. Post hands in the strategy sections asking for feedback

2. Watch PLO content on youtube or twitch, such as 'play and explains'

3. Join a study group

189$/month is very expensive, especially when playing micros.
But... It might be worth it. Have my birthday coming up soon, could be a nice gift

Would love to hear your opinion on GG.
I live in Israel, making deposits are not available to us because of Gambling laws. I made a deposit through an agent/third party dealer...

Last night gave up on rushPLO, played 6 tables of PLO, for 4 hours - played about 2,000 Hands. Lost 7$ but won about 37$ in rakeback and other bounses.

What stakes was that and what % of hands were you playing?

I play plo on ACR, good alternative imo

I am really just starting out, playing 0.01/0.02.
On rush poker i was VPP at about 18%.

played 6 tables with VPP at about 12%... which way too tight, but with so many tables running at once had a hard time following the action so only played premium hands (but i feel my post flop game needs to improve considerably to make any profit).

Today I decided to scale down, played only 3 tables. My VPP was up to 25%, but played better and was even able to take notes on players. played 816 hands for a net of +3.83.

Today was aiming to play 6 hours online, but my poker group had a game, so ended up playing my regular 2/4$ PL dealer choice games for a profit of 300$.

Not a bad day.

Still considering the mastermind, but might be only worthwhile if I make a larger deposit and raise the stakes I'm playing at. Still not sure if I have what it takes to make it in online poker.

You made $37 from rakeback playing 0.01/0.02 in 2000 hands?!

If you're playing the Rush games then you probably should be playing a lot tighter. I'm pretty sure that most decent players in the pool are sitting there mashing the fold button until they get a premium hand so it's wise to do the same thing unless you want to fancy trying to crack a premium.

37$ was with other bounces and promotions they have going. They have tournament freebees that run as a raffle if you win/lose a big pot...

Anyway, going with the advice I received here, gave up rush and now playing multitable PLO. tried 6 tables but felt it's too much for me at the moment, now playing 3-4 tables.

Since Thursday I played for 14.5 hours for a total of 6'800 hands. close to my goal of 20 hours a week.

will start browsing the strategy section here, and try to pick up on leaks I have in my game.

Yeah, the GGCare tournament. You were lucky to cash in that as it's not easy when you have a small starting stack.

I stick to the regular tables as well, I think they're a bit easier to get reads on. Occasionally a giant fish joins and spews off a few stacks or does the no-look all in.

Don't play rush and don't multi table.

PLO plays nothing at all like NL. Focus on 2 tables, maybe slightly raise the stakes 0.02/0.05 so you focus and commit a bit more.

PLO is about understanding textures and ranges. Use of blockers and playing hands to the river. Things change dramatically per street in some cases and you need to slow down and learn why and how everything is changing. The nuts is very important.

If you expect to shove all in pre flop and prey then you will not succeed in the long run.

Some beginner advice from a PLO grinder.

Oh. And get ready for a swingy ride. Even when playing to perfection dropping 20 buyins is possible.

THANKS for the comment.
You really recommend not to multi-table? That seems very harsh. I understand the game is much more complex, but that means it's very hard to see any profit at the tables until you reach 2/5$, assuming you can average only about 4BB/100 hands.

I'd disagree about multi-tabling. But then it depends where you're at with the game. If you're playing horribly then you'll only compound the mistakes and lose money faster by adding more tables.

It's a game with variance and you're going to want to put in some decent volume to understand your realistic win rate and get closer to your all-in EV.

I would say that bluffing is mostly a waste of time and playing a more conservative strategy - being willing to find a fold (in certain spots) at these stakes is the way to go. Maybe when you get into bigger games then blockers come into play. I'd be cautious about making huge bluffs thinking someone is going to fold because they have the low end of straight or bad flush.

Depending on the player, i've seen people check call 3 streets on a monotone flop with 3rd/4th nut flush and not find the fold. On occasion, I have bluffed a flush turn with a nut blocker and been check raised for a stack!

I mean yes multi table when you feel comfortable. I think if you 5 table when learning without focusing too much it may backfire in your face as your not seeing and playing the true fundamentals.

Its honestly not an easy game like people think. And as the poster said above, you have to really get used to making big folds, or tight calls in spots where in NL you wouldn't.

Stack depth definitely changes things. If you play a short stack strategy then you may not have many decisions beyond the flop due to SPR.

Some hands becomes very mechanical and play themselves where you get it in on flop in a 60/40, 65/35 spot.

Or you put in half your stack pre-flop and the flop decision becomes a fold / shove decision.

To me, the game feels a lot more mechanical than NL and less creativity. Although a small mistake pre-flop can easily be compounded into a big mistake later on in the hand.

I would advocate a totally different approach if you are serious about getting a high winrate and a sustainable side income. Buy PLO Trainer or Vision, watch some videos on how to use it. Study a ton and hardly play at all. Once you understand the basic concepts such as preflop raising ranges, preflop calling ranges, 3bet ranges. Flop strategy, turn strategy and river strategy. In paricular
preflop.

Save up 5k and then start playing 50plo.