Introduction: Part 1 – Changing My Game

My game is tight-passive, which means I am a nit. I’ve been winning at PLO2, however as soon as I try to move up I get crushed. I know I have to loosen up my game, but it is against my nature and I hate risk and variance.

I decided a couple months ago to force myself to move towards a loose-aggressive game. As a result, I have now moved up to PLO5. My plan is to try to move up to PLO100 and to do that I need to change my game drastically.

For me, poker is a hobby. I like the challenge, and I still want to make money, but I am not looking to become a pro. I will be doing a lot of studying and trying to incorporate things I learn into my game. To do that, I will be playing only 1-3 tables. Once I try to play more, I fall back into my old ways.

Goals for this thread.

1. Weekly update – I will be posting my results for the week.
2. Monthly update – this will have my monthly results, as well as my win rate, stats, rake and rake back.
3. I will also be posting my thoughts, opinions, and any issues I run into as I try to change my game from a nit to a LAG
4. Hand histories, where I want to discuss passive/aggressive play, etc., I will post in this thread. Hand histories that are related to strategy I will be posting in the Small Stakes PLO forum, I will provide a link to those hands, most likely in my weekly update.

Even though I mostly play like a nit, there have been time where I have played very aggressively, but those times are the exception. In order to increase the volume of hands I play I need to form new habits, so that I don’t fall back to my old ways – not an easy thing to do. I admit that I have many leaks in my game, and I am hoping that discussion in this thread will help me plug some of those leaks and help others who are in a similar situations.

Introduction: Part 2 – My Background & Poker History

When I was fairly young, my mother would take me to the library every 2 weeks where I would have to check out four books. She would make me read two books per week in addition to any school assigned books. As a result, I love reading. I have purchased a lot of poker books, including nine books on Omaha poker.

I played chess with my dad and I was in the chess club in junior high school. Later on I started playing a lot of cribbage, I generally enjoyed play most card games.

In school I was always really good in math and science. In my final year of high school I was taking chemistry, physics and calculus. My post-secondary education is in chemistry.

My work experience led me to the fields of statistical process control and computer programming.

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Poker History

In my early teens, I started playing 5-card draw and seven card stud with friends. I would generally lose because my friends were aggressive and I was always very passive, but I still enjoyed playing.

My first experience in a casino was playing 7-card stud in Lake Tahoe. I got absolutely crushed as I had no clue as to what I was doing.

Then came the poker boom. TigerGaming was advertising a lot on TV so I signed up. At this time they were still testing so you could only use play money. In 2005, when they went live with real money they gave $5 USD to everyone who was currently participating in the play money games.

I used this money to start playing limit hold’em, and I ran it up to over $6,000. It was easy because most people were loose and had no idea what they were doing. I remember a hand where I made the nut flush on the turn and there were three of us still in the pot. The turn and river betting was capped, my two opponents were raising and reraising, I simply called all the way with the nuts. Making money was never easier, especially because I had read two good books:

Winning Low-Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones, and
Small Stakes Hold'em: Winning Big with Expert Play by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth

After a while the traffic at TigerGaming was really slowing down so I withdrew my money and deposited $300 on Titan Poker. I still continued to play LHE and was still doing well as people were still fairly loose. I had run up my bank roll up to $1700, then in 2013 Titan would no longer accept players from Canada so I cashed out and moved $100 to Full Tilt and $100 to PokerStars.

I tried playing NLHE cash and Sit & Go’s. I did marginally well in the cash games but I found them boring, and I was getting crushed in the Sit & Go’s. I wanted to play PLO so in 2014 I moved my Full Tilt money over to PokerStars as they had a lot more traffic for PLO.

Since then I have been playing $0.02/$0.04 LHE and PLO2. I have tried to move up to PLO5 but ended up losing.

I got bored and stopped playing during the summer of 2018. In late October of 2018, I decided to change my game and become a loose and more aggressive player.

I also play live $3/$6 limit dealer’s choice with a kill. The games are Holdem, Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple, and Omaha. I have been a small, consistent, winner for the past 10 years. I have also decided to become more aggressive in these games as well.

Are you sure about that? Especially at low stakes most people play too loose or not taggy enough. What are your stats?

There are a lot of maniacs and loose players, but I feel I am missing raising and 3-betting opportunities.

Sorry,but looks like you wait only for ds connected aa to 3bet

I did admit to being a nit.

Run It Once Poker Room Rake-Back: Opinion

I’ve been distracted lately, so I haven’t finished the last part of my introduction. I’ve been watching some PLO training videos and one of the topics is playing at sites that have a low rake and good rake-back. I play at PokerStars and intend to continue until I improve my game. I know it rake may be higher than other sites, but for the moment it meets my needs while I am focused on improving my game.

I came across a thread where they were discussing Phil Galfond’s poker room “Run It Once” and their 51% rake-back. Their poker room is currently running in beta mode. Although their rake-back is high, I probably won't be playing there.

Disclaimer: I have not played on Run It Once, my opinion is based on the “*** Official Run It Once Poker Thread ***” in the Internet Poker forum and the RIO poker site content, especially the rake and rewards article. The links to the thread and article are below. I also posted this in the Run It Once thread.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...hread-1735454/
https://www.runitonce.eu/news/7-rake-and-rewards/

Their strategy is to have a higher initial rake, but to have a rake-back for everyone of 51%, claiming a net lower rake than other sites. But it’s how you get that rake-back that may be the problem.

Phil Galfond states everyone gets 51% rake-back – but do they really? The mechanism they use for rake-back is to use the 51% to randomly “splash the pots” (STP) with from 1 to 1,000bb. Problem is that this affects the play of the game, which I believe favors LAGs and maniacs.

I play microstakes PLO for a hobby and like many others I am trying to improve my game. I don’t want to jeopardize my bankroll by playing in crazy games. Yet this is what seems to happens at the Run It Once poker room.

Greg20 posted on the “*** Official Run It Once Poker Thread ***” thread that he folded QTT4r preflop when a pot was splashed with 800bb. The reason he folded is that he and another player had built up a 300bb stack and he didn’t want flip for it.

Based his hand strength against 5 random hands, one that has a 300bb stack, the others having about 100bb, and a STP of 800bb, going all-in would have a +ev of 140bb. The reality is that in this situation there is no skill required here, just a willingness to gamble and endure the wild swings.

Since he chose not to gamble his rake-back will be less than the 51% quoted on their website. The LAGs, maniacs and others loose players will achieve more than 51%.

In the thread there were comments both positive and negative regarding splashed pot. Those that were negative seemed to be about increased variance.

Let’s look at when the pot is splashed with 3 big blinds

Say the UTG raises pot preflop, the button calls, the blinds fold. Otf, UTG bet 60%, button calls. On the turn, UTG bets 80%, button calls. On the river, UTG bets 50%, button calls.

With a normal hand, the pot size would be 8.5/19/49/97bb on the pre/flop/turn/river. If you splash the pot with 3bb, then the pot size is 17.5/38/100/200, so you would be all-in with 100bb stacks.

SPR on the flop for the normal hand is 11.4, and for the splashed pot it is 5.3, this is a huge difference on how the hand will be played.

I’m not saying don’t play there. I’m just asking the question does playing there meet your goals. If your current goal is to maximize your win rate and you are a loose player, it probably does. If you are playing microstakes and trying to improve your game, it may not.


If you are going to play there, here is what I would consider proper strategy for pots splashed with 1,000bb with six players and 100bb stacks.

You need a minimum of 6.25% equity (ignoring the rake). Assuming everyone goes all-in, the final pot will be 1,600bb

With 6.25% equity you will win on average 100bb, which is 0ev (0.0625 x 1,600bb = 100bb)
Strategy: Fold all quads + a few others, play everything else

AAAA = 5.7% – don’t play, ev = -8.8bb
9222r = 4.1% – don’t play, ev = -34.4bb
9222ss = 6.59% – basically flipping, excluding the rake, ev = +5.4bb
Q722r = 9.2% – play, ev = +47.2bb
J742r = 9.1% – play, ev = +45.6bb

Given the small number of unplayable hands, only folding quads would be okay.

Thanks Purasevic. Your comment made me take a closer look at my stats.

It turns out that of the 31 hands I 3-bet in PLO2, only 15 were AA.

In PLO2, my 3-bet% was 1.1. I have moved up to PLO5 and my 3-bet% is now at 2.5. Of the 41 hands I have 3-bet, only 22 were AA. So things are going in the right direction.

Another plus was that I had to learn how to do more complex queries in HEM, another learning opportunity. So I'm moving closer to my goals - everything is good.

Introduction: Final Part – PLO2 Full Ring, 6-max, and PLO5

First graph is from PLO2 Full ring, then 6-max, 3rd graph is from PLO5 which I am currently playing.







Stats from PLO2 & PLO5


Moving towards my goal, my VPIP, PFR, and 3Bet have all increased, and as a bonus so has my bb/100.

Nice job dude. VPIP/PFR/3B could all be a bit higher, but if you're winning at this clip I wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks, at these stakes, I am trying slowly loosen up, not going to try to make a big jump.