I'm a semi-retired mid-30s father who is trying to not donk off a bunch of money playing in over-raked random PLO games around the Western New York area. This thread is just to create some accountability and get some input from some other poker players on what I'm doing wrong, making sure my mindset is good, etc. The below graph is since June 15. Almost all PLO, with some Hold 'Em when I'm on a list. PLO is anywhere from 1-3 with a 5 bring in to 10-20, but mostly 5-5. Since I have kids, I can't put in a ton of volume, but I get in when I can. Here's to running good.

Played a 5/5 PLO game for 3.5 hours today before I had to get dinner with the family. 1 memorable hand. BB with 10822, no suits. Straddled pot, I call 5 more along with the 4 other callers. Flop is 822 rainbow. Quads for me. I lead out for 25, 2 calls. King on turn, I bet 50, 1 caller. River I bet 125, raise to 350, I pot and she calls off her stack for an additional 500ish with kings full. Session was fun. Ended up 1392.

Preflop is probably a fold as ridiculous as it sounds

T822 not 10822

glgl

Hello fellow WNYer, best of luck to you sir

T822 no suit does seem a bit loose to call from the BB in that spot imo, granted I'm much more of a NL than a PLO player. How deep were you playing?

Was def a loose call, and most likely should have been a fold. Things that may have changed it to a less terrible call was the game was 5-handed, most everyone except villain was between 1k and 2k deep, and I had also been yelling for a deuce on every flop. It probably is a losing play in the long run, but that's why I'm posting here! To get help on it! Does the fact it was 5-handed change anyone's mind? And thanks for the feedback as well guys!

Being deep makes it more of a fold and being 5 handed doesn't much difference imo

Appreciate the feedback. One thing I know I have trouble with is calling straddles from blinds too often. 5-5 is the most common game I play, and probably 50% of pots are straddled, either UTG or from button. I probably call more than 50% from the blinds, and it is one of the biggest leaks that I know about. Appreciate the feedback from everyone so far.

Figured I'd post an update after my 2nd biggest live session ever. In for 1k last night and cashed out for 11.6k. Ran extremely well, but still some bad spots. A pair of memorable hands with the same villain. My image at the table is loose preflop for one raise or limping, tight, and probably too tight when facing aggression. I have played with everyone at the table except this villain multiple times before. He previously got it in with me and hit when he was holding a 3 card wrap vs my top set on the flop. Claims he only runs it once unless it's a "big pot." Villain came with, and is friends with, the clear best player in the room and probably in the local scene, who is an extremely good hand reader, and wildly aggressive. His friend is the only player I consider clearly better than me in this game, and is also at the table. I assumed villain played similarly, and I observed him being very aggressive without getting to showdown. Onto the first hand;

Hero is dealt 5c5sAsKc on the button and is button straddling, as is half the table. MP calls straddle, villain in cutoff calls straddle, hero raises to 40. Blinds fold, MP calls, Villain calls. Flop comes 4x5h8h. Checks to Hero, who bets 105, call, call. Turn 10x. Checks to hero, we bet 175. MP folds, villain calls. River 10h, completing flush on paired board. Checks to me, I bet 200, villain raises 300 more. I'm sick, and it looks like such a value raise. I puke call after tanking for a minute, he immediately says I'm good, I flip my hand, he mucks. I actually liked his bet sizing here, which may be a leak of mine. It looked so strong that I was incredibly close to folding, which is probably bad on my part.

Second hand with villain. Hero is dealt AsAc3s7x in cutoff. Button has straddled. Quite a few callers, MP, who is an extremely weak player raises to 40. Villain calls, I reraise to 125, best player at the table who is utg+2 calls weak MP raises all in to 340ish, villain calls, I flat, strong player calls. Flop is gin for me, 2x4s5s. I flop 2nd nuts in a 4bet pot. Strong player checks, villain goes allin for 1kish more, I re-pot since strong player is probably sitting on 3k, and he folds. Villain asks to run twice since it was a big pot, the other all in player wants once, so we go once. turn blank, river 2s. I immediately table my hand, villain tables and says boat, completly missing the fact that his boat made me a straight flush. He proceeds to throw his cards and wont shut up about how I rivered him. I refrain from telling him I was ahead on literally every street.

I beat up on villain in quite a few other hands, and even hands I correctly folded got there on the river. It was a really good session, and I wouldn't say I ran like god, since I had 2 or 3 suckouts for 4 figure pots where I was ahead, but I ran better than I have in over a year.

Anyway, I'm not much for story telling, but wanted to keep this blog for accountability. Had been in the middle of a fairly rocky month, so this turned everything around. I need to work on my bet sizing quite a bit. I also need to work on knowing probabilities more, and applying those to pot odds and implied odds.

No graph today, but played 2.5 hours after work. 5-5, 1500 buy in, cashed out 3592. No real crazy hands. Got it in for a 1400 or so pot with my AsAc3s7x vs some random garbage, ran it twice, and got through clean. Other than that, I've tried to turn up the aggression a bit. I give up less on hands, and if I take initiative early in a hand I have been trying to continue the aggression through the river. I got snapped once in an 800 pot where I missed on the river and triple barreled on my missed draw, but I made up the 400 I lost there many times over with continued pressure. Most of the PLO players I play against just fold and fold and fold to aggression until they finally get a hand and play back... reminds me of the good old days of hold em when I first read Super System. Anyway, it was a fun, quick session.

Got busy so stopped posting for a while. Managed to win my biggest pot ever 3 handed a few nights ago, about 12k at a 10/25 game. Game had been swingy for me all night, had 7k in front of me and was in for 8k when the following happened. It was the best player in the game with 10k, a suuuuper aggressive whale who had been trying to run over the table all night with about 5.5k, and myself. I get dealt kskh10c7s in the sb, maniac on button makes it 75, I make it 225 from sb, both call. Flop comes AsTs5s. I lead out for 350, hoping the maniac is going to raise. Pro folds to my bet, maniac calls. Turn is 8s. I bet 500, he raises to 1700, I call, planning to check any river, and either call or raise depending on how clean. Never folding. River is the beautiful 2s. I check, he goes all in, snap call with the nuts for about a 12k pot, and the game breaks.

Another hand from yesterday that I am a little lost on. 5 handed 5/5 game. Get dealt Ah7c5h5c in bb with a button straddle. Pot gets raised at some point to 25 and there are 4 of us to the flop. Flop is 8x5x3x rainbow. I check, original raiser bets 50, semi-tight player raises to 125, I raise to 500, original bettor folds and the original raiser goes all-in for 800 more. I call, knowing that it's 50/50 he has a wrap, but in hindsight I think it was a bad call because best case scenario I'm barely a favorite and worst case I'm drawing to 1 out. Spoiler, he has a set of 8s and I brick. In hindsight I think it's a fold for even 800 more considering size of pot. Thoughts?

How deep are you playing here? With V calling behind this spontaneously looks like a great spot to re-pot it again.

Congratulations on that monster session - PLO is wonderful when things go your way!

Assuming he doesn’t do this with 33 it looks like a fold, although not sure if the math doesn’t say it’s a call for 800 more if he can have wraps, especially since you have double backdoor flush draws.

Played a monster session 2 nights ago, went from about 10pm to 7am. Then another one last night from 5pm to midnight. Kids were gone for the last few days, and the wife had a night out, so I just played. Both games were 5-5. The game 2 nights ago might have been one of the most action games I've ever played in. Bought in for 1500, lost it within 10 minutes on a standard set vs wrap, I had the set and lost on both boards. Rebuy for 1500, host tells me since I'm stuck I can buy in for up to 3k, buy in for 2500 instead. The very next and, I have 2x3x4x5x in the sb, and a single raised board goes 4s5xks with 5 players in for about 300 in the pot. I check, bb checks behind, who also happens to be probably the best player in the game, next player pots, next player all-in for less, next player folds, I repot, best player repots, calls, and I call obv. I'm fully prepared to go home if I lose 4k in 30 minutes lol. Best player has a naked ace high flush draw, another player has a naked queen high flush draw, and the player that was all in for less has some random crap. 2 boards, first turn is an Ax, so I bink, but the river is 7s, so that sucks. Second turn is a blank, but the river is another Ax, so I chop, and Im back in the game lol. Game turns into a drink-fest, everyone including myself gets pretty banged up, I somehow walk out at 7am up 7160, and Uber home.

Yesterdays game was pretty boring and I cashed out plus 215. I tried one strong bluff, which I was tank-called on, where on a double paired board I had an 8high flush which I tripple barreled and turned into a bluff on the river. Woman who I was heads up with is fairly weak, but makes a 1600 call on the river with the Ahigh flush. I spoke about it with a decent player later, and he thinks that it was a decent play, but that people tend to call more on double paired boards than single. I still like my play. I'm on a 5 session winning streak, and I'm going to try to keep it going.

Played again 2 days ago. Dropped a quick 200 playing Holdem, then plus 3770 playing PLO. Within the first 20 minutes I had a really weird hand, because I'm a moron. Flopped a pair and a open-ender, and triple barreled, with a 1k river bet and got tank called, which I was shocked by. Pot got pushed to my opponent, and after she clears the board I'm about to muck my hand and realize I had a better 2 pair. Since I didn't muck, they were going to go to the cameras, but my opponent knew I actually did have the best hand so just gave me the pot to save time. Ship it? About 2.8k pot, and a big swing. Opps!

Announced it was my last round around 2am and was down about 500, and on my second last hand, the following comes up.

Dealt AsKdTd6h. I'm utg+1 and call, somebody pots to about 55, one other caller and I flat. Flop comes QxJd7x. I check, pot, call, call. Turn is another diamond. I check, the flop raiser checks, shortstack pots for like 700 AI, I call, big stack re-pots for the rest of my stack, and I call. Short stack only wants to run once and doesn't show. Big stack shows me top 2 plus a worse flush draw, so I'm drawing to basically the world. Offsuit T on the river gives me the nuts to scoop. Just for giggles we ran a second river, which would have been the Ad, giving me the nuts on the theoretical 2nd river as well.

When you're hot, you're hot, and I'm going to try to ride this heater. Over 18k for the month, and 6 winning sessions in a row.

nh. if you had AKT9 would you re-pot on the flop or still just x/call? not sure how deep you are exactly but wondering what our good draw : SPR ratio threshold is for X/R get allin on this flop. i could imagine some opponent specifics like if they never fold a straight draw, could make x/r or bet/raise better.

The opponent with the big stack calls me very light. I don't hate peeling, although x/r might have been better in that spot.

Had two back to back losses, ending my streak, including a 5k loss which was my largest to date. Missed all my draws, opponents were hitting every single one of theirs, just the bad side of varience. Tilted a little bit at the end, which I almost never do, so it was time for a break. Was down 8.3k in 2 days, went camping, regrouped, and had a good 6.5k positive session last night.

Had 2 big hands last night. First was effective stacks of 3k, and I got in about 1.5k preflop with AA73ss vs bad kings and all the money went in on flop. Ran twice, clean both times.

Second big hand was I was dealt 3s5x6x8s. I'm in the BB, 6 of us see a flop for 30. Flop comes As5s4x. Checks to late position player who bets 200ish. Two of us call. Turn comes a beautiful 2x. I check, mid position checks, late position bets 600 and I pot for a total of 2625. Mid position folds, late position has about 700 behind and takes about 7 minutes before clock gets called on him. Gets counted down to 2 seconds and says all in. I call, and we agree to run twice. He has 4x4x6s7s for a set, open ender, and flush draw that is no good. Bricks the river both times, and I scoop about a 7k pot. I play another few hours, nothing else crazy, and rack up about 9k after being in for 2500.

Goal is to break 20k this month. I'm at about 17.9k as of the end of last night's session.