Subbing. My husband dresses like a whale in Vegas. It's awesome. I don't have to change anything -- I'm a middle-aged white woman playing PLO. LOL.

massively -ev is why they're whales! its perfect logic

Is your husband a suit whale, hawaiian shirt whale, or balenciaga whale?

Tournament regrets
Won about 1k on the 25th and was like screw it, I'll max late reg the $600 PKO. Lasted all of 24 minutes so I probably won't be firing more MTT's now that I've come to my senses. Had another good day the following day and played my longest live session of the month and refrained from firing the $400 PLO on that day. I used to put in mega sessions day after day of 8-14 hours but nowadays I just play a few hours, eat something on the strip, and go home if I'm up. Both days, I was on the 5/5/10 PLO list but it never ran. My second 1/2/5 ended up with everyone agreeing to straddle so at least we were playing a decent 1/2/10 game.


I don't think too many interesting spots come up in live poker but I guess I'll storytell a couple hands here just for the hell of it.


HAND 1

Preflop
I'm very bored so I make a pretty loose open in the LJ to $15 with KT98 and a very high VPIP (maybe ~65-70%ish) HJ calls

Light solver analysis: does not approve this open obviously but solver doesn't have to suffer playing only 20 hands/hour live so screw it

Flop
($35) AT7

Ace high board heads up. I cbet 25 into 35. He calls.

Light solver analysis: I'm supposed to cbet here a lot since its A high board (suggests ~90% frequency on this board). Most non A high boards are very high frequency checks out of position. Cbet freq here will likely be even higher if opponent is playing as high as 70% vpip. Recommends mixed sizings, 1/3rd to 1/2 as its favorites.

Turn
($85) AT74

I gained some mediocre spades equity vs Ax and I block TT and AT and of course I have massive AA polarity advantage so screw it, lets pump up the pressure and fire twice here. I bet $80 into $85 and he calls.

Light solver analysis: Solver likes 100% check lol. Solver is always betting with K high spades here though for large sizings, but I guess 9 high spades is just not strong enough. I've input solution parameters though as HJ vs BTN but this player is obviously playing like 5x wider than equilibrium strategy so I say solver can go suck it with its check..

River
($245) AT742

I think for a bit and decide to check and he quickly checks back and I win and I never see his hand.

Light solver analysis: Solver doesn't have a solution for my line cos it wouldn't have bet turn. But if it had K high spades (nut flush) it would always check river here so I can probably conclude all spades that double barrelled follow the same river line heuristics. ASSUMING i correctly checked my hand on turn and turn goes check check to see this river, solver will use a 1/3rd river sizing here in my spot with a 9 high flush


HAND 2

Preflop
I am the UTG Straddle to 10 and someone makes it 30 and it goes all the way around to me after 5 people are in the hand and I call $20 with a TRASH hand KJ55

This is absolutely NOT a defend but I've been playing super tight so far and my table has gotten pretty whale-y and I feel like the newer whales are on to how nitty I'm being. My brain, heart, and gut all say fold pre but my Internal Voice that is in charge of Live Poker Social PR and Management yells at me "Just flick the $20 in you NIT! If you fold in what's basically a family pot, the entire tables is gonna know you're a little b**ch. There's at least 2 whales here and you don't wanna be THAT guy who folds closing action. $20 is just an image investment" **SIGH** I reluctantly flick the $20 in.

Light solver analysis: LOL FISH, do you even REVERSE IMPLIED ODDS??? I'm checking out of this hand

Internal Voice: screw GTO, we'll show him. Just get lucky and hit a 522 flop.

Flop
($240) 664

Internal Voice: damn

Flop checks all the way through.

Turn
($240) 6645

Internal Voice: I'm a genius

I decide to check again. I think betting here is fine, but knowing these guys, I really think someone will probably just throw something into the pot with 78xx. There's obviously a chance that someone could be slowplaying flopped 66xx 44xx or 64xx, and 65xx is very unlikely. The downside of checking here though is overpairs realizing a 2 outer and with 5 other players in the pot, its a reasonable possibility. I'll decide whether I want to check raise or check call will depend on what sizing they use.

3rd player who seems pretty average but usually has it (not a whale), bets $200 into $240 and it goes back to me. Damn, this is actually kind of a much larger bet than I had anticipated. I obviously rule out 66xx for this crazy large sizing, but I also rule out hands like 23xx and 37xx. 64, 44, 78xx, 6xxxcc are reasonably logical holdings and vs this player I decide to just flat call and we go heads-up to the river.

Light solver analysis: fold pre fish

River

($640) 66459

We're actually 1.5k effective here so still plenty of play. I check the river and he tanks for a very long time. While he's tanking, I assume he's considering what kind of player I am. He probably considers that I've been playing very solid throughout the session and have been pretty tight. My turn check call here is very strong 6 ways! I could of course have 66xx, 64xx, 69xxx myself as well as 78xx. He probably doesn't think I'm continuing turn with just 23 or 37. So it simply becomes a judgement of weighing the risk/reward of targeting 78 for some value or getting trapped by a big boat+ if he has a thin boat. I don't think he is allowed to bet big with 78xx even if he has a 6, and I don't think he has any bluffs since it was 6 ways.

After a very long think he decides to check back and I quickly announce boat. He asks "How big?" implying he also has a boat. Well... that can't be good considering I have just a kayak.
"uhhh... I just have this" I say as I turn it over. He reluctantly mucks.

I go "if you had 44, why'd you ask me how big my boat was?" He shrugs.

He then asks me, "if I potted river would u fold?"

I ponder it over and answer honestly "Yea, I think I would". I think most people here would lie and say no so that they don't get bluffed in the future but I honestly think potting 44 on the river is a terrible line and I don't think he'd ever do it so I stay honest.


Closing thoughts
Damn live poker is slow and boring. Also I'm suddenly running super good live so I don't wanna go back to online now.

This is a great blog nicely written. Thanks for a great read.

Suit whale and Hawaiian shirt whale. $600 for a shirt implies an actual whale It works, too, or it used to. We used to go to Vegas so often the PLO regs know us. We've slowed down to two or three times a year now. Hope to see you there soon -- November probably.

Loving this thread!

Bomb Pots

Whenever there is a new dealer push, nowadays its pretty standard for the table to do a double board bomb pot. If you don't know what a bomb pot is, the short version is that everyone puts in a fixed amount of money preflop into the pot and goes straight to the flop and there is gonna be two flops, two turns, and two rivers. The action continues as normal after the flops with half the pot going to the winner of the top board and half the pot going to the bottom board.

I've stopped playing bomb pots completely and I personally do not like bomb pots but I think its fine that people want to play them and usually find it hilarious to witness the carnage that occurs every 30 minutes where usually someone just gets absolutely royally screwed for their entire stack. I am definitely in the minority nowadays when refusing to do the bomb pot and I also see many times people who would rather not participate in a bomb pot get pressured to "have fun" or "gamble it up" in a bomb pot by the other players. If you decline to play the bomb pots, you generally have to carry the label of the being the table nit or a guy who doesn't like to gamble and this reason alone is usually enough to compel most players who don't want to play it to do so to appease the fish/whales at the table. Fortunately for me, I stopped caring what other people think at the table so if I feel like I'm getting socially pressured to play a bomb pot, I usually tell them to F**k off and I don't care what they think of me(usually towards regs), or my other go to is I just explain to them I'm down infinite lifetime in bomb pots and refuse to play them any more (usually what I tell recreationals).

Do I think there is an edge to be had by playing double board bomb pots? Absolutely. I've seen insane punts by fish who have absolutely 0% equity on one board shoveling everything into the middle with a vulnerable hand on the other board just torch entire stacks. So here are my actual Pros and Cons to bomb pots.

Cons

1. Stack size disparity: Honestly this is it. This is my BIGGEST reason for not playing bomb pots by an extremely large margin. All other points are pretty minor and not too significant. Anytime I play live PLO, I buy in minimum 100 BBs deep and typically just always max buy in. But many people buy in short and they are well with in their rights to do so. It's pretty common knowledge at this point that short stacking PLO gives an advantage to short-stackers holding skill factors equal amongst players. I don't like short-stackers and do find them annoying but I don't short-stack myself because there's also obviously a large edge to be gained playing deep vs other deep whales so I prefer deeper stacked play. But I think short stackers gain an even LARGER edge during double board bomb pots and large stacks (like myself) get punished even harder. Its incredibly difficult for deepstacks to realize fair equity in double board bomb pots as the risk vs reward ratio is way too high, while shorstackers can squeeze out all the dead money equity and leverage the large stacks' risks against each other and way over-realize their own equity in bomb pots. That's all there is to it. I don't like short stackers at my table and I'm not going to participate in a format that greatly amplifies their edge.

At my ideal table, everyone would buy in for 100+BBs and I would gladly play every bomb pot. But even if I find myself in a scenario like this, I know the stack sizes or players can easily change throughout the session and its considered pretty bad etiquette to jump in and out of bomb pots so I just consistently sit them out.

2. Variance. Bomb pots add a lot of variance to your sessions and are only played once every 30 minutes and I will happily sacrifice a little EV to reduce variance for myself. Not that big of a deal.

3. Time. Bomb pots can sometimes take 5 minutes + when 3 people are all in and the dealer has to divide up the pot multiple times amongst 3 people and I feel like is a massive time sink. Me not playing it doesn't do anything to alleviate this issue as long as bomb pots exists, but I just do think they're kind of a waste of time in general. I think sitting out bomb pots is a good time for me to take bathroom breaks.

4. Stack retention. Bomb pots are very violent. People will lose or gain chips extremely fast in bomb pots. If the player pool is limited (which many area's PLO player pool isn't super big), games can quickly break if the player lists runs out depending on which way the bomb pots go.

5. I've run really bad in bomb pots lifetime. FML


Pros

1. Fish/whales/action players LOVE bomb pots. Keep the gamblers happy and let them have the bomb pots. This is good for the game. I've definitely seen some fish leave the game if the table doesn't want to do bomb pots because they feel like its not a fun table.

2. People still suck at bomb pots. Its pretty simple. You better have equity on both boards and the deeper you are the more true this needs to be and people screw this up all the time. Unless you have an absolute lock on one board (ex. quads/top boat). There's plenty of edge in a format like double board bomb pot that people haven't exactly studied or have gotten used to.

3. Very advantageous for short stacks. See point #1 in the Cons section.

4. Hilarious. Its dramatic, someone will probably get mega screwed, and many tears and regrets will entail. Great entertainment value.

5. Fish/whales/action players LOVE bomb pots.


Anyways, thats my take on bomb pots. Lots of fish harass me every day to play the bomb pot and I always politely tell them that I'm stuck heaps in them and have an emotionally damaged relationship with bomb pots and that I'm a recovering bomb pot addict and I encourage them to knock themselves out and have fun and I won't get in the way.

BUT... if a goddamn reg (especially a short stacking nit reg) pretends to be all action and tries to give me a hard time about not playing the bomb pot, I will happily call them out on their bullshit and tell them to go eat a dick.





Anyways, as a tribute to this rant, here's the biggest bomb pot I've ever played in my life which happened just last year at Resorts World 25/25/50 plo.

I flop nut straight backdoor flush draw on one board and top 2 + flush draw + backdoor flush draw on the other. All the money gets piled in 3 ways on the flop. I had ~19k, KJ95 had ~17k, and 889T had ~16k so it was about a 51k bomb pot where I got quartered. Also happens to be the single largest pot of my life.

Best part? The KJ95 who ended up taking half the pot is a hedge fund billionaire. When they say the rich get richer, this is how they do it. Fuggin bomb pots.

I love bomb pots, but I am a very disciplined BP player. That runout absolutely sucks for you. The T988 player is an idiot. I guess he was hoping for the straight flush. How in the world did that get all in on flop?

I'm not a fan of tourneys either, but I'm considering playing more for one reason. Albeit my experience only being online small stakes tourneys, the play in those is so hilariously bad I feel like it's hard not to pass up on them. If live is anything like that I would consider grinding those. Although I wouldn't late reg because we want to maximize our opportunity to play deep stack. But definitely prefer cash for all around enjoyability.

I'm pretty surprised we have a 1/3 sizing on this flop especially when out of position - I would figure we would size up a bit. If turn goes x/x, the river block bet seems pretty intuitive. I guess having some medium strong draws as checks on the turn is a nice way to protect our checking range when we have a strong made hand that doesn't want to play a big river - like some of our sets without good backup can x/jam. Of course, we're not too worried about some of these things given the type of opponents you're playing. Although when we do deviate against this player, usually it's by tightening our range pre - but I'm not saying anything you don't already know . I'm tempted to play hands "I shouldn't" when playing live too due to boredom.

The T988 player talked to me at a later date bemoaning how badly he played it and I just made fun of him and said he way over played his hand and we both fed the billionaire. O well.



I only max late reg tournaments nowadays as I am simply chasing maximum $/hr rather than ROI. I'll play cash games right up until late registration is almost over before hopping into the MTT.

As far as betting 1/3rd on that flop, it depends on the sizing parameters you set. A more simplified strategy from PLO Trainer for example with cbet this flop MP vs BTN 62% of the time for 3/4th sizing. But if you use a different trainer like FlopHero, it'll cbet around 90% of the time but will split between 1/3rd(35%), 1/2(21%), and pot sizings (26%) as well as low frequency 3/4th sizing (9%).

Multi size strategy is of course way more complicated but the key takeaway should just be that we are cbetting A high boards in these positions at a decent frequency, then use common sense and experience and opponent assumptions to guide through the reset of the hand. Solver lines are pretty much super overrated and possibly harmful for live settings anyways, I mostly try and stick to memorized equilibrium ranges for preflop though I will still widen my range quite frequently according to my opponent lineups.

NLHE

I was pretty far down the waiting list so I hopped into a 2/5 NLHE game and I had no clue what I was doing.

I lost a 3b pot with JT on a KQ6 flop vs the 3 bettor who called my river bluff with AQo and I was immediately stuck like $500 in the game to start.

Then this hand came up.

LJ (slightly wide) opens to $15, HJ (very loose fish) calls $15, and I 3bet to $65 in CO with TT and go heads up with LJ

($145) Flop: K43

He checks, I bet $75 he calls...

($295) Turn: K43K

He checks, I probably have the best hand but I decide to check and try and get value on river. IDK about this.

($295) River: K43K2

He checks, I bet $160 targeting 55-99, some A4s, A3s, I guess. I dunno. Maybe I should have sized closer towards $200, I dunno how to play 2 cards anymore... whatever, NLHE is lame. He quickly calls and mucks and I am only stuck like $140 at NLHE before getting called for PLO.



PLO HAND

Preflop
A reggy looking player that I've never seen before opens to $15 in MP and I decide to 3bet to $50 with A985 on the button. We are $1k deep and based on his looks and max buy in, he looks slightly reggy. He never limps and always opens so probably decent read. BB comes along for $50 and we go 3 ways to a flop.


Flop

($150) T93

Checks to me and I decide to check back this time. I think the majority of the field flops nut flush draw here and just always cbets but I slightly had my doubts here. I check behind and make a mental note to line check this later.

Quick Solver Analysis: Solver confirms my suspicions (Parameters 200 BB deep, CO vs BTN vs BB positions). If it was a normal 3 bet pot 100 BBs deep, solver is always cbetting my hand here. But since we started 200 BBs, solver always checks this hand. The only A985 combo solver will cbet here is the front door hearts AND backdoor diamonds. If I have a combo draw like A98J (nut flush draw + open ender), then solver likes to always bet here. 1 pair nut flush draw no other draw seems to be considered an overplay in this spot by the computer. If I have AT85 here, solver will also bet so having top pair blocker is also good enough to cbet as it blocks a high number of check raising hands (top set and top 2 or top and bottom pair combos)

I recall the first video I made for PLO MM involved studying a spot like this. The hand I was reviewing definitely liked to bet a lot at 100 BBs, but checked when it was 200 BBs. I think a lot of players misplay their hand class when they don't account for effective stack depths post flop and it leads to some pretty egregious overplays...


Turn

($150) T932

BB checks, Reggy looking guy bets $50, and I decide to raise to $225. BB folds and Reggy guy calls. I'm too lazy to do a monker sim for this set up so the solver analysis will end here for the rest of the hand.

My main thoughts for the turn line is that the reg will not expect me to have nut flush here since the field generally always cbets their nut flush draws on the flop. Since I also look reggy, I am hopping he has a flush and will put me on AA with naked A and call me down. 3bets in live PLO are also just massively weighted towards AAxx rather than equilibrium strategies that don't involve AA so if he thinks this way, me having more than normal AAxx should put a lot more A blockers in this line.

River

($600) T932J

I pot $600. Since I've raised turn, I've already repped only A so both of us know I'm saying I have it so I should just be polarized here and pot. If reg has hearts here and called turn, he probably should just call down river as the pot size is always coming on a non pair river. He tanks for a very long time and ends up calling and mucking.

Hand's probably not that interesting but I think my key idea here is that checking back flop with NFD got me action on the turn and river vs a potential thinking player as the check back with NFD in a 3bet pot is just not a line most live players take. Its possible if I cbet, i go 3 streets and get value anyways so maybe none of this matters.

The above hand is definitely interesting. As you stated, going from 100bb deep to 200bb deep can completely flip whether something is a cbet or not. I've seen some changes as often as going from 100bb to 150bb to 200bb. But even skipping the 150bb and learning the 100bb to 200bb, especially live were you can buy-in deep is worthwhile.

You are the last preflop raiser here, but since the hand was multiway it is worth noting something I've noticed in my little bit of research, when not the preflop raiser, there are some flop check-raises with callers that you don't check-raise heads up. Multiway live is common, but many people miss these few but valuable multiway check-raises.

Applying multiway equilibrium strategies to live is rough since live player ranges are just SO FAR off of equilibrium. From studying some multiway solutions on trainers, I've basically concluded that the solvers are mega nits multiway and its rare to find many bluff lines.

Live multi-way, I just play a super level 1 basic strategy and I've found that most effective. Is a guy in late position overly aggro? If yes, check raise your set multiway. Are guys behind you more normal? then just donk lead your top set multiway.

I had a spot the other day with 88xx in the SB that went 4 way and the flop came 833ccx with 3 loose players behind me. I decided to just lead for 1/2 pot vs these guys and somehow got called in all 3 spots lol. I concluded my line was the best line just because people are peeling unreasonably wide, and also because I felt like putting in a check raise at any point in the hand would look way too stronger, and somehow the leading into 3 player line was the weakest looking line...

August Wrap Up/September Plans

86 hours played, + $14584 at $169.22/hr. Obviously ran super hot for these stats considering the bulk of my volume ended up being at 1/2/5 PLO. I also cashed out most of my bankroll online again and just left $8k on there and was going to start another 1/2 grinding online challenge again but sudden change of plans. Gonna head to Dallas from Sept 6-14 with a friend of mine and play there and see how it goes. Despite living in Vegas for 8 years, I think Vegas has some of the reggiest cash games in the country, but its a great place to live if you're a tournament grinder.

I rarely travel outside of Vegas to play poker. My most recent trip was to Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale Florida last year as everyone hypes up Florida and Texas as the best places to play poker. I thought the Florida games were good but not overly impressive but it could just be short term trip variance.

Here are my results for the Florida trip:





Texas though...

I've also gone to texas once in 2022 and made it a very short trip to visit the lodge. Texas was definitely insane and the best 2/2/5 PLO game I've ever played. My buddy ended up going back and staying 3 months there and told me that my visit to Texas was a slight outlier though and I ran super good to be in the game I found myself in that week.

Here are my results for my Texas Trip:



The biggest pot I ever played at the 1/2/5 level was at The Lodge in Texas. There was an insane whale who kept buyin in $500 over and over again and eventually he finally hit a run where he ran his stack up to ~$6.5k. It's match the stack rules in Texas so I go ahead and top off/match his stack to buy in $6k deep and then this hand happens.

There's a straddle, whale raises, I have garbage KKxx and I flat in SB and a bad reg squeezes in the BB and we go 3 way to the flop.

($300) Flop: KQ8

Checks through

($300) Turn: KQ87

I bet $250, reg calls, whale pots $1300, I pot $4450, reg folds, whale calls and I'm like hey don't u wanna put the rest in and just run it twice? He just stares blankly at me.

($9450) River: KQ874

I shovel the rest in (~$1600) and he calls and he flips over Q873 naked no flush draw or anything basically having 0% equity on the turn when all the money piled in. Match the stack games are wild.

Funny story, I tipped the dealer $50 and he pushes my friend's table next. My friend told me the dealer started complaining that some guy(me) at his previous table only tipped $50 on a 13k pot. God I hate entitled dealers. Biggest tip I've ever received as a dealer was $25 at a 1/3 NL table from a super drunk guy. I've heard Texas dealers make a ton of tips dealing but complaining about a $50 tip is just insane. I should go apply as a dealer at the Lodge.

Anyways, will play some more live poker probably for the next few days in vegas and then will have some juicy Dallas trip report posts hopefully.

Disgusting dealer behavior, $50 is an insane tip and from a non reg no less just absurd entitlement

1/2/5 vs 5/5/10 PLO

Its been a while since 5/5/10 ran but on Labor Day, they finally got a 5/5/10 PLO rock game going at the Wynn. I think the 5/5/10 plays noticeably different than 1/2/5 in terms of the type of players who play it.

1. Players are constantly limping at 1/2/5 while at 5/5/10 they are usually raising preflop (feels similar to 1/3 NLHE vs 2/5 NLHE comparisons in vegas)

2. There are very few 3 bets at 1/2/5 while 5/5/10 players will 3 bet a lot more, both their AAxx and non AAxx hands.

3. 1/2/5 players are much more passive and nittier and rarely bluff while 5/5/10 players will actually bluff. This makes it pretty bad in a vacuum to hero call players at 1/2/5 vs 5/5/10.

I played an extra long session on monday as the 5/5/10 only got going around 5 P.M. and it felt like a pretty decent action game. Got a little stuck in the game, -$2kish at one point facing a string of very rough spots but ended up booking a win at the end. A few interesting spots to cover:

HAND 1
Preflop
There is a straddle left of the rock and 2 players call. I make bit of a loose bump up to $110 in the HJ with J975 and CO 3bets to $405 and we go HU.

Flop
($895) KT5

I lead for $200 and he quickly folds.

This spot is similar to a spot I studied a long time ago but it rarely comes up. The scenario is a 4 bet pot situation where the flop comes monotone. Taking a look at an example scenario in PLO Trainer of BTN vs SB 4 bet pot monotone, we see that SB leads 76% of the time in this spot for a 1/5 pot sizing.



Using a different trainer that allows an even smaller sizing, it suggest SB leads 1/10th pot sizing 70% and a 1/3rd sizing 6% of the time. It will lead some interesting combos including some complete airballs like 4466 or 5678

This high frequency donk bet is very logical considering the 4 bettor range is extremely AAxx heavy while the 3 bet/call 4 bet range is very heavy weighted towards double suited combos. So on monotone boards, the 3 bettor is going to have a huge polarity and equity advantage on most monotone textures. Change the board to a monotone A high board and the donk lead frequency approaches 0% as now the equity favorability shifts significantly towards the 4 bettor.

So would this same concept apply to my situation at 5/5/10? I certainly think so. I've been playing reasonably tight and my bump up to $110 after a straddle + 2 calls should be given respect. I will have a LOT of double suited runs in this spot (though in this particular case I think J975 is a bit too wide and pretty much near the bottom of my isolation range), and then the 3 bettor who popped it up to $405 has been playing pretty tight as well and his holdings will mostly be AAxx, I could argue it will be tighter than equilibrium 4bet ranges here so I think we can treat preflop ranges similarly to a SB vs BTN 4 bet pot situation. And for post flop SPR, we started the hand about $1600 effective so post flop SPR was about 1.3.



HAND 2
Preflop
I open to $35 UTG with AAK8, recreational calls CO and aggro Euro-reg defends his rock in the BB.

Flop
($110) K44

BB checks, I check (I will have an extremely high check frequency 3 ways in this spot), CO checks.

Turn
($110) K445

BB pots $110, I call, CO folds.

River
($330) K445J

Aggro Euro-reg pots $330 and I go deep into the tank and make the call. He flips over A23T

I'm more likely to fold my hand at 1/2/5 vs the field as this spot is extremely under-bluffed. At 5/5/10 though, the players are much more capable of bluffing and even though the stakes are larger, they seem to care less about money than the 1/2/5 players. The turn and river pot sizing is a bit suspicious though as I don't feel like I see this sizing sequence that often on paired boards. I think my turn call could easily contain a lot of KK as I am checking almost all of those in this spot on the flop multiway and I will flat KKxx on the turn mostly rather than going for a raise line. Having the K blocker for this reason in my hand feels much better to call down, as I'd rather have something like AKQT to hero call here than AA9T.


HAND 3
Preflop
CO (Aggro Euro-reg) is the rock and I open the BTN to $40 with A982. SB calls, UTG calls, and CO squeezes to $205 and I and the UTG call. We go to the flop 3 ways.

Flop
($660) 458

Both players check to me, I consider stabbing here but decide to check back. Solver prefers stabbing for 1/2 here and the 8 in my hand is the key component in leaning stab.

Turn
($660) 458A
CO bets $225 and I call and UTG folds. Not sure how I feel about his sizing but its probably fine.

River
($1110) 458AJ

Aggro Euro-reg bets $800 and I don't tank much here as I had decided this player was pretty fearless in terms of bluffs and flick in the call. He shows down KQJT and then jokingly complains that I never believe him lol. I probably lean towards not really liking his river bluff overall. The board texture by the turn is pretty static and he has complete air on the turn and no Ace, very little will change by the river and there are really no draws I'm on here so I'm super heavy weighted towards Ax and it'll be a pretty big ask to get me to fold an A here, especially given that he's blocking KQJT and he has an aggressive image.

22 minute NLHE Session

Sometimes I play NLHE while waiting for a PLO session and today I had a really weird short session where I went +$900 from 3 different people trying to bluff me in almost 3 consecutive hands. I buy in $500 even though the max buy in here is $1500 because I dunno what I'm doing any more in NLHE but everyone at the table except a lady had like $1k+ so I probably looked like the table fish and maybe they were trying to pick on me? I did notice that when I sat down, everyone of course was eyeballing my stack and probably concluded I was a fun player since I only bought in $500.

Anyways, for all you NLHE players out there, you can make fun of my lines here as I haven't studied 2 card poker in forever so I play super ABC old school style. I doubt I'm winning in 1/2 NLHE online these days but I should be perfectly fine at 2/5 live.


HAND 1
Preflop
Some middle-age/old guy with a large stack opens in MP to $15 and I defend my BB with JT. I'm guessing I could probably 3b this here but I'm a wimp so I just flat.

Flop
($30)327
He cbets $20 and I float here cos I dunno what I'm doing and I just wanna hit a 9d turn or something. Yea, go ahead and laugh at me.

Turn
($70)3278

Oh cool, a gutshot. It goes check check.

River
($70)3278T

I hear top pair is good in NLHE so I bet $40 here and he raises to $125. I hear top pair is good in NLHE so I call. He mucks and I don't show the table my hand since he mucked.


HAND 2
Preflop
Very next hand, UTG (really old dude sitting next to his wife) opens to $15 and MP calls and I have QJ in the SB. Am I supposed to squeeze here? I dunno, I just flat cos I'm a wimp and just wanna see a flop.

Flop
($45)J93

UTG bets $30, MP folds, and I hear top pair is good in NLHE so I call.

Turn
($105)J935

UTG bets $60, I call cos top pair...

Turn
($225)J9352

UTG bets $120, I call cos i hear top pair is good in NLHE. He shows KT. The good old double the bet on every single street by an old guy.


HAND 3
Preflop
I win the very next hand on the BTN vs CO with 55 in an uninteresting spot and they call me for PLO. I'm in the middle of putting my chips in a rack and dealer asks me if I want one more hand in the CO and I'm like sure why not, I'll just play if I get AA or KK. Folds to me in the CO and I look down at 78 and I open to $15. Very reggy looking guy calls the BB and he has a lot of a chips so he's probably some 2/5 grinder reg. We go heads up.


Flop
($30)784

What the heck? Am I gonna win 4 hands in a row? Table's gonna hate me for hit and running. I cbet $10 and he check raises to $40 and I call. I actually kind of felt like a check raise could be coming just because I was getting ready to leave, and he looked like a reg, and he's gotta defend the table's honor from a short stack hit n runner yada yada...

Turn
($110)784A

He checks. Man, I thought top pair was great in NLHE but imagine having 2 pair AND a flush draw. I decide to bet small here and bet $40 and he check raises me again to $160 and I call. I thought the double check raise here could definitely be a possibility.

River
($430)784A5

He bets $275 and I snap call and he turns over K4. Isn't this a fold pre? Dealer doesn't even deal me in next hand so I just go over to the PLO table and have a very uninteresting session.

Man, I love NLHE now.

First and foremost a huge thanks to you for this solid blog, it is always amazing to find these PLO gem blogs that rarely come up and it is especially nice when it is a proven solid player.

On the above hand, this is really an interesting spot and completely counterintuitive to my thinking. In a vacuum, I would perceive this spot to be, as you rightly mention, 3bettor AA/KK heavy while you will be more double suited rundown type of stuff. That said, my go-to line in this spot would be to check to allow the 3bettor to also stab with Ah/Kh that we have completely crushed and can potentially call down. While it does make sense to donk, don't we play our hand quite faced up and what do we do if we get raised (by say Ah/Kh)?

In a live setting, its entirely likely that the equilibrium solver line is inferior to just range checking. Psychologically, I think a lot of 4 bettors might just see low SPR and see a big pot and just stab themselves (and many whales at 1 SPR or less on monotone will just shovel it in here and pray). Our hand is not face up in theory because we are leading an insane amount of our range here. Complete air like 4466 no hearts, random bottom pair no draws no heart, even middling hands like straight draws/gutters (QQJ8 with or without hearts, Q987 etc)

Depending on what sizing I choose, opponent should theory fold 26% vs 1/5th sizing, and 14% vs 1/10th sizing. Since I bet $200 into $900ish, slightly bigger than 1/5th, I assume theoretically opponent should fold close to 30% of the time here and if I am truly donking a correct range (I'm not in reality lol), then I am absolutely scamming him of his equity with all my airballs, I just happen to have J high flush in this moment.

As for what to do if we get raised? We are just basically always gonna go broke in some manner here when we flop flush vs flush at a ~1 SPR spot. There are of course a few nits in the field that I will still fold a flush to at 1 SPR b/c they don't have it in them to bluff naked A.

How do I think we should approach this spot exploitatively in a live setting in the future? Its really hard to say as basically no one faces this line and people are completely not used to this. It should be heavily read based as a lot of players will massively overcall vs this lead/sizing maybe incentivizing us to try to have it more often than not, or the nits or players who think perceive you to have a solid image may overfold this spot which would incentivize us to lead more of our airballs. And of course vs the clueless whales/fish who just blind pot/cbet large b/c its a 4 bet pot, we should just always check our flushes I guess. I just led here b/c I'd never done it live since its such a rare spot and was curious what would happen.

Those NL hands are weird, I haven't played much of it lately either but surprised that people are so bluff happy. I'm not sure I would've found calls in all those hands because I assumed people play too face up live but guess that ain't true anymore or they just really wanted to bluff you.

I think the monotone board donk is interesting, it's a good value donk if opponent knows how the spot is played in GTO, knows you also know, and you actually have enough bluffs in your range. Even at midstakes online I doubt many regs have studied that spot enough, think the population overfolds vs donk which could still be correct since population also isn't bluff donking enough.

I hear what you are saying and like the lead against certain opponents, I still think we should consider those that are willing to stab with A/K blocker and are going to go "oh well this ****ing idiot is leading so now I don't have fold equity".

Anyways, enough rambling about that spot. Good luck and hope to see you continue to write your blog. It is very well written!

Really love this blog. It reads very pleasantly and the explanation of spots and how to approach those is very well written out. It is a big aid to understanding the game! Thanks a lot and please keep going. Good fortune at the tables!

Texas Trip Report -TCH Las Colinas (9/6/2024 - 9/14/2024)



Landed in DFW Airport with my buddy and took a 15 min uber to the Hyatt in Irving/Las Colinas, TX which was right across a street from Texas Card House - Las Colinas. Initially had plans to play on the day we landed but just decided to check out the room instead and get a player's card ($30 for 1 month) and load up some hours onto our cards ($13/hr but in September can buy 9 hours get 1 hour free). The Texas combination of heat and humidity instantly made us lazy so the first real day 1 of play started the next day on saturday.



DAY 1 - SATURDAY

The game is straight up 2/5 PLO, $300-$2000 buy in, 9 max. No gimmicks like a rock, or a bring in or anything. I max buy in. Entire table was straddling which would be pretty commonplace at the 2/5 PLO games. Every single player played the bomb pot as well, and against my better judgement, I decided I would participate in all the double board bomb pots ($15) on this trip. When in Rome...

Ran pretty sub-par the entire session and of course my decision to start playing bomb pots again immediately bites me in the ass. I look down at AK38 in a bomb pot

Top board: 8JT3Q
Bottom board: 24T76

A player potted every single street ($135 Flop, $540 Turn) until he was all in for ~$350 by the river and another player had called down to the river at which point I ripped the river after calling all streets to try and squeeze him for a side pot but he ended up folding. The all in player ended up having 79XX and scooped me on both boards. Welcome back to bomb pots.

Nothing else really happened for me. The game was very good and a lot of action and people were sticking it in pretty terrible. I was somewhat card dead and when I did hit with my first flopped set, I ended up running into 2nd nut straight. Was in the game for $3400 and dwindled down to around $1600 when I found myself in a 4 way all in on the turn with AQ56 on a board showing

T472

3 people (couple shortstacks) ripped it in and I called off and they ran it once. J on the river to give me a scoop and win my my first all in here about 7 hours into the session. Won no more pots after that and called it quits after about a 9 hour session. Booked a small win of around +$600 after being stuck most of the day. I would rank the game around an 8-9/10. Out of curiosity, I checked real estate prices around the area and it was pretty pricey. The average home was going for around 600-800k and I know texas has some of the highest property tax in the country whereas Vegas has some of the lowest. Maybe I could be a dealer at Las Colinas as the PLO dealers seemed to be crushing it there in tips.



DAY 2 - SUNDAY

Sunday was the day that absolutely annihilated me. This day was a long time coming as I had been running very well overall in Vegas for the past month. I won 0 all ins all day and lost almost every significant pot and on top of that was pretty card dead the entire time. It started off with a bad omen in this hand.

Preflop
I was the UTG straddle with 5773 and 5 limps to me and I check my option.

Flop
($60) K74

BB checks to me and I lead into the field here for $50 and throw out 2 green chips. Folds to the BB and he throws out two chips as well but they're black chips. He instantly tries to take it back and tells the dealer he meant to grab 2 green chips (I definitely believe this player) but dealer says it's gonna be ruled a raise. I tell the player he can take it back and throw in 2 green chips if he wants but the dealer denies me and tells me he will call floor. Floor comes over and I tell floor I really don't mind if the player wants to just call my bet but the floor also says he has to rule it a raise. Ok so BB raises to $200.

I say, oh well, I guess I have to pot then and pot to $660 and BB says screw it and rips in $2k. He only wants to run it once or 3 times. Apparently in this room, you can run it 3 times only if its heads up and you have to call a floor over to watch the hand to do so. Running it 3 times seems like a huge hassle so I say lets just go once then.

Turn + River
($4040) K748Q

He shows me 56Q8 and I reload. I'm being a bit results oriented here but if he did not misclick raise, turn likely would have gone check check and I would probably call or fold river depending on my read and sizing there. A bit annoying to think about it. I lose 2 more all ins to a couple $700-$1k stacks in pretty standard spots and we are quickly buried for the day.


Later on, a mega action character sits down and is absolutely wild. He's potting every time he has just top pair and somehow getting there vs most people. It's hard to describe the insanity I saw going on at this table. One particularly wild hand was this whale got it in on the flop vs the the tables second biggest whale for about 2.5k effective on a flop of Q42. He scooped the pot with QJ72 against a set of queens when the top board came diamonds, and the bottom board came running 2's for quads.


(This is why I don't hate bomb pots)

The Set Up
Top Board: Q997A
Bottom Board T4396

My hand:
QQK2

Our Mega whale starts off by potting flop $135 and another player calls and I elect to call here to keep/trap some more players in as we mostly have a locked down top board with near 0 equity on the bottom.

It goes 3 ways to the turn and he pots again for $540. Unfortunately we lose the player and I call and go to the river heads up. We have the nuts on top board as the 9 came on the bottom board eliminating the possibility of running into quads. We started the hand about 3.5k deep and I see no reason to shove here to try and get him to fold anything as he never folds a hand.

He pots river for $1620 and I decide to just call. There is a tiny chance that he's overplaying 9xxx here and I could potentially scoop him out but its more likely he's just playing AX here and there is a tiny chance he could have another A to go with it. Sure enough, he flips over AA88 and the entire table gasps as this whale has been running unbelievably hot and finds this set up hand in the bomb pot.
I end up putting in a 13 hour session where I'm in the game for almost $9k and just end up getting beat up for a 6.7k loss over all. So far on the trip, I had won 1 out of about 7 all ins but overall, I'd rate this game about a 9.5/10.




Day 3 - MONDAY

So I felt like I was busto. I brought with me roughly 9.5k for the trip and already after the previous day, + spending some money on food and stuff I was down to about 4k for my texas bankroll... a.k.a. 2 buy ins. Now I could uber or walk of shame down to a Bank of America branch about a mile down the road to withdraw some more money, but instead I decided to do something I really haven't done live before. I was going to short stack buy in $300 from now on and see how it goes. My buddy also said he could probably lend me 2-3k if I needed it as he was up on this trip so far but he also didn't really bring much with him.

The session is a bit of a blur but I was pretty quickly in for 6 bullets of $300 which my 6th bullet I finally ran up to a decent stack and this hand came up.

Preflop
Straddle, Limpers, MP makes it $50 and gets a calelr, I spice it up a bit on a $1500 stack and say screw it and make a loose 3bet to $220 with J875 from the SB. I've been playing pretty tight overall this session and this is probably my first light 3 bet of the trip and I was particularly bored at this point. The original limper calls the $220 and after a long think the MP and the other flat caller somehow finds a fold deciding I must be really tight here. I'm shocked as we go heads up to the flop.

Flop
($550) JJ9

I decide to go with a check line here. This particular player had been stacked several times this session felt like he could be tilted. I looked like someone who would just have AAxx here a lot and I kind of give off nit vibes so I probably would be check folding very dry AA here a lot.

He pots and I rip ~$1300 and he is very upset at this line and *sigh* sticks it in with QQTx no diamonds. I hold run it once and we finally have a good day. In for 6 bullets of $300 each, and out for about $3600. I'd rate this game as around a 7/10.



Day 4 - TUESDAY
We short buy $300 again and are off to a great start as we run our stack up to $1700 off that first bullet. The game was actually pretty bad but I have a running joke amongst my friends that I can never beat whales and can only beat regs so I always claim I wanna play in the shittiest games available.

Anyways, only really 1 major hand worth noting.

Preflop

Straddle is on obvioulsy and I open EP to 40 with KTT9 and a regfish on BTN calls and a reg in the BB calls and straddler calls.

Flop
($165) JT8

BB leads $160 and I call and BTN calls.

Turn
($685) JT87

BB bets $430. This is really weird to me. He should really only have a pot sizing here given what he's repping. In any case, he's giving me even better odds now and I call and BTN calls. I'm putting BTN on a lot of spade draws, I guess BB will have straights here for the most part but I don't necessarily believe he has Q high straight with his turn sizing.

River
($1975) JT877

BB checks, I only have about 1100 here so I could and probably should just rip it in here. I guess I could find a fold if BTN shoves and BB ships it in as well as they are about 2.5k effective with each other. Shove is probably best line but whatever, I checked. BTN puts in his money and BB folds and I call and lose to JJxx.

At this point in the trip, I believe I had told my buddy that I was batting 0/7 in flopped sets on the trip so not running well at all. I fire a second bullet of $300 and run it up to $1200 and cash out for a daily win of about $600. I'd rate this particular day's game at 4/10. Kind of reggy and no major whales.



Day 5 - WEDNESDAY
This was for sure the worst game I played of PLO in Texas. Maybe its a weekday thing or just variance but the game was insanely nitty and and somehow it was all regs/nits. I'd give this game a 2.5/10. I also had been jumping into some NLHE games here and there while waiting for a PLO table and i kid you not, the 2/5 NL game I played for 20 min was easily the worst 2/5 NLHE game I've been in the past year. It was literally 8 regs and 1 action player. Two of the regs were min raising pre to $10. I will chalk this up to lack of sample size or variance but I couldn't believe a NLHE game in texas could be so awful. Maybe a ton of NLHE grinders are flooding the texas games when everyone keeps talking about how amazing the action is here.

Eventually I find a seat in a 2/5 PLO game and buy in short and start the day off 0/5 in all ins finding really good high equity squeeze spots and finally win my first all in of the day on bullet #6. I quickly lose my stack again though when I end up squeezing a bunch of dead money with T865 and get it in heads up on a T37 flop against AQJ9.

I somehow get my next bullet all in pre against A956 when I was holding AQJ7 and lose. And then I get scooped in a bomb pot when I short stack rip 4667 on a 359r flop and a 478 flop against ATT9.

Anyways, I ended up firing 10 bullets this day and went 2/11 in all ins. In for $3k, out for $600. -$2400 on the day.




Day 6-8 - THURSDAY-SATURDAY
The final 3 days of the trip, I still did the same thing of short buying every session. Nothing too interesting happened these days but I ran decent finally in these days. My all ins actually held and found a few holds with AA. The last day started off pretty bad having to fire 4 $300 bullets after losing a few sad spots AKK vs AQQ and getting quartered AA vs AA.

Thought I was going to have a bad last day but found what felt like a decent equity squeeze spot with $415.

There is a straddle, raise to $50, and a min reraise to $100 lol and a few callers and I felt like it was a good spot to rip A679 for $415. Apparently none of these guys had anything decent because no one isolated me and we ended up with 3 guys who all flat called the $415.

Flop comes J66 and I end up scooping to save my last day. The rest of the session I just played a normal PLO game on the stack and value bet the fish and ran my stack up to about $3.1k before cashing out and heading to the airport. I would rate the final 3 days of PLO there at around a 6.8/10.




Closing Thoughts



All in all, not the worst trip ever. Ended down about 1.7k in poker on the trip including time rake paid. I probably spent about $40-$50 per day on food, and split hotel cost with my buddy around $60/day. Flight was also cheap when you fly Spirit.

The first 2 days, the action at my table was pretty insane and over the course of the week, I guess the action settled down towards the median quite a bit. Its possible the games are godliest late at night or past midnight but I kept going to bed before 10 PM so who knows.

If vegas PLO game quality is a 5/10, I'd say the games at Las Colinas average around a 7/10. It's a bit of an adaptation to both online and Vegas as the games play VERY multiway and so strategy simplifies more towards playing very ABC and nutted hands and tight. Basically a nut peddler's dream environment. Short stacking was an interesting experience and kind of fun at times even though I despise short-stackers. In my defense, I only really did it because I was too lazy to make a trip to my bank.

Room was well run, wait lists were not very long, dealers were actually very good. Would I go back and play there again? Probably. I have 5 hours of time left on my card after all... In the end though, I'm very happy to be back in Vegas and look forward to opting out of bomb pots again.

Wow, thanks for the report. Sorry about the run bad

Brutal swings buddy in what looked like some juicy Texas games. If you are back in Vegas now, I vaguely overheard a conversation that one of the casinos got rid of straddles and changed to ante, but the guys chatting were NLH players so I don't know if this is for PLO too?

Mentally feels much better to be starting stuck 7k and recovering 5k of it, then something like up 7k and losing 5k of it even though the latter is a better result. A guy in the room there told me he doesn't know what it is, but every one gets destroyed on their first trip to dallas or something which is pretty funny.


I believe they are talking about the Wynn 5/10 NLHE. Doesn't apply to PLO. 5/10 NLHE is now a 5/10 + 10 BB ante game.