Hello,

I've been playing 2NLz/5NLz/10NLz on Stars for about a year now. So far I've played about 200k hands. I've been winning at about 7bb/100 and am pretty confident to be a winner at 25z and possibly higher. The reason I haven't moved up is me having to withdraw the majority of my bankroll multiple times as cash is short for me at times.

Anyways, I've got a job (besides studying) now and am planning on depositing about $1k to a site (Stars and Party seem most interesting to me) in the near future. Here are my questions

• Is it worth it to learn PLO? The game seems super interesting to me and from the few hands I've played at 2PLz, it seems ridiculously soft
• If so, are there any good coaching sites specifically for PLO out there? How should I go about learning?
• Are today's winrates of decent regs higher in NLHE or PLO? I've heard that PLO on Stars has higher rake than NL, how much does it affect profitablity?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

It's always worth learning new games to become an actual poker player, rather than just a NLHE player. There's more action, it's more complex, it's potentially more profitable and, most importantly, it's more fun (although imo sticking forks in my eye is more fun than NLHE, so I'm maybe not the most impartial judge)

PLO is fun but there is a ton of variance, so if NLHE upsets you then PLO is going to really upset you. Equities run closer together too though so actually you end up with a greater chance to win hands whereas in NLHE you'd be drawing almost dead. You're almost never drawing dead in PLO. Anyway, it's a great game but brace yourself and be mature.

There are PLO specific sites that I'm sure you can find.


Be smart. PLO is not for constant complainers. Bankroll management is much more important. I cannot say that enough.

PLO is really a lot of fun. However, you must be rolled well and be ready for ridiculous things to happen when you are first starting to play. PLO kicks everybodys ass, even good , experienced players feel the pain. If you are careful not to over extend yourself , it is a nice change of pace from NLH from time to time.

I've recently played a ton of PLO after playing solely NLHE for years. A few thoughts:

Variance in PLO is sick. Move down a couple of levels from where you play NLHE.
PLO will make you a better NLHE player. You'll get much better at seeing when a weird draw hits and immediately identifying the nuts on any board. Your turn play will also improve ron censonce PLO is all about the turn and river and so many more hands see all streets than in NLHE. In NLHE you can get pretty far just with good right preflop play. Much harder in PLO.
You will get sucked out on. You can't tilt.
River raises are almost always nutted. A weird GS will hit and you'll think there's no way he called flop and turn with that GS. But if he raises river he likely has it, and probably had something else to go along with it and make calling worthwhile.

Sounds like PLO has significantly more variance than LHE as well?

Given NLHE has more variance than LHE, that would be a yes.

Thanks. I was guessing LHE has more variance than NLHE since there are normally more players in a hand and you get run down more often, but hadn't considered that you can lose with bigger bets in NLHE.

Yeah, different components ultimately make up variance. PLO variance is really substantial, but it is mitigated by the fact that you're almost never out of a hand except in the case of full house under a full house where you're often drawing to a single out.

No rake to high and edges are tiny

Best just playing play money and use it like a video game.

Plus this no limet seems dull when you get into plo.

Looks like PLO needs a poker boom the way NLHE had in 2003 to get a lot of new players in.