Over my time playing PLO, I've come up with a number of "rules" for myself that I try to never (or rarely) break. Do others do similar things? Would like to hear your rules. Mine apply to the game I play in which is online but plays a lot like live:

1. Don't bluff catch on the river with one pair. Note this doesn't apply when the board is paired as now we have two pair. So I'd potentially bluff catch with AA on QQJ95, but not QJ954. This is not because one pair is always too weak to bluff catch with, but because it serves to limit the amount that we bluff catch on river.
2. Don't bluff catch on turn with a hand that's very likely to be one pair on the river. Since I'm not bluff catching the river with one pair, I have to be careful about bluff catching earlier streets with hands that are unlikely to improve. I'd rather bluff catch with KJT9 on something like K864 than with AAQ3 because the latter hand has very few ways to improve to a hand I want to call river with.
3. If I bet flop, get called, and board pairs on turn I'm almost always double-barreling my air, unless board is super duper dry. People hate to call with their draws when the board pairs.
4. Never play when my hole cards are 3 of a kind, other than AAAxss.
5. Fold to all river raises. Exceptions - I hold the nuts. I hold the nut full house and am only losing to quads. I hold the second nut set and have a blocker. I have the second nut flush and know that the raiser is capable of bluffing with the ace blocker.

#5 is the rule I break the most, and I almost always regret it. River raises are just so nutted. I suspect that if I went back in time and folded to every river raise ever, even when I held the nuts, I'd be ahead of where I am now. I'm pretty certain that if I just folded to a river raise except when holding the absolute nuts I'd be ahead.

At the lower stakes:

A pot size bet, out of position, on the river after a draw gets there and into a player who has been leading the betting, is almost always an indication of a made hand.

Too many players worried they won't get paid off, so they mash pot lead out. Still see this all the time, still fall victim to calling from time to time because "they can't have it".

This is very interesting.I agree that shouldn`t call to much with 1 pair,but

still i call sometimes on for example t92ss 35 runout,Iam often suspicious

about opponent having this backdoor draws.Rule 2 is really important.If i have kqq8 on Kj4ss raising or folding is way better than calling.Similar rule

would be don`t check call on draw heavy board with 1pair.If i have aakqss on t85cc,more often that not this would be checkfold,3way basically

always.One of the most important rules that i need to implement asap is

don't float the fish with nut flush blocker ,neither 3 barell or raise river.If

they have flopped 5high flush,they didn`t call 2 times to fold river ever.Also trying to make bad player to fold underfull or even bare trips no kicker in single raise pot is usually bad idea.

Both also good points, and reminds me of other rules:

1. When a draw hits on the river, and an V that had been check calling leads into you on the river with a PSB (or close to it), they almost always hit the draw no matter how unlikely it may seem. I don't know how many times I thought "they couldn't call down flop and turn with just a gut shot" only to see they had something like bottom set and a gutshot, or NFD and a gutshot, or a wrap, etc.
2. When trying to bluff someone off of a flush with the nut flush blocker, be sure you're bluff-raising, not bluff-betting. People are much, much more likely to call with a flush if you lead into them than if you raise. The corollary to this is that it's much easier to bluff with the nut flush blocker in position.

I wish I had a good rule for playing dry overpairs in PLO, but have found it to be nuanced.

1. Don't bluff catch on the river with one pair - You can also raise to catch a bluff that is above 1 pair. Raises on the river are ***** scary weather you are a reg or a fun player

2. Don't bluff catch on turn with a hand that's very likely to be one pair on the river. "KJT9 on something like K864 than with AAQ3" top pair with a gutshot isn't really bluff catching mate.

3. If I bet flop, get called, and board pairs on turn I'm almost always double-barreling my air - If you are the agressor, that makes sense. otherwise no.

4. Never play when my hole cards are 3 of a kind, other than AAAxss. I don't even play AAAx unless I'm CO or BTN

5. Fold to all river raises. Don't bet so often on the river if you feel like that.. You will be hugely exploited if someone on the table notices you always fold to a river raise, let alone if they have HUD stats on you about that.

Thanks, IMO this is all hugely dependent on where you're playing. My platform while technically online plays more like live poker, so my rules are obviously tuned to that.

On 1, you're right that raising is better than calling. All depends on how much you can get folks to fold to river raises.

I do disagree with you on 2. If I'm facing a turn bet, I view top pair good kicker + a GS to be a bluff catcher. People are rarely betting made hands worse than top pair good kicker, so I'm usually up against two pair + or a draw, and people usually don't bluff draws enough.

On 3, I'm by definition the aggressor in this situation. I only do this when I bet the flop, get called, then turn pairs the board. In this situation I'm usually, though not 100%, the pre flop aggressor too. It's funny, the main time I check turn in this situation is when I turn the boat, and it certainly makes me exploitable.

I completely agree with you that 5 is exploitable, and in some ways all these rules (other than 4) make me exploitable. No HUD on my platform though, and river raises are pretty rare, since they're always the nuts , so I don't worry too much about being exploited. If I find someone is capable of bluffing the river with any frequency I definitely will make a note though.

it's obvious that when you are exploiting, you become exploitable. If you are exploiting a pool of players for its tendencies, there might always be a few of the better players that pick up on that. But if you are smart enough to successfully exploit, you will certainly be able to know who those players are and adapt accordingly.

I don't like setting hard & fast rules like this because it opens you up to be exploited. Example, if you're folding to all river raises without the nuts, near nuts or other exceptionally strong bluff catchers villains can exploit you by bluff raising rivers.

Just always keep in mind that your own adjustments that you think are good against the player pool will always in themselves be exploitable.

No doubt. There are one or two players I play with that I'm more focused on balance with. However, even then neither of them bluff raise the river with any frequency. In fact, the guy who I otherwise would say is the most balanced has earned a note from me to fold to all of his river bets.