There's a similar thread in the stud forums which I thought was very insightful with a lot of great posts. Hoping to see same kind of discussion here.

My own list:

1. Calling too many bets (or very big bets) with just nut low or nut low draw and minimal high potential.

2. Overplaying sets/2p. Like going hard with those hands on super drawy flops.

3. Overplaying aces - for example, 3-betting pre OOP with bad aces when too deep, or stacking off on bad flops with AA in 3bps.


Curious what other things people think

poor understanding of:

- hand strengths
- ranges
- bet sizes
- pre-flop play
- lines

and the list goes on and on...

buying in

Not building a time machine to stop the moment that their moms F%^$ their dads

So being bad at the game, got it.

Exactly. I'm not sure if this was the kind of answer OP was looking for, but yes, simply being bad at the game in a huge variety of ways. Maybe the question would get better answers if we specify what limits are we discussing.

i mean i personally play limits from .25/.50 up to 2/4 depending on what's available and which site i'm on. let's go down the middle and say 1/2 if we prefer to be specific?

I mean, everything amok said is probably true, but it's probably more useful to identify the top two or three leaks that show that a game is good so you can tell where your edge is coming from (or go do something else).

I don't see much PLO8 spread. IMO it's not that sustainable as a live casino poker game. But when I've played it, by far the biggest leak is underestimating the importance of bidirectionality. In LO8, 9877 is trash, but your punishment isn't quick and severe because often you'll win half a pot with it. In PL, you're going to get slaughtered fast.

I saw a player who I know is solid at other forms of poker play that the other night.

Postflop, this means staying in passively with a one-way nut hand on early streets, hoping to get half a pot that's very small relative to your stack. You can sometimes justify aggression with this sort of hand if you have any fold equity, but how much fold equity do you have when everyone's calling to the bitter end to show down their naked A2 for a quarter?

Hope that's the kind of answer you're seeking....

-Playing aces (even bad aces) very hard and fast.
-The inability to fold the nut low.
-Playing any hand with A2 in it like its a monster.
-Constantly buying in short and losing a ton because you keep getting sucked into pots with mediocre hands

I think a lot of people don't really recognize the impact of that last comment.

I think SPR should dictate much of how you play, and rightfully so. But when it comes at the expense of your holdings and in a game where people pick up multiple ways of lockdown equity, it can be really damaging.

I think it's more skill game at 08 .
Seen a 3% Vpip win 5x in one orbit.
But l08 is slow 9 live crazy action.

If you generally play poorly, buying in short is the one thing you're doing that is unquestionably right (relative to buying in deep). Of course it would save even more money to rack up and leave.

Often you have odds all in with mediocre hands after you play them, and you benefit slightly from protection by deeper opponents knocking other deeper ones off their equity. HOWEVER....

If you actually care to maximize EV short, you should be playing very tight anyway, and obviously bad short stackers aren't.

This is just because they play bad. Shorter stacks always have an advantage, assuming equal skill level.

I also slightly disagree about fast playing aces. Well, depends on stacks, but say 100bb deep you should usually be fast playing most AA-hands.

Fair enough, but for me, the edge comes from so many things that it's impossible to identify two or three. Pretty sure you are talking about live games where you are aiming to make 50bb/100 while I'm talking about online games against mediocre regs.

limit vs PL mistakes
not understanding split pot equities.


2 most common mistakes i see.

This is from the perspective of HU PLO8:

Day in and day out I see the same weak ****. Not polarizing your range and slow playing too much.

Didn't see it mentioned yet, but for tournament play - ICM and the various ways it can (and should) impact your strategy. It's maybe a bit too general for this thread, but mistakes made here are usually pretty costly.

Funny you say that. Years ago when I played online PL/NLO8 MTTs it was the opposite. Everyone was sooooooo scared of bubbling that they'd just give me their chips. In a big (>100) MTT before the final table ICM is much less of a factor than people think it is.

you mean you can just snag chips with impunity once people get close to the money?

I'd raise like 50% or 60% and routinely take down the blinds, which would be like 20-30% of the BB's stack, yes.

Can you please explain why and in what situations we should be perceptive enough to fold the nut low? What specific scenarios please?

Where you're 100% at least one villain also has the nut low, and the pot isn't big enough in relation to the bet size to make it +EV to call to collect a quarter of the pot.

Thank you.

What socentral said is good as a sort of a lower bound where you DEFINITELY should fold if not getting pot odds. But even if you think there's a 50% chance you're sharing the low, you have no backup low so could be easily counterfeited , and you judge that you have little or no equity for high, you need to think this through and probably fold. You may be putting in much of the rest of your stack to defend your share of what's in the middle.


Here you're nominally a favorite:

ProPokerTools Omaha Hi/Lo Simulation

600,000 trials (Randomized)

board: 876

Hand	Pot equity	Scoops	Wins Hi	Ties Hi	Wins Lo	Ties Lo
Ac2sKsKc	54.78%	106,869	227,970	5,180	326,398	200,920
15%	45.22%	43,457	366,850	5,180	72,682	200,920

But if there's $10 in the middle of the table, they come out betting near-pot, and you have $200 in your stack, why would you want to call this down? What could you possibly have a good chance to scoop here?

hard for me to think of too many scenarios where i'm comfortable calling to the river with this particular hand.

like i think flop would have to go check/check for me to consider calling a bet on the turn (or me betting it myself).

fwiw i find myself checking back this flop a lot.