Oh My, Here I Go Again

I am going to try and explain how I play PLO8. Please keep in mind I have been playing for a week. I have been mildly successful and my advice might suck.

Now I always tease Drizz about being a tightass player. I tell him he will not even limp into a pot without AA23 double s00ted. What I am talking about is his pre-flop play, post flop he is willing to gamble it up with the best of them. He takes a more wait-wait-wait attitude pre-flop. My VP$IP is usually around 40% and sometimes as high as 50%. I think he suggests around 30%. I have been reading up on PL08 and there seems to be a huge debate. Do you play more hands or less in this game? I am a fan of more hands. I am not always looking for a high and low draw. I will play hands that have to flop just right for me to win. Why? At the tables I am playing at if I hit any kind of hand I get paid. It is as simple as that. The implied odds are huge. Some hands most people would not play would be things like 789T or 89TJ. It has a real low percentage chance of being good, and if it is a good flop, you have a high chance of getting killed by the river. I have however made ALOT of cash with these types of hands. Alot of people will stay in with the flush draws and low draws and try and catch and I make them pay. My main criteria for a hand is not that it plays both ways, but that it works well together. I know this is probably a better strategy for PLO (high only for you newbiew, where PLO8 is Hi/Lo), but it seems to work.

The main key in PLO8 in my opinion though is to know when to foldem. I know it is very tempting to think the doofus in the three seat does not have the 79 to make the boat. Second best hands look mighty good to them Hold'em players. However that is the path to doom and damnation. I LOVE to fold in O8! I hate to fold in HE. I fold the flop alot of the time. My hands do not always flop well. If I only have the high side I sometimes need to dumb a low flop. The key in playing loose to me is evaluating the flop and deciding what to do. Calling of a couple buck bets or proceeding when in danger is bad news. I end up folding alot of flops, but the ones that hit just right get paid. In the .50/1 game you get paid with the NUTS by some weird ass draws. So trying to connect with more hands tends to be more profitable in my opinion. I tend to think if I played the higher stakes games I would face more aggression pre-flop and this strategy would be wrong. However in my low-limit world I am sticking with it. Post flop is so critical in this game, and as Drizz himself said, no one hand is so favored against another pre-flop. I think if you play solid post flop you do not lose alot of equity by playing a little loser in these low limit games.

One other thing I have noticed. I HATE .25/.50 PLO8. Why? I think it is because too many people limp. Nobody folds any draw. In the games I have been playing most people have been good about folding to the big bet. In the .25/.50 bottom sets and all manor of crappy hand is going to go to the river. It probably is profitable but I have not figured out how to win against 5-6 opponents that will not fold yet. I almsot think if you play these lower limits tighter is better.

SO anyway, enjoy, discuss, maybe something I say will trigger a good discussion on this top. I sure hope so. I see alot of contradicting advice on the subject and it is very interesting.