The quality has degraded a lot on you tube. I will see if I can fix it. The original uploaded videos were crisp and clear.

Hey the quality is perfect you just need to hit the settings cog and then select 720p like this

You tube was restricting my access to higher quality settings while I was uploading. Hope the video suffices. The second one at the following link.

They are played same day a few hours apart.

Play starts at like 11:45 in... I made a mistake when converting and accidentally added 11:45 of dead feed at the start of the video.... I don't know how I did it but I did.

There hasn't been much of a response to the videos and I know people like pictures so on the left is my happy moment and the right is the worst week of playing I have had.... I am happy to say also that I can look at the graph and no longer feel the pain it caused

$$ wise there have been worse however that week I lost 85 buy ins running 50+ buy ins under all in EV. At the time it really hurt.

Please check out the videos and hit me up with questions and comments so I can get better through trying to reply or answer.

Be well all.

Josh.

Two coaches are coming over shortly just give them time

@Kyyberi@redrooski24 come get some!

I will take a loot at that as soon as I have time. Promise to do that this weekend.

I watched 20 minutes of the first video, here are some thoughts:

In the second replayed hand with Aces, I would just call his small check-raise. That is very often a smaller set, and if you re-raise he might actually fold it. You can get the money in on turn+river too. If he bets the turn, he is committed. If he checks. you can bet and it's hard for him to fold as it looks a bit bluffy after his check. Of course if you have reads that he isn't folding his set, then just jam it on the flop.

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=484
On the river I would use slightly smaller sizing instead of standard 3/4. His calling range is mostly made from weak made hands like 2pairs, so betting too big might make him fold too often. This time it worked, but it was really close. You didn't make a note for him, is there are reason why you don't make notes?

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=540
Your Aces completely miss the board as you said, and it is quite hard for your opponents to miss that board completely. I would just check back. I checked with PokerJuice that the shorty hits the board in some way about 65% of times and the other guy around 55%. Not enough folding equity to bet imo. You said that you would stack off against shorty if he raises, and when the other guy raised you said that it's really close and thought for it a bit. You should think that before you bet. Are you bet-folding against his raise or bet-calling. If you are bet-calling, then what is his stack off range? And therefore do you have over 33% against that? To get 33% he needs to raise there are 2pairs+, Ahh and 235,79T wraps. I would assume that he just calls with wraps so that bet-call is oveplaying imo.

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=731
You have Kings and face a 3bet. Against shorty (or even against bigger stack) just calling a 3bet isn't a good plan (unless you have some really good reasons for it). You will miss the flop quite often and have to fold or get it in and hope the opponent doesn't have Aces. Either get it in or fold preflop.

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=858
Once again you select your betsizing on the turn quite automaticly. You didn't say anything about his range, so I would assume that you didn't thought about it. When he quickly called your flop bet, what would you think about his calling range? And against that range, is that 3/4 standard bet sizing the best possible option? Opponent is 35/0/0 (if I looked correctly) so you don't have to think about balancing. And again on the river, you don't explain your betsizing in any way. When betting for value, to get the best possible sizing you need to think about his calling range. The more you bet, the stronger hand he generally needs for calling. What is his range on the river, and what part of that are you trying to get value from? Against that range, is that sizing the best possible option?

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=938
You open QQT7ss from UTG. Although it is a top 8% hand with PPT rankings, I wouldn't open mediocre Queens from UTG unless the table is really loose-passive. And you sizing should be pot from UTG. As you use smaller sizing than a pot, the question is why? Why do we in general use different sizings from different positions? How does x2,4 from UTG fit that concept?

https://youtu.be/jyOcDWNmznQ?t=990
With flopped nut straight, turn is an interesting one. Did you at any point thought about opponent's range? It is a limped pot, so he should't have AA,KK. He has some pair+gutshot, 2pairs and flush draws. Now when you bet the turn, is that for value or a bluff? Do you want him to call or fold? I really don't know the answer as when you bet he folds weaker made hands (as he really can't call with 2 pairs anymore) and calls/raises better ones (flush). Hard to get value, hard to bluff. I would check-call and get value from his bluffs. If he checks back, then you try to get him to make a hero call on the river.

Other than those I think you played it well and your thinking process was nice. Right things for right reasons.

Thanks



Here I thought he was getting it in and I thought also there might be some turn cards which AT / A5 type combo's are unhappy with. I figured he had something like QJK with pairs, A345 etc. as well as occasionally the TTxx and rarely 55xx... Thinking about it more now maybe I was fortunate that he had the TT34 and got it in.



I take notes off screen on the replayer generally. I may not have noted this hand. I thought in this spot he likely has some kind of A345, though he did not raise the turn, so more inclined to hands he actually had like the 36Q9 ... I thought 65% pot would be a sizing to get paid on the hand though likely I can see how going smaller here as a general rule given our TT45 blocks a lot of combinations of him having hands can long term be better in terms of yielding a return on our value bets.



Here I stated that I was bet / calling the short stack and bet / folding against the full stack. I called here to illustrate the range of hands he would have to be check shoving here. I did not call thinking I was making a close call that could show a profit.

My reasons here for betting are that the full stack can have a number of hands which have good equity against the hand we have but that would fold to a bet (pair + gutter, pair + side cards etc.), and that if we get shoved on by the full stack our equity was bad anyway so we do not lose a lot of EV by bet folding. Likely this is just a spot where I should be checking back the flop and folding to action. I would prefer to check it back if we had some sort of backdoor ... here I think we just have AAxx.



I think here these are not great kings and it should likely be a raise / fold to 3b by this opponent. He is short and our implied value for calling and winning his stack is reduced. What would be the tipping point here vs an unknown 3b'er for stack sizes for you to raise/call and raise/4b stack off?



Is this the 4667xxhh hand top right?



Here I am inclined to fold this hand some of the time. I use less than pot as I want to be playing a smaller pot when I am likely playing out of position. If I overset someone getting the money in wont be difficult but I think this hand has a lot of boards where I may need to check fold / bet fold flop / bet flop check fold turn etc. so when this happens by raising smaller pre I reduce the pot size for when this happens. I also am more likely to have the SB/BB come along and be able to play a pot in position against them, and allow them to call with 99xx TTxx 6689 etc. and over set them.



Here I was thinking to continue as it is hard to get value out of position and I don't have outs against a flush, if I check my hand is face up and I allow him to check back with a lot of 2 pair type hands. Sets are very unlikely; maybe some rag QQxx / KKxx. I think this is an example of me betting as I am unsure what to do and default to the aggressive route.



I feel like a blind man authoritatively describing what he heard another blind man say about the sky ... I am still confused in a lot of spots about what is "right." It is hard to play confidently when there is so much doubt in terms of what is optimal, and sources I would trust for what is optimal. I know some ridiculously spewy players and some super nitty players. I can't take their opinions and incorporate them as we have quite fundamentally different games. I try to focus on improving the thinking behind the actions rather than focusing on the actions themselves... I.E. rather than "play AAXX this way on this board" address the flaws in thinking about the hand that produce the error in actions, which should correct the mistake across all hands rather than that very specific scenario.

I feel a solid PLO game is still a long way off, and the path to take to get there is not clear. I think there is no point playing and repeating mistakes trying to one day correct them.

I very much appreciate the effort to date, and hope this thread eventually becomes a massive TLDR

The following is a back and forth discussion between a friend of mine and I. The times posted correlate to the time in the first video. All my responses are not to argue with him, I very much defer to his opinions. It is purely so I state my thinking so he can pick apart my thinking rather than the actions the thinking created.


0.30: Dislike river lead/3b on 5548J. Not sure if we want to have a river leading range on paired board after this flop/turn action; seems doubtful. As played don’t think we can shove for value for another ~60bbs vs a river raise.
8866 seems like an ok flop raise for villain given he puts pressure on a weak leading range (better overpairs) and has 4 nut outs vs 5xxx.

How do we maximise value against hands that would call a bet but check back river? Then when we bet and he raises we lose to 88 / JJ which is unlikly, one combination of JJ, three combinations of 88.... Can he have 45, 67, 58, even some A5/44 here though unlikely? We have little history on the player. After the flop raise are we really just check calling turn and river (some rivers)?

0:30 There shouldn't be hands calling a river lead that would have checked back since idk what bluffs people are supposed to have for your line. You also prevent him from bluffing river if he happens to have air. Since your hand looks so strong (what bluffs?), when he raises river I think we just have a bluff catcher.

So check call check call check call?


4:00 AKT7ds seems like a raise from BB vs UTG limp. 6th percentile hand.

I was thinking with this hand playing OOP causes some problems, so check the BB HU and play a small pot OOP.

4:00 It's a very strong hand with good playability. If you're not raising this hand you're pretty much just raising double suited aces and kings. Seems like we want to be creating bigger pots with strong hands vs limpers I think.


4:15 KJJ2ss should be an open from HJ. 15th percentile hand.

This hand does not flop relatively well and we can expect to be playing this OOP with a reasonable frequency. The 2 absolutely cripples the hand. The KJJssx is ok... were the 2 a 9+ or even and 8 this contributes a lot more to flop combinations we are happy with, versus the KJJ2 being mostly a hand we raise to play a flop with position and take it down a lot to check fold players.

4:15 Up until last 6 months I had been under-rating hands like this. It's just a stronger hand than we realise; 15th percentile.


4:40 9874ss CO v HJ open: 69th percentile hand. Should be a fold and not a 3bet.

I would fold / 3b this hand to isolate. The two gaps at the bottom are not crippling the hand. They do reduce the combinations of flops this connects with but not as much as a hand that has a gap at the top. Reasons to 3b are the UTG is opening wide, the 3b then often isolates to the opener, and we can continue a lot of boards where we have nothing and can take them down as they will generally respect our 3b... There are also a percentage of boards we connect with which they may be inclined to stack off way wider on because they assume we have AAXX and the like. Eg. 563 684 etc. where they may have one pair plus overs and look to flip vs AAxx.

4:40 Seems like this can't be a good 3bet in theory. If we're 3betting this then we're 3betting a huge % of hands which probably can't be right CO v HJ. You could just pick all your double suited combinations of same hand structure and you'd still be 3betting a lot.


5:00 AKQ8dddx SB vs BTN: 16th percentile hand, seems like a call or 3bet vs BTN open.

I fold these kinds of hands in the SB unless I have reads on the button as the 8 hurts boards we are happy with and playing OOP in 3b pots where we are connecting with boards which they will put us on connecting with makes us quite easy to play against. If I had like 679T I prefer this as we can rep Axx Kxx and smash TMM 7MM boards and can get it in using similar reasoning to the 4789 hand with them thinking we have a AAxx BBBB heavy range.

5:00 If we assume button is opening at least 45% of hands we probably have too much equity to be folding top 16% from SB?


9:00 AAT3ssxx on 864hhx CO/UTG/SB in 3bet pot. This is not a cbet.

I cbet this board on the presumption that if I get checkraised I have very little equity and folding when we have a small amount of equity is not as great a mistake as it might be to check and let them get there / improve with something that might fold to a cbet. In the hand example I called to show the situation rather than calling because I was bet calling in this spot. Prior to betting I stated I was bet / folding to the full stack checkraising, but called to show the range we are against in those spots.

9.00 Seems like we're cbetting too much to me if we're cbetting dry aces here 3-way.


9.15 AKQ3cccx CO v HJ limp. 16th percentile hand, easy raise.

Thinking more about this hand I think I could be raising here to isolate the limper. My concerns at the time was raising and having the button very likely call then playing what would often end up being a 5 way flop with a hand that has danglers and is difficult to overnut people as KXcc is blocked so we are relying on AKQ and clubs as creating value for the hand... I feel like it doesnt flop well enough in multiway pots that it merits a raise here or a limp.

9.15 the AKQ structure just makes this a strong hand that should be dominating in mutliway pots. Nut wraps; trips with top kicker.


10:50 AK84ss. Open from CO, 23rd percentile hand.

This hand feels way too gappy to be playing... Likely as a Btn raise with the player sitting out I still feel uncomfortable raising this hand.

10:50 if you're opening tighter than 23% from CO then you're probably missing out on some EV


12:20 JT76ss vs BTN open and SB call. 37th percentile hand. Think we’re supposed to be defending 80-95% of hands from BB.

This is like playing 2 holdem hands no? 89X flops are gold but not a lot else?

12:20 we basically aren't supposed to fold anything in the BB


15.40 A654ds. 16th percentile hand, open from HJ.

I like these hands again I was thinking I am 150bb deep playing with a 80% Vpip player to my left... If I had position on them I would feel much more comfortable but I think OOP this could be difficult to show profit.

I think this was actually A566ds? The 66 is very bad but I would likely still be folding A456ds here.

15.40 it's just a strong hand that you are definitely happy to play against an 80% VPIP fish regardless of position



I have found this useful and have gone over it a couple of times and will go over it again. These seem to be some fundamental issues I am having with the game. I will keep posting things here and hope for more responses.

PPT hand ranking is just one way to show preflop equity/playability. Mostly it is based on preflop equity. Your friend says that you shouldn't 3bet 9874ss as it is low in PPT rankings. And states that if you 3bet that, you should 3bet huge % of hands. Not sure if he thinks that if you 3bet top 40% hand, your 3bet should be 40% (so you would bet all the hands between 1%-40%). That is not true. Look at the QQT7ss, which was top 8% hand. In PPT rankings it goes to top8% of the hands, but still I would never ever 3bet that hand. Visibility in 3bet pots is so poor. If I had to choose whether to 3bet IP with QQT7ss or 9874ss I would always choose the later one.

Of course we should pick the spots where big portion of our value comes from folding equity on the flop (=bluffing our opponent and repping Aces) as the actual hand strength is not that great. With 9874 we have better visibility than with QQT7, making our decisions a bit easier on the flop.

If you aren't familiar with PPT rankings, you should try it. Free to use in their website, propokertools.com. If you don't know how to find/use it, just let me know. You can even set up a nice exercise to practise starting hands if you have PPT downloadable version, Odds Oracle.

The idea of opening small from UTG to keep the pot small when oop doesn't make sense imo. Our aim is not to lose as little as possible, but to win as much as possible. The reason why we bet smaller towards the button is because our range becomes wider. And we have to balance and protect it with sizing. From UTG we don't ever bluff, it is always for value and in that position our range is the strongest. That's why we should always pot it. You want to play big pots with your strongest hands.

I have a tendency to pot from later positions and UTG will sometimes be a 2.5x rather than a pot depending on playing dynamic. My rationale behind the pot LP opens is that I want to play bigger pots when I have position on my opponents and make them pay the maximum to play a hand when they are in the worst position tactically. I have a lot more maneuverability in terms of how the hand plays out. Probably though 85-90% of my opens are for pot. There are some spots where I may have crap AAxx and 2.5x or KKT3 with K3s and not want to pot UTG.

I really like the term "visibility." I have not heard (read?) it used before.

I have decided to ditch the MTTs and focus on PLO purely. I was doing 2 - 3 days a week PLO with a couple of 90 minute sessions with 2 - 3 days of MTTs grinding out 8 - 12 hour sessions depending. I am very much over MTTs. I have done well but I the long term psychological trauma is too much lol. PLO is probably more brutal, but at least being +/- enough to matter doesn't hinge on how a flip goes 5 handed.

Below is this months 16 hours or so of play. Happy with how it is going as I have been changing a few things and *trying* to take micro stakes seriously. There are still a few spots mostly with AAxx in 3b pots on a 448xhh type spot where someone has pot - 2x pot behind, or finally starting to fold to the check call check call donk bet all in for 35% pot on a poor but not awful river. Also pot controlling better and cbeting marginally less. I still find it hard to find a justifiable reason to not cbet at all.

PLO is a constant work in progress.

Nice, after 4K hands the EV line is going to the right direction.

Had an awful session. Lost ~ 12 buy ins running terrible over a 2.5 hour session. Multiple nut full vs quad spots $s lost was double $EV adjusted. I moved down in limits due to rage tilt being a possible issue after a 2 hour break, then ran like jesus playing at the lower stake winning 8.5 buy ins with a +2 buy in $EV adjusted. I regret moving down in stakes and not up

The moment i shreaked at -12 bi then realised it was PLO and said 'meh' outloud lol

A mate who is a known online pro had a bad day. Walked downstairs, dragged the couch outside, and threw it over the fence.