Omaha preflop raise sizing

I've been thinking about preflop raising in pot-limit Omaha. I've decided to try a new plan. Until now I'd opened with a minraise when first in. I'd read it in a book. But it looks like I may have misread it.

With the switch to buying in full I'm going to instead open with a 3x raise. Historically in no limit hold'em, the other big bet game I've played, I've used 4x, the max in pot limit is 3.5x. So 3x seems about right. To keep it simple I'll use the 3x from all positions.

In the micro stakes the minraise didn't seem to accomplish much. It didn't build a pot or thin the field or create position. So it seemed to just leave me out of position. Playing with deeper stacks it also makes it trickier in some ways in 3bet pots as stacks became harder to work with.

let's Party!

I've joined PartyPoker. I'd been lurking for a bit and decided to sign up. I made just a small $30 deposit since I don't play enough to clear any kind of bonus.

A young player at the casino said he plays at Party. He said the software is bad but the games are good. The software has improved in recent weeks or is at least different. It's playable enough the hand replayer is inferior to what Stars and Tilt have. I really just want a visual snapshot of the hands at showdown most of the time I care to see it but it's a hassle to work with. So I hope Party will improve that.

In a recent update Party is going on about challenges or some such. meh, I just want to go to a table and play cards. I can see what they are getting at trying to integrate it with your social scene to try to naturally get your buddies to also play. If it brings in bad players then sure. The games do seem friendly. So I'll give it a try along with the other sites and see how it goes.

halfway back?

In a small sample of 1000 hands I've won back half the loss from the $10 PLO downswing. Buying in full has gone very well. I've definitely been running well flopping sets, draws coming in, big hands and AA holding up. Still I feel I'm playing better, more patient. With money behind I've been thinking a bit more clearly it seems.

At the micro stakes the rake is effectively uncapped. So the small edges from playing short are actually often wiped out by the rake. Plus since people don't like to fold you often end up nearly all in on the flop multiway and having to call off the rest as a large underdog as you may be getting like 8:1 so what can you do.

The better plan at $10 PLO has been to play full and get paid off and win the max on your strongest hands. So far so good. I don't know how the next 1000 hands will go but hopefully can continue to run well.

thinking in levels

The concept of thinking in levels in poker is well known and well documented. A great many poker books and many websites cover it. This post isn't to describe thinking in levels. This subject is something that I've always had a bit of trouble organizing, especially past level one.

By that I mean am I thinking about his hand or my hand? or what's the difference between level 2 and level 3 thinking. or what level is I think that he thinks reasoning. I've found that this "I think that he thinks ..." and mapping that to levels quickly gets confusing and requires a lot of effort to me.

Now it has finally become a bit more organized to me and some patterns have emerged which I will describe here. First the levels in a more ad hoc way.

level 0 realizing what I have
level 1 thinking about what the other guy has
level 2 thinking about what the opponent thinks I may have
and so on

ok I found that by expressing the levels as questions to yourself some patterns start to emerge which simplifies things and helps to scale to higher levels

level 0 what do I have?
level 1 what does he have?
level 2 what does he think I have?
level 3 what does he believe I think he has?

the even numbered levels 0,2,4 ... are egocentric. it's about my hand, and what the opponent thinks I may have

the odd numbered levels 1,3,5 ... are extroverted. it's about figuring out villain's hand, and what opponent thinks the other players believe he has.

trying a new plan

In $10 PLO I've now hit a 30 buyin downswing. I don't think I'm really getting it with this min buyin. Historically I've bought in full in big bet games so I'm going to switch to full 100bb buyin. Maybe this will improve results and maybe it will add more evidence I've just hit the wall. see what happens. Oh well maybe the time spent on poker and the capital tied up in bankroll could be redeployed. will see there are other opportunities out there. not giving up quite yet

from my player notes there is some opportunity in buying in full. I may be able to tap into some of this sample

- overplay AA postflop obv. beat
- can pay off 2nd best hand large pot
- pay off weak flush
- pay off weak str8
- pay off 2 pair
- pay off bottom set
- pay off middle set
- can chase will pay off obv. beat

halfway there?

Been on a downswing at $10 PLO. It's now crossed the 20 buyin mark. I understand that PLO variance is considered roughly double hold'em variance. So if 20 buyins is a standard hold'em bankroll then 40 for PLO would be about the largest statistically reasonably likely downswing you would see.

So maybe 20 buyins is just the halfway point. We will see I guess. There was some PLO variance before. I was around even then hit a 7 buyin loss. Recovered from there fairly well and got back into the black. So from there the first 7 buyin hit didn't seem too bad. Then there was a second and a third minus 7 stacks. ouch.

Oh well. I think I'm playing ok but I guess I'm not sure. I've avoided tilt and tightened up if anything. It seems like I've been ahead when most of the money has gone in but you only remember the beats.

I've been looking at results less and instead focusing on volume targets. That's been going fairly well. The nice thing about these stakes is that the overall amount is not a disaster. Reload bonuses on Stars and Tilt can be nice so I'll have to keep my eyes open. Most of my online roll is in my own bank account, not on the sites.