Online Poker Forum - What do you look for in PLO table selection?

francois8

I usually play either 50c/1$ or 25c/50c when I play PLO. It gets bet big enough, often enough, that this is enough volatility for me and my bankroll to handle.

When picking a table to sit at, what sort of things do you look for exactly? I've been trying to pay attention to this aspect of the game more recently.

I buy in for the max (100 BB) and recently have been looking for a table where there's not more than one person who has significantly more than this, if possible. It seems to me that people who buy in short (20-40 BB) tend to be looking for opportunities to gamble with weak draws and other marginal hands. Even if they get lucky once (against me or someone else), I will still have them covered in chips and many will still play the same loose style. I also try to stay away from the smallest average pot sizes as I'd like a little more action than this.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What do you look for? % seeing flop? avg. stack size? lots of big stacks? don't care?

Disclaimer: I'm bored at work and wanting to talk a little omaha!

dodge these · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject:

You want to see volatility check out this session I had today:

Prob my longest session ever which is 8h of 4 tabling it... seriously makes me think being a pro is not that much fun, but just did not want to quit untill I made a profit as I had yet to have a losing day this month Very Happy

But getting back to your question. This graph is at PLO100 w/40CAP and you can see the sick swings anyway. So I have actually stopped looking for deep tables and mainly sticking to cap... the way I see it pot size is usualy the same if not slightly bigger yet you always risk a lot less at once. More bang for the buck the way I see it, though the gambling the cap induces can actually increase variance, but I still fell more confortable on average risking half as much for the chance of winning an equal sized pot.

There was this one hand today where we were both over 200bb deep and I have overs with Srt8&NFD, turn top set and he pushes mid set to river quads... all I can say is glad it was caped Wink

I actually passed on a 1/2 deep table with avg pot at over $200 with a total maniac just to keep the variance down, as indeed I don't want to just buy short and then have to hit and run when it was actually the fish that was sitting on an almost 5k stack... which he built to about 8k busting many along the way and then actually lost in about an hour shock:

If you can't tell yet I do look for large pot sizes, but in a way that allows me still try to limit variance, which usually actually means a lower % seing flop, but those 2 factors rarely come together as ****** pots tend to induce more people to try and hit a flop, so I usually end up just going by flop larges pot size relative to buyin. So I would step down and play 50PLO with a 25 avg pot rather than 100 with a 30 pot. As far as buying in, I actually have auto at 45bb, as I mainly play cap, but think that is a better startegy even for regular games. I play prety lag and as you say, it allows you to gamble in some more marginal spots, but it does actually give you FE if even in a 3 way raised pot pre if checked to you on flop.

francois8 · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Dodge, yea I've played a decent amount of 40 Cap also, was interested in playing some non-capped games, so I stepped it "down" to the PLO 50 instead. I've found that Cap 40 and PLO 50 often play about the same in regards to average pot size. I put the down in stepped down in quotes since I took a pot of a little over 150 the other day which I think is bigger than any of the Cap 40 pots I've won. I had top set + nut fd vs big straight wrap, turned nut flush, rivered boat.

I've noticed things similar to what you posted about people being more willing to open it up and gamble in the capped games. I've had some sick sessions on there during the prime drinking hours of Friday nights where I've won 400 on one table while dumping 240 on another simultaneously with 50c/$1 blinds and 40 cap.

I'm curious, what are the two lines on your chart? different tables or different sessions?

dodge these · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject:

HAHA the two line lol if you zoom in you should be able to see it more clearly... the red one is slansky bucks, IE my EV, and the green one is how much I actually won... nedless to say it was not the most fun of times.

Danduy · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:34 pm Post subject:

Maybe i little late to answer but i'll give it a go.

When i'm stuck at Hold'em i play a little PLO for a while. So this is not my main game but it seems that i actually play better omaha then Hold'em.

The things i search for in a game are mostly the hands shown by showdown. Just sit at a table and only play the premium hands or real potential ones. Don't try anything until a couple of hands have been played, you will also create a tight image then.

If i see that players at the table are willing to go all-in with two pair or bottom set and they have some stack left or rebuy, i'll stick to the table and play some hands with these guys.

These are my key concepts. If i see someone calling a raise with: Ac4c9d2h only to get to the flush, yeah great. Off course i will do too when i'm in the SB in an unraised pot or i get REALLY good pot odds for a call with such a hand.

Second i see how often a raise comes in from the players. After playing about 20 hands and someone raised none or 13 you can label him. I like to do it with question marks.

Like LAG?? until i have enough information or i will label him POW, TAG or 'little bets means mediocre hand, will often fold to a raise'

It takes some time to study them but if you can, label them from easy opponents or rocks... I use the color code. I use green for easy ones, orange for mediocre players and red for rocks or solid players.

Then when you open the lobby you can actually see where the most 'green' ones are playing and join the waiting list for that table and you can avoid the hard ones with orange and red players.

Since i'm also at work i like to talk about some poker too, but here it is now 02:30 AM and working the nightshift. I only have limited acces to internet, so playing is not an option.

francois8 · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject:

Nah, never to late Danduy. Thanks for the thoughts. I don't have enough people tagged yet! But I use similar colors except green is a preliminary note, blue = easy for me.

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