[cmyr]

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I've always liked these posts. Thanks for doing it. Hopefully my questions won't be deemed too dumb... [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

1) What limit has been the hardest transition, i.e. 1/2->2/4; 2-4->3/6 etc.


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I had alot of trouble staying at 1-2... I spent quite a bit of money and then broke even for about 40k hands, including my worst downswing ever, and in the end I had to move down to .5-1 for a few weeks. I also had trouble staying up at 5-10 originally, and had 20k breakeven when I was trying to get established there.

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2) Any particular "ah ha!" moment that stands out? Be it a concept that you were lacking to allow you to beat a certain limit, or a counter to playing styles that give you trouble, etc.


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one of the most clearly "ah ha" things i remember is that if you're playing low-stakes and you're leading from EP with a draw no pair with one caller, you want to bet-size so that you can fire a 3rd barrel, since he probably has a similar hand but might have a weak pair or something and he'd win if it goes to showdown.

Position really does matter.


Being the preflop aggressor is a huge edge.


When you're playing against a super laggy player, your best strategy isn't to be more aggressive, but to turn into a calling station. If a player will bet the river with any hand they can't showdown, you have guarenteed profit by calling with anything half decent. Against certain players I'd have no problem calling with like pocket 7s on a 3348q board if someone who's shown no interest suddenly pots it. He'll have utter air often enough.


Alot of decentish players I see seem to go out of their way to play back at other decent regulars. Beating regs is great (although not as important to your profitabliity as it is in NL, since there is so much dead money in PLO) but doing [censored] like isolating a good player with a weak holding OOP (and this is pretty common from some players) is just dumb.



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3) How many ulcers have you developed after playing PLO pretty much exclusively for such a period of time? Do you still have a head full of (non-gray) hair?



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I ran bad for my first two weeks of trying to go pro, and that was stressful, and then in early september of last year I had a pretty big breakeven stretch which wasn't much fun.

I've learnt that if you're going to try and do this for a living you can't let the swings get to you. I still don't enjoy losing but I have a pretty balanced life, and poker isn't how i define myself.

The biggest single factor in not letting the swings affect you is being properly rolled and keeping enough cash on hand that you don't need to take money out of your bankroll for living expenses... I have 100bi for my main game and keep 5 months living expenses in the bank, and that is hugely comforting.