The Well: cmyr

[cmyr]

I'm watching the first season entourage and I need to multitask to live.



intro: I play PLO for a living. I do okay.


I'll probably skip questions that are dumb, because I don't tolerate dumb too well.


If you have no idea what this post is about, here is the original concept:

[ QUOTE ]
A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Wednesday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer" .

The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Wednesday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on Wednesday, it’s your day in the well.

[/ QUOTE ]


ask away.

[darkcore]

i like these well threads. here are my starters:

what stakes do you play?

how long do you play?

how big was you biggest down/upswing?

what would be the three most valuable tips you give a newbie to beat the games up to plo $100?

thank you for the effort, cmyr.

[cmyr]

[ QUOTE ]
i like these well threads. here are my starters:

what stakes do you play?

how long do you play?

how big was you biggest down/upswing?

what would be the three most valuable tips you give a newbie to beat the games up to plo $100?

thank you for the effort, cmyr.

[/ QUOTE ]


I currently play about 50/50 5-10 and 10-20. I want to be up to 10-20 fulltime by the end of the month, and I'd like to be taking shots at 25-50 by the end of september.


how long do I play? I play less now then I did when i was playing lower stakes. I haven't played more then 6 hours in a day in a while, and I tend to break that up into two 2 hour sessions. I also rarely play more then 30 hours a week.

I've been playing poker for three years or so, and I started playing PLO for a living last may.

my biggest downswing (in the sense of like single session) was 17 buyins. my biggest upswing was like 22 buyins or so.



tip #1: be correctly rolled
tip #2: don't tilt
tip #3: move up



If you don't make simple stupid mistakes you can beat any PLO game up to 2-4. At 2-4 the regs get better, but they're still bad. I think 25-50 will be a new learning experience, and I'm looking forward to it.

[Ribbo]

Actually the joke is about a group of sailors showing the new mate around.
"and this here is the barrel, there are no women on the ship so the men amuse themselves by this hole in the side of the barrel. Stick your little man in the hole and you will get 5 minutes of enjoyment, but it wont work on Tuesdays"
<punchline goes here>

[I dunno]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually the joke is about a group of sailors showing the new mate around.
"and this here is the barrel, there are no women on the ship so the men amuse themselves by this hole in the side of the barrel. Stick your little man in the hole and you will get 5 minutes of enjoyment, but it wont work on Tuesdays"
<punchline goes here>

[/ QUOTE ]

lol

[SteveL91]

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.

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.

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?

All I got for now.

Thanks,
Steve

[piiop]

Has poker ever caused you to punch a puppy or any other small, fluffy animal?

[cmyr]

[ QUOTE ]
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.


[/ QUOTE ]


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.

[ QUOTE ]

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.


[/ QUOTE ]

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.



[/ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]

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?



[/ QUOTE ]


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.

[cmyr]

[ QUOTE ]
Has poker ever caused you to punch a puppy or any other small, fluffy animal?

[/ QUOTE ]

getting angry about poker is a waste of energy.

[CrushinFelt]

One of the things I've found that has helped me to focus is to set goals (be it hands played in a week, setting time limits, win money for something I want to buy). What are some goals you have set for yourself?

Also, let me know if you get the $ I'm about to send

Edit: On Stars.