Mad Man Poker

I’ve been having a good run the last times I played poker. I showed a profit in two cash games, and I took down my first HSOP title. I’m very proud of this last achievement, because it is the H.O.R.S.E.-Event that I won.

It was last week Friday that we got together to battle for maybe the most important HSOP-Event. It was an event with double buy-in, and more important, double Player Of the Year Points. After coming second in the first Event, I knew that I could accomplish my goal of top 3 in the POY-Race.

We began with a deep chipstack, which provided for a lot of play early. I started out very tight, taking some pots here and there and losing one bigger one to Thomas, who flopped a set in the Limit Omaha8 round, and I didn’t get my low on turn or river, paying him off with two pair. After that I didn’t get into big pots, until I started to build up some chips and took advantage of good cards. I basically doubled up against ‘Madman’ Stijn when my rolled up 10’s held up against him. The next big pot for me was against the – up until then – chip leader, Thomas. I scooped the pot in Limit Omaha8 with the Wheel.

By then I was a huge chip leader and I played more cautiously. Stijn was the first to hit the felt. The pot against me crippled him, and he came back a little, but it was hard to avoid busting for him. Next was former chip leader Thomas. He started out running hot, and commented that he’d rather run good later, but that didn’t happen for him. Then the game was 3-handed: Mickey, Michiel and me. I had about 70% of chips in play, so it was just a matter of one of them busting. It was a pot against me that was the end for Michiel’s tournament.

The it was heads-up: Mickey against me. I had a huge chip lead, so everyone thought it’d be over soon. But Mickey is much more experienced in HU H.O.R.S.E. than me. I took me almost an hour to get a straight on 7^th street in Stud to cripple him. Then we basically flipped for his stack 3 times, and I won the last one.

I was very excited about my win, earlier this year I announced that the H.O.R.S.E.-Event was one of my objectives, given its prestige. For now I am first in the POY-Race, leading by 8 points over Mickey. I won’t be able to play the next event, so I can use the big lead.

Then this week Wednesday we played and edition of Togenblik After Dark: a 6-handed Sit-and-Go. I didn’t do too well, as in most NLHE tourneys. I busted in first and was disappointed. Then I played a HU HA-session against Stijn. I was very focused and also running good, which resulted in a 150 BB win, when Stijn decided he had enough of me sucking out on him. Then yesterday I had a good NLHE cash-game session full of live ones, Quintupling (5x !!!) my stack by the end of the night.

I must say, I’ve been running good the last few times I played. The only big loss in TAD, there were Aces needed to bust me. Even so, I won’t be playing a lot the next weeks,.I’m going on holiday to South Africa, maybe I’ll find some action there with old friends.

In my first strategy article, I’m going to talk a bit about starting hand ranges for a PLO ring-game. In PLO you want to get a big or even huge hand on the flop. This may be a made hand or a very big draw. There are certain hands that will get you in many more of these situations than others.

First of all, you should know that you can only use two out of the four cards that you are holding, to make your 5-card hand by the river. To get as many 2-card combinations as possible, all four cards in your hand should work together.

Big Pairs

When you play PLO for the first time, it is very tempting to think that holding a pair from Queens up, makes your hand very good. But you have to consider the possibilities here. When holding a pair, what are you trying to make? Yes, there is a very small chance of making quads on the flop, but this is not something that happens often and a lot of times you won’t get payed off. A set however occurs more often. This can take down the hand already and turning/rivering a full house is what keeps you from drawing dead against straights and flushes.

But these pairs need some help. For instance holding aces with two other cards, each in the suit of those aces. This gives you two chances of an ace-high flush, a hand that will almost always hold up until the river, unless the board is paired. Holding kings or queens with flush cards is a more dangerous. There may always be someone holding the ace-high flush.

Rundowns

These are  the hands that consist of four connected cards. These are very strong hands, because they have the biggest chance of hitting a straight. If you have the top end of a straight with your lowest cards, you can even outdraw the same hand on later streets, getting a lot of value. Combine this with a double suited hand and your hand is favourite against most others pre-flop.

With hands like these it is very easy to flop two pair. But let me tell you now, this is not what you’re looking for. If you’ve got two pair with a connected hand, someone is bound to have a straight draw or even a made straight, which could mean trouble for you if you can’t let go of your hand.

The best hands here are those that contain four broadway cards and are double suited. These give you nut straights and very strong flushes. Not to forget, two Royal Flush Draws!

General Guidelines

PLO is all about the nuts. Flopping this is hard, but at least make sure you can draw to it by the river! Here are some pointers to what hands stand a chance:

-          Only play the biggest pairs, and with help from other cards.

-          Double suited is the way to go.

-          Be careful with bottom-end straight (draws).

-          Two pair is weak, avoid big pots.

I’ll be writing some more about PLO later. I find it a very interesting game and there is a lot to say about it.

Hey,

I’m Niels and I’m the new addition to Team Madman. I’ve been playing poker casually since my 16^th, but only started playing regularly since last summer. The group of people around the Madman invited me to play with them on a regular basis and that’s when I started to take it more serious.

I mainly play No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and feel pretty confident about my ability in both. Other variants I like to play are Omaha8 (or high/low) and Limit Hold’em. Even though I consider Stud-games to be my weakness, I also like to play H.O.R.S.E.

Since I think Stijn is doing a very good job writing about NLHE, I will indeed be filling the gap he left for PLO. I’ll start with some articles about basic PLO and move on from there.

I’ll also keep you updated on the poker-games I take part in, like TPC tomorrow. Tournaments aren’t my strong point, but I’m hoping for a good run.

Cheerz