Module on Live PLO is designed on how to bring GTO into live play, preflop adaptions, and

state of live poker.

Most live players have their tendencies come from observed patterns instead of from study
and from knowing the optimal frequencies.

How you are messing up preflop:

- We get to play wider range the more that people are folding. We have to play tighter when
we can’t generate as many folds.

Example: A fish limps in CO and you ISO button super wide. This is not correct as you won’t
be able to generate as many folds from the blinds and limper.

- You’re playing too many hands especially live when there’s a lack of patience and you think
you can outplay people postflop.
- No matter skill level, having weaker ranges in a game where there are multiway pots
means that you are going to be at a range disadvantage in every spot.

Ways that you are playing too many hands:

- You are limping behind too often with hands that don’t have nut advantages; hands such
as K976ss, QJ85ss

- You are playing way too many hands out of the small blind. Both in terms of cold calling
and re-raising.
-We want to generate folds when we raise and that isn’t happening as often in full ring PLO.
In some super deep stacked scenarios, it may make sense to be flatting the majority of your
entering range from the SB. Positional disadvantage is amplified in the SB.

- You are playing too many hands with a 5 in them. Monker hates cards below a 5 in your PF
range. This is an easy way to start finding more folds.

Exhibiting “Fancy Play Syndrome”

- Whenever you create a story in your head of “Person will do x, then someone does y, then
I do z” you are making a mistake somewhere. Causes us to lose our bearings in regards to
have each player is playing their own ranges.
- We think we can make scenarios happen exactly how we want them to. But in reality, this
rarely plays out how we envision it.
- The more players there are in a hand the more nodes there in in the game tree. Forcing
one node will lead to suboptimal play on other nodes as well. Be wary of straying too far
from solid fundamentals.

- We do want to be making adjustments from GTO strategy to generate higher winrates.

- The more you play with a person the more will you understand how they are deviating
from optimal and better be able to maximize your winrate against said opponent.
- In order to maximize on exploits, you need to have a solid fundamental understanding of
game theory to know where both players are deviating from and how to best adjust your
strategy.

Questions to ask yourself during a hand where you are trying to exploit your opponent:
1. What is my opponents range supposed to be here?
2. How do their tendencies generate that range (adding more value, adding bluffs,
adding or subtracting volume generally)?
3. What is my range supposed to be here?
4. Does my opponent have any concept of that range?
5. Given what I know about them, what is my perceived range from their perspective in
this spot?
6. Are they thinking logically or emotionally at the moment?
7. What is the optimal bet sizing I am supposed to be using in this spot?
8. Is my opponent elastic to bet sizing? Do they tend to do one thing more than
another given different sizing strategies?
9. Should I deviate from optimal bet sizing strategy here to generate more game value?
How can I be sure that this is the right thing to do? Answer for latter is you need a lot
of history.
10. How much history do I have on my opponent and how reliable are my reads?
11. Etc, Etc, Etc

This is a baseline to build out your own though processes.

If you have solid ranges, understand how ranges interact in certain dynamics, understand
how range dynamics affect bet sizing, and generally know how to think through hands
logically given said constructs, you will print money at live PLO.

If you know all of the spots well, it takes up less mental and emotional bandwidth while
playing.
It takes more time away from the table to understand, but makes play in real time way
simpler.

People are not finding enough aggression post flop.

- Generally speaking, players in the live arena are not finding enough aggression in almost
every scenario

Ways you can improve your game given this fact:

- You can learn how to find more aggression in your own game. You will generate more folds
and you are less beholden to flips and variance.
- You can adjust your own ranges and frequencies knowing that your opponents are not
finding enough aggression.
- If for example our opponent never c/r’s the flop in a HU pot we are allowed to bet a LOT
more
- Aggression gets punished by aggression. If our opponent lacks aggression we can generate
a lot of game value by exhibiting it in our own game.

- Don’t be aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. Do it effectively with the right
combinations.

Treat playing like a job. Don’t push past boundaries because you’re tilted or not playing
while.
Take meticulous notes on hours played/stakes/emotions during each session.

Be willing to start more games. High winrate will come from playing short handed as you get
to play more hands/hour.

Live HH

KQJT ss (KJ) overcalling open otb is fine. No need to call again after repotting.

Isolating to wide in live PLO. People don’t fold enough so we’re doing this too wide.

AJssT8 good open over a limper/open w/bring in. Cbet small-ish Ac-Tc-9c. On Jd can barrel if
people are overfolding small flushes. Block a lot of board, +SD + 8c blocker

Potting from the small blind we don’t need to 3bet every AA combination. Things will be
multiway so need to have good playability. AA78ss good example combo. Qc – 5d -4d w/
NFD we can just pile this in.

If we don’t block calling range can bet more. People don’t have leading ranges enough live.
Need to also think about how capped we are when we start taking aggression. Can use
smaller sizing with nut flush to induce especially if villains think that we are capped.

Need more board interaction to cbet than having a single backdoor for example.
After flop checked through, if turn changes board texture and someone leads you can now
raise and take a lot of aggression.

Limping range first two positions of full ring: Aces, balanced with some double suited AQ
combos. Hands like AQT9ds, important not to block kings.

AAK9ss 3way on flop. SPR of 4. 9d 7s 4s. We have a lot of immediate equity, we’re oop, so
we want to play as few streets as possible. If we’re at a deeper SPR there’s a lot of turns that
are awkward where if we pot we can just shove or check basically. At deeper SPR’s can
either check or bet smaller.

As Qh 9s 6h from HJ 3 way v BTN/BB on Ts 9c 3h. Checking or 1/3 pot sizing. If people

overfold can bet more. We also have a lot of removal/board interaction.With a lot of board
interaction, and robus equity, we can barrel on a lot of turns for pot.
In multiway plo you can’t call hands pre that don’t flop nut equity. Reverse implied odds of
having dominated flush/straight draws are very high. Need strong nut equity (Ace high flush,
KQJ straights, JJ+ type pocket pairs for set over set).

Non nut draws have very little equity multiway.

As Ad 4c 5d vs fish limp caller on 9s 7d 4h. Don’t have enough range advantage as

limp/caller is playing super wide. Not enough turns we like. Low probability of limp/caller
folding as well. Turn Tc fold on pot sized probe from oop.

CO v BB, 9h 9s 5d. ½ pot cbet c/r’d and called. Turn Kh spr 3. BB checks/calls 400. River Jc w/
spr of 1. Check check. BB has 55, CO has 9865. Checkraising bottom full house here is bad.
We do not have robust equity and basically any turn will bring a scare card. If opponent calls
checkraise they have a large density of trip 9s in their hand.

Rock CO, mr otb. SB limps AJT3ds goodsuits. LJ makes it 115, BS reraises and LJ calls. On flop
AKQrb SPR 1.2ish. SB goes ¼ pot for $225. Double suited Ax without a king is good to have in
your limp reraise range.

50bb effective. 3 limps to us on BB, we overlimp QJTT trisuited. Plays well as a limp, can also
call some raises. Flop Tc 7d 3c, we go full pot. With robust equity and people calling a lot we
can go pot here. We want to generate folds and small sizing won’t generate any folds. 1 call
after we pot. Turn offsuit 6. We go full pot vs a fish, we have no clubs so we can extract
value from that, don’t necessarily need to be scared of 89 as he’s fishy.

Tilted HJ opens, we 3bet Kh Ks Qh Jc. Game is 5/5/10/20 at 100bb effective. 2d 4h 9c flop at

spr 3.5. We check as tilting HJ will check/bomb anything with board interaction. Betting
small not as good here. Turn 9d, oop checks. We check back. River Kd. We go full pot oop
calls.

LJ v BB open with As Kd Qs Tc we flat. This hand plays well multiway. From lojack we have a
decent flatting frequency. Co calls, SB 3bets, BB flats, we flat. No need to backraise against
3bet from SB this deep, and we flop well + have position. Flop Ac – Qd -Qh. Two checks to
us. We check behind, people might be getting tricky with aces. SB’s 3bet range is so AA
heavy the check is weird. We check as we can make it play over 2 streets by doing so we
lose less vs AA. Turn 6c, SB bets ¼ we call. River 5c, SB checks. After check/small/check. We
need to go for value. We can’t go for full pot as we’re capped in the AA region so ½ pot
sizing is good.

1/2 with 5 bring in.

CO opens we call on button with AQQ4ds As/Qc. Opener has 60bb eff. BB pots, CO/we call.
3bettor pots on Kd-Qh-4s, BB pots, CO goes all in for slightly less than pot. We don’t overcall
here, just go pot. BB bet/folded pair + wrap. Not good.
UTG opens to 10, we flat next to act KKJ2 suited to K w/ spades. Flop comes Kc Tc 2c. We
have Jc. On mono boards we can bet a decent amount with Ac or with this top set + Jc. After
flop check through, turn 5c. We bet small after check/check. We can bet small again

UTG opens, SB calls, we defend BB w/ QQT4ss to Q w/ diamonds. Flop 9d 7d 7s. We lead

here for 1/3. We can lead a lot here, have diamonds, have a t, can generate folds equity.
UTG insta min raises. We 3bet he calls. Turn Qc we go geometric on the turn. River Jd we
shove.

We check in straddle after 5 limps with 8h 7h 6d 3d. On flop 9c 6d 4s checks around. Turn
6s, we bet ¼ here. We have a lot of 6s in our range and we can bet at a small freq. Get called
by OMC in CO. River 9s, we check, omc snap bets small. We have a 6 in our hand so we can
discount some fullhouses in his hand. OMCs don’t like to hero call. We check/raise versus
this weird small sizing.

HJ limps, we overlimp Ah3h9s4s. We flop NF, HJ leads for ½ pot, we raise BB cold calls and
HJ calls. BB cold call range of a solid player isn’t going to have many lower flushes here
multiway, will have a lot of sets, particularly KK. Turn Ts, checks through. River blank BB
leads out 2/3 pot.

We raise CO with Ah3h4c7c, BB and straddle call. On Td 6c 2h checks through. 8c turn

checks to us, we bet ½ pot. BB calls. River 2s. Bottom pair is good for us as less likely he calls
on turned straight with two pair that has a 2 in it. He has a lot of pair + fd combos. We can
bet ½ pot here. ½ w/ straights and bluffs that represent striaghts. Pot sized bet will go with
FH’s and cards that represent FH. On texture changing rivers we can split our sizings on the
river, a ½ sizing and a full pot sizing.

We overlimp BTN with 9887ss to 9 w/ clubs. Ks 7h 4c, we bet 10 into 25 on the flop after
checked around to us. Turn Js checked around. River 6c checks around, we bet pot when
checked to. We have a good hand to bluff with people aren’t value betting enough of their
2ps/sets which makes their check calling ranges much stronger which in turn makes our
threshold for bluffing rivers much higher, can only bluff at a lower frequency.

We open CO AKJ5 spades/hearts w/ As, BB defends. Flop Jc 9c 6c. We bet 1/3 bb calls. Turn
5s we go pot after BB checks. We have polarity advantage so when we double barrel we go
full pot. 5 gives us two pair on the turn giving us additional equity as we can river FH, and
block some 2 pair that BB might have.

We open UTG w/ WXYZ. Straddle defends. Flop As-Js-9h. Straddle leads full pot into us. This
should never happen especially versus UTG open, straddle is at a massive range
disadvantage.

We open QQJ8 rainbow HJ. CO calls, both blinds defend. Flop is KJT rb. We bet 15 into 60.
Have pair + double straight blocker. Can barrell a lot of turns and we can barrel on a lot of
turns. Can size down on lockdown boards into multiple people as well. CO calls, BB calls.
Turn 8c bringing FD. We bet pot. Block more of the board now with 2 pair and also QQ.
We open utg AKT8 ss to K at 170bb effective. Button calls and HU to flop of Kd 4d 4c. We
check. KK a very small portion of range, their range has a lot more 4x. So we can check here
oop not to bloat pot. We check/call ½. On turn 7s he bets ¾ pot. We check raise on turn full
pot, polarizing our range to KK. Having a K in our hand blocks a number of KK combos in
their hand. BTN is solid player who can hand read so we can take this line.

Bridging the gap

When IP checks behind twotone flops, turns that bring flushes are difficult for him to
defend. His flush draws are high frequency bets. We size down but at a high frequency.

When we position ourselves for an spr of 1 or 2 we need more equity to get AI on flop. So
preference to double suited cards.

At low sprs can extend the number of betting rounds with large polarity advantages. Hard to
bluff catch over multiple betting rounds.

Ie, SB 3bets AA74 w/ one club. Qh 7c 6c flop bet ¾ and get calls. Shove 1 spr at turn 3c.
Better to block bet turn with the blocker and having Ac and then shove river than to simply
shove the turn.

Blocking turn improves blocks opponent from improving so we can barrell off at a high
frequency. Gives some backdoor outs as well.

AKQJds vs cold 4b oop on A66 rb. Vs small 10% cbet (to rxtend betting rounds with polarity
advantage) we have some shoves w/ AKxx type hands. Don’t always play passive defense.
On turn T versus geometric small we still shove like 20% of the time, mostly coming from the
AT region. Need removal to the overfull here.