Wintermute
06-21-2005, 04:37 PM
Seems like once a week a new player is looking for reading on PLO8. Unfortunately, there's only a few pages in a few books devoted to this game. So here's what I would suggest to those people, as a way to get up and running in PLO8.
1) Learn limit O8. Personally I've never read a book on this, but most here suggest Ray Zee's book, also Ciaffone and Cappelletti seem to be good sources. Look up the Hutchinson system of hand ranking, it'll give you a decent set of guidelines for how to rank O8 starting hands. Play low limit O8 for a while, work your way up the limits as you feel comfortable. Personally, I was playing 10/20 & 20/40 O8 before I ever played a hand of $100 buy-in PLO8.
2) Read up on PLO8 This will take you one hour at most. As I mentioned previously, there's virtually no reading on this game. Online sources are what I've been exposed to... Most folks seem to suggest Steve Badger's site (link (http://www.playwinningpoker.com/), navigate to PLO8 strategy), personally I think his advice is inaccurate/outdated for typical online games, but still useful to read and think about what he has to say. IMO, the definitive PLO8 guide at this point can be found at this site (http://www.winningonlinepoker.com) (again, navigate to PLO8). For the most part, I agree with the ideas here. You'll probably find some aspects of the strategy presented here that you can tweak for improvement, but definitely the most comprehensive and useful PLO8 material I've found.
3. Play PLO8. Starting BR ought to be around 30x the buyin. I'd suggest starting low to gain familiarity with the structure and to practice what you learn from the reading.
Also, 2+2 O8 forum is obviously a decent source for PLO8 hand situational discussions, etc. Look for posts from Ribbo, Gergery, JoshuaMayes, etc. Other PLO8 players might have stuff to add to this... Ribbo's got his own site where he posts some HH's, for example. Greg's working on one too (nice start btw G). Anyway, hopefully this post will give newbie's a place to begin.
1) Learn limit O8. Personally I've never read a book on this, but most here suggest Ray Zee's book, also Ciaffone and Cappelletti seem to be good sources. Look up the Hutchinson system of hand ranking, it'll give you a decent set of guidelines for how to rank O8 starting hands. Play low limit O8 for a while, work your way up the limits as you feel comfortable. Personally, I was playing 10/20 & 20/40 O8 before I ever played a hand of $100 buy-in PLO8.
2) Read up on PLO8 This will take you one hour at most. As I mentioned previously, there's virtually no reading on this game. Online sources are what I've been exposed to... Most folks seem to suggest Steve Badger's site (link (http://www.playwinningpoker.com/), navigate to PLO8 strategy), personally I think his advice is inaccurate/outdated for typical online games, but still useful to read and think about what he has to say. IMO, the definitive PLO8 guide at this point can be found at this site (http://www.winningonlinepoker.com) (again, navigate to PLO8). For the most part, I agree with the ideas here. You'll probably find some aspects of the strategy presented here that you can tweak for improvement, but definitely the most comprehensive and useful PLO8 material I've found.
3. Play PLO8. Starting BR ought to be around 30x the buyin. I'd suggest starting low to gain familiarity with the structure and to practice what you learn from the reading.
Also, 2+2 O8 forum is obviously a decent source for PLO8 hand situational discussions, etc. Look for posts from Ribbo, Gergery, JoshuaMayes, etc. Other PLO8 players might have stuff to add to this... Ribbo's got his own site where he posts some HH's, for example. Greg's working on one too (nice start btw G). Anyway, hopefully this post will give newbie's a place to begin.