Hey Ribbo ... low variance PLO8?

[Zim]

Hey, I'm gearing up to move to PLO8 and remembered a blurb you mentioned in a previous post:

"PLO8 is also grinding, but with a larger variance, although you can play it with a very small variance by playing the exactly opposite of the way I do ..."

Just curious, what sort of strategy would that be? I'm a little variance phobic ... so it might really help out if you could throw down some guidelines.

Much appreciated.

Best,
Zim

[Ironman]

Zim,

From what I gather from reading PLO posts from guys like Winter and Ribbo, they are properly funded to play the levels they are at...so they don't hesitate for a second to make a very large pot sized bet and get all there money into the pot when they have even the slightest advantage or a coin flip.

They just buy back in and know that eventually the numbers will work in their favor and pull more money out at the end of the month than they put in.

Seems simple, but you have to be properly bankrolled.

Instead, you could play a much more passive game and wait for the nuts...but I wouldn't recommend that strategy in PLO8. It works fine in limit, but I haven't seen it work in pot limit.

Dave

[Ribbo]

Don't raise preflop, when you do raise put small raises in from late position to get more callers. Ie with blinds of 25c/50c, raise to 1.25c so all the limpers will call another 75c. On flops where you get a flush draw/low draw, bet 25% of the pot, if you get raised, just call. Wait for either of your draws to hit before betting big. Wait until the turn with any of your made high hands before betting big if there are two flush cards showing. On the river, make bets that will always get calls if you have the nuts. If the board is QJT84 don't ever expect a call if you bet the pot. However if the board is 3458J then you can with A26. If you have A2 on the same board you have to bet small, usually around 10% of the pot to get someone to call with a worse hand. Each time you bet a river with the nuts and don't get a caller you have lost money, as you could have probably bet an amount that would make someone call.

[Mendacious]

Ribbo is right on.

Playing like this is low variance and low profit. If you can combine this type of play with an aggression factor (post flop) over 1.5 and a willingness to apply serious leverage against weaker players, you can still get low variance with I think are very high profits relative to other forms of poker.

By leverage I mean:

--taking advantage of position
--betting scare cards
--potting the low when you think either your opponent has a weak hi, or the same low and a weaker hi than you.
-- and potting your freerolls.
-- building your knowlege base so you know who you should and shouldn't push.

This only applies when you are confident you can get heads up. And it mostly works because PLO8 up to certain levels ALWAYS has fish, and they make the same mistakes repeatedly.

None of these techniques affect variance that much, but they seperate profitable, from unprofitable low variance play.

When I deviate from this type of play (after reading too much Wintermute and Ribbo) I invariable encounter serious variance. And I'm already a 17BB/100 player over 40,000 hands, so you might ask "why try"? The answer is that they are extremely good strong players, who are MUCH harder to play against than the play I just desribed. I don't think they are necessarily more profitable against the average online PL08 game up to $100. But above that, I think you need to be this type of player (with the proper bankroll) to control tables and win big regularly. I am certain they have much higher variance and their approach takes a ton of skill to pull off. I don't think it is required at lower levels, but it IS at some $200 tables, and much more so as you move to $400 tables and above.

[emptyshell]

I assume exactly the opposite would be folding any AAxx or A2xx and going allin preflop with 22xx. I do think that would be very low variance.

[Zim]

Much appreciated, I suppose quasi-nut peddling is pretty similiar regardless of what type of poker you play.

The Hi-Lo gods continue to torture me ... I'm amazed by the bad beats, but I should put things in perspective. I've only been playing for a few thousand hands.

A drop in the bucket, really.

Best,
Zim

[Acesover8s]

Also if you're going to play the exact oppositte of Ribbo make sure that you never teach and ridicule the fish.

[Zim]

Lol!

Actually, I like Ribbo's style. I only wish I had his bankroll ...

But then, I suspect that you don't succeed at this game (or any game of poker for that matter) if the first thing you ask is how to lower the variance ...

Best,
Zim