Playing round by round and sitting out 1 round = -EV?

[AZK]

Not sure where this goes... I play in a 10/25 NL game that is very profitable but sometimes doesn't get off the ground if the casino can't get enough players. They sometimes change it to 10/25 NL and 5/10 PLO round by round. I don't have a clue when it comes to PLO, I mean I have a basic idea of how it is played and know a few things you want to do and don't want to do, basically hand selection preflop. So I would imagine that I would probably play like a rock for most of the PLO round and/or only play the NL round. It's time charge at $10/.5 hour, which means we probably get two 1 round of each every half hour. I'm thinking that the added action of the PLO players who are maniacs at NL makes it profitable also there may be a few players who have trouble adjusting back and forth which might favor me. And who knows, I may just get AAKKds and be able to get it all in preflop for the PLO rounds...Anyone ever encounter anything like this/what'd they do?


Thanks.

[AaronBrown]

I wouldn't learn my pot limit in a casino with 5/10 stakes. It helps to learn as many games as possible as a poker player, but I believe in lots of preparation before trying your luck for real money at the table. So I would sit out those rounds. You can watch the play and read up while you do it.

[Iceman]

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure where this goes... I play in a 10/25 NL game that is very profitable but sometimes doesn't get off the ground if the casino can't get enough players. They sometimes change it to 10/25 NL and 5/10 PLO round by round. I don't have a clue when it comes to PLO, I mean I have a basic idea of how it is played and know a few things you want to do and don't want to do, basically hand selection preflop. So I would imagine that I would probably play like a rock for most of the PLO round and/or only play the NL round. It's time charge at $10/.5 hour, which means we probably get two 1 round of each every half hour. I'm thinking that the added action of the PLO players who are maniacs at NL makes it profitable also there may be a few players who have trouble adjusting back and forth which might favor me. And who knows, I may just get AAKKds and be able to get it all in preflop for the PLO rounds...Anyone ever encounter anything like this/what'd they do?

[/ QUOTE ]

PLO is not the kind of game you can just play around in without getting destroyed, especially not for those stakes - there are a lot of traps for the inexperienced player. Playing like a rock won't work, since even the best starting hands easily turn into garbage on the flop, and even the flopped or turned nuts is often highly vulnerable to scare cards on the next street. An aggressive player can run over someone who "just plays the nuts". I recommend you play some $25 buy-in PLO online until you get the hang of it.

[Jeebus]

I pretty well agree with this, though in the comparison of blinds you are not paying as much to play the hands. I think with a basic knowledge of the game plus a day or two of research here on the forums would give you at least a neutral EV for the PLO(without even considering how many other NL players who are stuck playing PLO like you will be in there to marginalize the feild) and, of course, you still get the advantage of playing the Omaha players in Holdem

[AZK]

This was my thinking as well.

[Louie Landale]

They won't stand for you sitting out the Omahaha rounds. They'll notice, complain, then have the floor warn you and rightfully so.

You won't be able to get all in with AAKK in Omahaha pre-flop. And if you only put in action with AA, everyone will figure out that's what you've got and you are dead meat on the flop, since its unlikely that your other two cards hit the flop big, and they know it.

Either raise with a wide variety of hands or hardly raise at all. As a paranoid player, try to play few medium sized pots. Bet the max on the turn with the nuts, unless you feel someone has the same straight as you.

These combo games let you do the following: play weak tight at Omahaha and fairly LA at NL holdem.

- Louie

[Noo Yawk]

Hi AZK,

Gotta be Greektown, as they are the only ones dumb enough to ruin their bigger games by being inconsistant like this. I used to Play their 2(HE) by 1(Omaha) 20-40 game, but they since chnaged it to straight hold em or 1 by 1 with a $7/hr time charge. Either way, you never know what your going to get.
Onto your question, Learn to play Omaha if you want to play this structure. It's a lot of fun, but the swings are huge. If bankroll is no problem, then go for it. If your going to sit out, just stick with the straight hold em games offered.

By sitting out the Omaha round:

-Pay $20/Hr for @ 10-14 hands of hold em an hour. Omaha is a slower game. even with the Shuffle machines, the bad dealers and WPT wannabe's slow this game down to a snails pace. So in 8 hours you can play like 80-112 hands for 160 bucks.

-Have players view you as a nuts only, Hold em wuss that they'll refuse to pay off. It's the same 15 guys playing that game for the past 7 years. I know most of them and how they think. Some are much better than you'd expect.

-Sit in a tighter than normal Hold em game, as the gamblers get it out of their system during Omaha, and play tighter during hold em. If you don't believe me, watch it for awhile.

The only real edge you'll gain is over the Hold em players that get screwed up during Omaha. Learn the game and be the screwer, and not the screwee.