One of the more novel series in Deucescracked's archives are the videos quite simply entitled, ‘PLO’. Such a simple title belies the fact this is an innovative, collaborative video series between DC and BlueFirePoker (BFP), featuring Emil ‘whitelime’ Patel and Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond. Whitelime is an experienced highstakes No Limit Hold'em player transitioning to Pot Limit Omaha, and who better to assist him than Galfond? Galfond is one of the biggest online Pot Limit Omaha winners of all time who also happens to be an articulate and thoughtful instructor. The series starts off with Emil playing four tables of six-max PLO at $5/10 and $10/20 with his play reviewed and critiqued by Galfond.
Emil is aware of some NLH tendencies that may not be proper for PLO such as c-betting too much, not slow-playing enough, or not slow-playing the correct types of hands. One concept that they examine which highlights some subtleties in PLO as distinct from NLH, was the idea of considering whether to slow-play a hand such as middle set on a draw-heavy board, waiting for a brick turn, essentially considering it as ‘drawing to a brick’. The importance of position is reiterated as in all PLO videos, and an encouragement to be selective about three-betting hands out of position, especially avoiding danglers such as in a hand like K-Q-9-3, or a hand considered ‘two holdem hands’ such as A-K-4-2ds. It is crucial to have all four cards working in combination with each other as often as possible. Bet-sizing, and Emil’s tendency to push small edges preflop (e.g. bad K-K-x-x hands) are critiqued by Galfond as the greater post-flop weight of PLO is hammered home.
The third episode features a recorded session of Emil playing heads-up PLO, with post-game analysis. Three-betting is again scrutinised with Galfond suggesting that all three-bets in PLO are somewhat for value, although some balance in the type of value hands is important so that range is not skewed towards A-A-x-x hands only. Three-betting as a bluff, or hoping that your opponent will fold doesn’t really apply in heads-up PLO as it is so much easier for your opponent to call three-bets in position. Another heads-up PLO session against Huck Seed shows the importance of having a conception of how future streets will play out, after Emil raises a donk-bet on the turn with the second nut straight, no redraw, on a straightening, double flushing board and has to fold to a reraise. Throughout the session they break down hands and mention factors to be considered when hand reading. Similarly, discussion of when and why to check back in position on flops, bet-sizing, bluff catching, etc is gotten into in some detail. The episode gives great insight into the reasoning that goes into making betting decisions by high level thinkers such as Galfond.
Over the next couple of episodes, whitelime and OMGClayAiken play a ‘best of five’ heads-up PLO SNGs match against one another, with Emil trying to apply the concepts that he has learned from Phil to get the best of him. In a novel twist, DeucesCracked members will see Emil’s cards and hear his thoughts while Bluefire Poker members can see the same match but from Phil’s perspective. Again, the analysis is solid, but there are two obvious drawbacks: the heads-up SNG format literally and figuratively lacks the depth of a cash game match, and, crucially, DeucesCracked members do not hear Galfond’s analysis unless they sign up to Bluefire Poker. Free trials are available but this obvious marketing gimmick left me a little disappointed.
The final two episodes revert to six-max PLO with Emil reviewing a recording of his own play. The solo analysis is as solid, clear, and informative, as you would expect from one of the DeucesCracked executive producers. These videos are probably as good as any other six-max PLO videos on the site but I suppose I was a little disappointed that Galfond was not contributing to these too. Once I got over that, I enjoyed them, and there was still plenty of good advice to learn from. I’ll give an example of one hand that stood out for me:
BB: $392.85
UTG: $1454
Hero (MP): $2,626.1
CO: $2,220.5
BTN: $2,452.5
SB: $2,054.5
Pre Flop: ($15) Hero is MP with 7s-Jc-9c-Jh
1 fold, Hero raises $35, 1 fold, BTN calls $35, 1 fold, BB calls $25
Flop: ($110) Td-3d-Ts (3 players)
3 checks
Turn: ($110) 7h (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $80, BTN calls $80, BB calls $80
River: ($350) Jd (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $300, BTN raises $1250, BB folds, Hero calls.
Flop: Emil bases his decision to check on the fact that he can easily get away if it goes bet/call from the BTN/BB and it is three-handed.
Turn: Emil considers checking to allow the BTN (a 61/29 villain) to bluff at it but decides to stab to attempt to take it down.
River: Emil opts against a check-raise for fear that the nut flush might check back and decides to bet big because betting smaller is unlikely to induce a bluff-raise on this board and most hands will either call or fold regardless of the bet amount and so he might as well get full value when called. He immediately bemoans the gross spot when raised and grudgingly calls citing the fact that he is playing such a fishy villain.
The villain did indeed show T-T-K-2 for the nuts, as he had expected, stating that he thought it unlikely the villain would check back J-T-x-x on the flop, no other hand can really raise for value, and that he wouldn’t really be bluffing here.
I’d be interested on your thoughts on the hand.
Overall, I thought that this was a strong series and that the back and forth analysis between Emil and Galfond was of very high quality. Emil’s analysis in the latter episodes is excellent but there is no getting away from the fact that it would have been great to have Galfond contributing to all eight episodes and not just the first half. Don’t let that deter you from watching what is a really good addition to the video library for players transitioning from NLH to PLO and, in particular, the nuggets of wisdom from Galfond in the early episodes.
Other DC video reviews:
From Import to Analyze
Moneytrain to Midstakesville
App Attack, Episode 7 - SNG Wizard
Ghost
Shorts