Okay, first of all I would like to preface this post with a few points to keep in mind.

1. I am not a professional in any way shape or form, I have no intention of really becoming a professional. All the money I will attempt to make will act purely as supplemental income.
2. Being a student, at times I have far more free time than most and at others, a lot less; some weeks I will be able to put in more time and effort than others.
3. After basically cleaning out all my poker accts for spending money while I was in Oxford, I have deposited $20 into my pokerstars acct. Since then I have traded ~$70 in transfers so as far as I am concerned, I have already made a profit and I am really approaching this as a free-roll opportunity. My PS balance is at ~$120 right now (all from PLO).
4. After reading a comment by Wallace about how super-micro stakes are a waste of time (::sigh:: they really are) I decided to forgo good bankroll strategy (move up to .02-.05 deep when I am at, what, $200-$250) and try a more aggressive approach.
5. Part of this (and I must admit, the most important part to me) is maintaining discipline during this exercise. Being disciplined and sticking to my plan is really more important to me than the money I make.

That being said, I was wondering if some of you more experienced players could help me out with a plan of attack.

Things I am looking to incorporate in the strategy are:
1. set times to play
2. playing a set amount per week (no more or less without very good cause)
3. having certain rules for when or why I play certain levels.

I don't particularly like to multi-table: I am not all that good at it (partially because I am on a 13" laptop) and I am uncomfortable with have such a high percentage of my roll 'in play'. I usually play 2-3 tables sometimes 4. I mostly play PLO so having less tables allows me to keep tabs on how my opponents like to play.

I have recorded my last 4 sessions in a notebook I have, including notes on hands I thought were interesting etc... I use a macbook as my primary, although I do have an old fujitsu laptop that still works. I understand the importance of tracking software, I will eventually purchase one. I know that Hold'em manager and poker tracker are most often touted, but are they the best for PLO (or PLO8 and razz). Does anyone have any experience or advice about Omaha indicator or Omaha manager? I demo'd the Pokertracker one and really didn't like it.

So how many BI should I have before I take a shot at the next level? I was thinking something like this:
less than $125 (25BI) play $5PLO
between $135 and $200 mostly play $5PLO (27-40BI) but take regular shots at $10PLO (13.5-20BI)
$200 I move up to $10PLO (20BI).
and start taking shots at $20PLO at around $300 (15BI) but again still regularly play $10PLO (30BI)
move up to $20PLO at $500 (25BI) ... etc...

How should I structure when I play? scheduled times? have a max/min hrs. per day/week? (really not sure about how to go about this)

anyway... this thing is getting way too long. Just give me advice, lol!

thanks in advance guys

i have omaha manager or whatever it's called. it's pretty awesome, but i think preflop stats are not as helpful to me in plo as they are in nlhe, so i dont really even pay attention to the hud ever. basically it's very convenient for tracking my results and saving/sorting HHs so i can go back and review my play after some sessions. it's not really a necessity though, so if you have been doing fine just recording your sessions the old fashioned way, i'd just keep the 80 bucks or whatever it is in your bankroll for now.

as for br management, it all depends on how large a percentage of your roll you are comfortable losing at one time, and how willing to drop stakes you are. there's nothing wrong with being very aggressive in moving up the stakes, the problem only comes when you go on a downswing and cant accept that you need to drop a level. sounds like you already understand the importance of discipline, so i think you'll do fine with whatever brm strategy you come up with.

Originally Posted by squeezyplayer

i have omaha manager or whatever it's called. it's pretty awesome, but i think preflop stats are not as helpful to me in plo as they are in nlhe, so i dont really even pay attention to the hud ever. basically it's very convenient for tracking my results and saving/sorting HHs so i can go back and review my play after some sessions. it's not really a necessity though, so if you have been doing fine just recording your sessions the old fashioned way, i'd just keep the 80 bucks or whatever it is in your bankroll for now.

yeah. I mostly would want it to track and review my own hands. Although, I'm sure it would also be a useful tool for determining how certain players play different types of draws/hands.

I do kind of like the old fashion notebook way though... even if/when I get software I'll probably stick to it, as it seems to help remove that 'video game' mentality that is all too common with online poker. If I write it down I can't just pretend it didn't happen and press the reset button, so to speak. Anyways, I'll try and come up with something more specific, post it here, and then hopefully update semi-regularly with results/brags/beats.

lol i need one too.. im good at making the money... just not keeping within my limits.. but im getting better at it tho.. tired of being pissed at myself... lmao

goodluck

Okay. I decided to buy Omaha Manager. I am not really hurting for money, and even though my online roll is pennies, my life roll is doing a bit better. I figured it'd help me focus and keep me disciplined; and I get to replay all my good and bad hands. Since I've bought it on Saturday night I am up almost 5BI.

I am going to start taking shots at $10PLO as per how I said I would above, but I will probably wait until the weekend when the games are softer. I've played plenty of PLO at these limits and above before, so I really don't foresee any problems.

that being said, I also decided not to rigidly structure when I play. I am not really an endurance player, so I am shooting for 2 1-2 hour sessions a day for anywhere between 14-20 hours a week. What I am doing instead, is playing poker only on my pc laptop, which should help fight that tendency to blow off work/school and play poker instead (this is helped by the fact that Omaha manager is only on that computer). I also printed out a monthly calendar where I write down how long a I played and initial it, as a sort of time clock.

My biggest nemesis in the past hasn't been being outplayed, its been taking deep shots and losing a 75/25. I think I've come a long way mentally from the block such losses used to give me. Putting it into perspective, that's like flipping a coin twice and losing 1 ... once that finally clicked playing above bankroll just seemed ludicrous.

I really appreciate the advice by Squeezyplayer; your right, the HUD is more annoying in PLO than anything.

As I said this is more a discipline challenge for me (only thing stopping me from depositing 1k right now, rofl). I'll post a graph and stats at 5k hands to keep you updated.

cheers!

Okay. So I know I said I would wait until I have 5k hands or so, but at the rate I play (or don't play) that may take forever.

Here is my sample and graph at just under 2k hands (8 days played, 20hrs logged). As you can see its mostly $.01/$.02 with a very small amount of $.02/$.05.

I really have no idea what good PLO stats are (at these stakes or higher stakes) so any help in that would be wonderful!

I had a nice little jump at the end, but for the most part, after my roll jumped over ~$140 at around hand 600, I started opening up my stack off range. Made for a bit more variance, but still moving along!

Okay. So I know I said I would wait until I have 5k hands or so, but at the rate I play (or don't play) that may take forever.

Here is my sample and graph at just under 2k hands (8 days played, 20hrs logged). As you can see its mostly $.01/$.02 with a very small amount of $.02/$.05.

I really have no idea what good PLO stats are (at these stakes or higher stakes) so any help in that would be wonderful!

I had a nice little jump at the end, but for the most part, after my roll jumped over ~$140 at around hand 600, I started opening up my stack off range. Made for a bit more variance, but still moving along!

A money management strategy I read is: 5% for cash games and 5% for single table tour. 2% for multi table tour.

Originally Posted by dissata

I really have no idea what good PLO stats are (at these stakes or higher stakes) so any help in that would be wonderful!

If the graph goes up as it goes to the right, the stats are good. If it's a straight horizontal line, it's about average. If it goes down, the stats are bad.

That'll be $5, please.

there's a ton of different preflop styles that can work in plo, but fwiw i play like 28/20