[Adelaney]

Hey Apollo,

Really appreciate the kind words and glad to have you apart of the PLO Mastermind and the community!

Let’s hope we can help you avoid listening to Justin Timberlake cry me a river

Best of luck with your goals and I look forward to following along as you progress!

[Apollo]

3 weeks are gone after I had entered this course. It is much more (to be a an amateur/semi professional+) than I have expected or it could be, that the whole thing, the whole poker-to-be world, is bigger as I thought and I, not malicious, underrated it.

In this 3 weeks I have completed the “10-Week PLO Transformation” with all quizzes, downloads etc. some videos I have watched twice, one of them three times. I knew I´m not completely transformed, I believed I´ve changed my attitude a little bit, I have developed my mind, strategy, tactics and I could take a small shot now on weekend to see how the practice works in the reality. Before that I wanted to proof myself once more in theory and do all the quizzes at once, I think they are 46 of them.

Here came my small disaster, I have failed in over 2/3 of quizzes (meant not more as 7 answers correct)! Not one I did 10/10, even worse one of them I hit 1/10 and the other 2/10… In this moment it has a big impact for my self esteem. In one of the videos Fernando relates to Sisyphus and his way: long, hard, lonely. I feel fucking lonely now, because my “first base” is still not in my sight, even now at 6:30 AM and I didn´t wake up so early, I´m still awake since a day before. In my mind I implicate a question: “Am I so dumb for this stuff?”, but a second later I recall that quote of Bruce Lee, that a (peaceful) warrior is not a prodigy, but a an average one with a laser pointed concentration.

So the plan is to re-start the course from “Week nr. 4” and do it again, because to “quit does not exist” and my strategy calls: put all eggs in one basket and take care of them!

[Adelaney]

Hey @apollo

Try not to beat yourself up about this regarding the quizzes, look at it from a point of view that there’s still progression to be made, you’re not meant to get 10/10 every single time, what it shows is that there was a couple of things you didn’t remember and it allows you to go back and watch videos covering those topics again and again until it is fully engraved in your mind. I understand it’s easy to fall into the mindset of ‘am I dumb only getting 1/10’ i’ve been there in different scenarios, but try looking at it from the view of ‘okay I didn’t understand this topic lets go back and watch the videos until I do’ that’s what the content is there for 🙂

Glad to see you also realised this near the end of your post, good luck restarting from week 4 and try not to beat yourself up about these things remember there’ll be many scenarios where you have to watch particular videos several times or take the same quiz multiple times until you understand it but it’s better to do that knowing it’s fully understood rather than watching once taking the quiz once nailing it then 1 month later completely forgetting what that particular area was covering!

Good luck and let’s crush it!

[Apollo]

Update through my last 16 days: So I did second time “10-Week PLO Transformation” from week 3 to the end with all quizzes 3 times, then “PLO Launchpad”, “Quick Tips”, “GTO Bits” (everything once) and now I´m done with “3Bet Pot Blueprint” once, but some videos I watched three times, when I was disappointed with my quiz results (I did all quizzes 3 – 4 times, some of them I have to do it again and digest explanations).

Although “3Bet Pot Blueprint” a pretty “old” course is, for me it was the best one, it´s the essence/concentrate of the game. I´m very happy I can learn this stuff.

These days I study 4 hours+/day mostly ca. 6 hours (6-7 days a week).

I see a big difference (don´t You?) between skill level of videos and quizzes. The videos are pretty easy to understand, if You feel the topic, it´s likely I know what Fernando or Luuk will say the next moment and then comes a quiz: sometimes I hit 10/10 under 2 minutes and then… 3/10, wtf, #Error 404, c´mon?!?! For me it does it feel like do a driving license in my home country: training yard is like learn to ride a bike and the driving license exam is like a braking “Enigma”. Sometimes the difference between those two is simply too big, they are not compatible.

Mental: I have changed my day start from “coffee & news in tv” to “coffee & sun on balcony”, but still don´t write my day plan on paper :/

The other (mental?) thing and I realize at this moment it could be an issue is, that I learn, learn, learn, cuz´ I like it and don´t want to play, because in the first place I have to learn a lot to have it under control (the game). So far, so good, but I´m here 6 weeks and since that time I hadn´t played a single hand of PLO and I don´t think it´s wrong. My plan is to study “Crushing Small Stakes” next and after that finally back to the game, but at this moment I don´t miss grinding at all!

Hmmm, dear Doc, what´s wrong with me?

[Adelaney]

Interesting to read you’ve not played a single hand, but glad that you are using your time efficiently and effectively in studying, remember what I said previously you’re going to have these moments where you have to watch a video even maybe 10 times to fully understand it or take a quiz 10 times to fully get all the concepts etc being discussed but the main thing is that you come away with a full understanding not that you had to watch or take it multiple times.

If anything that is a good thing as it shows you’re just not flying through the content then moving on to the next thing because you’ve ‘watched it already’ but you’re actually going over things multiple times to make sure you come away understanding everything being discussed and taught!

Keep it up and hopefully we’re not too far away from getting to the tables and putting what you’ve learnt so far into action!

Good luck and have a good week ahead!

[Apollo]

Next 12 days passed by… In that time I went through “CSSPLO” course with Luuk Botter (lot of work with PLO Trainer) and “Escape the Micros” with Andreas Fröhli. The second half of the course with Andreas was strange, because his stats in the HUD were reversed like it should be, f.e. single raised pot, CBet IP 17%, OOP 80% (of course the stats could be small, but if u have 17, it means min. 6 hands, 80 -> min. 5 hands). I didn´t like it also his “superiority” self esteem against players in PLO2 and PLO5 (often quotes that his opponents for sure do lot of mistakes post flop). The part with mental abilities was nice and I did couple notes.

Oh yeah, finally I´ve started my notebook with “Golden Thoughts” of coaches and I fill an “Accountability Sheet”.

Also since 2 days I´m on the tables, but at now it feels like a side effect of learning process, not as a main-pursuit-to-be. I want to concentrate myself to do the right things at the table, so MTT. On stars are only 4 tables allowed and it was pretty sloooow for me (only 275 hands/hour). I didn´t feel I´m a crusher, the others were bad. Today I took a shot on zoom (2 tables) to speed it up (415 hands/hour). Ok, it was faster (but still slow volume), but the opponents are much different -> No fear PF and lil nitty post, but it´s difficult to exploit, if every time it´s multiway (4/5 players). I won also today, but mainly rake won :(.

For sure my post flop play is much better, PF was ok, even my “nitty” stats: 18/14, but if u see Cold Call stats ~ 80%, then u put your KKJ6 ss in MP into the muck. I want once more to look how it works on zoom tables and then 4 MTT (+1 zoom), because it looks it´s much softer. For the future MTT could be a “must”, because “the stars group” make zoom with ante (“more rake is better”; if the HUDs would be forbidden I gone for them!).

I want to hit min. 35k hands this month and be back in my “home office performance modus”, not because I desire it, but that is my goal.

[Apollo]

Hi, I wanted to implement the topic below in my next update, but I have seen something similar in “Shortstack Bootcamp” course, so I have decided to write about here in an individual post.

Already in 2018, in NLHE, I have discovered that VPIP of x and PFR of y, doesn´t mean, that a player does play top of his x hands and raise top of his y hands. In reality, it means only that a player does play x% of his hands and raise y% of his hands, no matter of the range!

Let me explain it with an example: 2 days ago I have played against a villain, who had VPIP 9, PFR 2 (150 hands, not much but the first impression) EP: 0/20 and he opened a full pot. It smelled so heavy of aces, strong aces. MP, CO fold, I on the BTN with KKT6 ds, normally 3Bet, but I have called only.

Flop: T43tt and he potted, me with an overpair + top pair + 2nd nuts flush draw and think he could have nuts flush draw + AA + ? I called

Turn: Q rainbow; he fired 2nd 1/2 Bullet. For me the prize was to good to fold. Does he hit now top set + AA + nuts flush draw?! I called again

River: 2 rainbow; he fired 3rd Pot Bullet and I was pretty confused and thought: “could it be AA55 ds and now he has the 2nd straight?” I was pretty sure, I was beaten, but simultaneously very curious, what hand did beat me. I called 3rd time.

I was beaten, the villain shows: 9943 triple suited and gave the fire with bottom 2 pairs all the time, no matter of his nitty stats.

What I want to say, a range composition and an attempt to realize it, could be much, much harder, sometimes even impossible. Another example is my friend from my brick&mortar club, who has also nitty stats, when he plays online, he said: “Apollo, I play every time my similar stats: x% EP, y% MP, z% CO, q% BTN, no matter what cards I have!” When my button open 40% is and my HUD shows at the moment 39%, even with 72o, I raise, because my impression to be a semi Nitty Guy has to remain at the same percentage and I stay unexploited.” Even when semi professionals, no recreationals, do play such a strategy, how to adapt in this environment?