A new day

So I think my slide is finally over. Atleast I hope it is. After mulling the sessions of the past few days, I realized where some errors that I made were, while also adjusted my approach a bit. I just get so frusterated I think because of the combined swing size. Four of my biggest pots, that I was a serious favorite in(better than 3 to 1), added up to more than a $300 swing. I was down 8 buyins in 3 days. That's including some bad play. Had I been playing better in general, I think I may have been able to cut it to 4-5 buyins.

My primary error(s) revolved around redraws. Or more accurately, lack of redraws. A couple of my cripplers didn't have the back up that I'd have liked and a shouldn't have been playing them so aggressively. I got myself into this position by playing some weaker A2 & A3 hands a bit too fast. Because of this I ended up in a couple of bigger pots with no backup, which means getting quartered far too often.

Today went much better overall. Just played 1 table PLO8 and 1 NLHE and both went pretty well. It was kinda funny on the NL table, after awhile I couldn't get any action. Several reraises in the BB against button steals, only showing down the nuts, a couple of value calldowns and bets, and a little trickery lead to me not getting any action. Basically no one wanted to play me except with big hands. It was aknowledged by 2 people even. Pretty funy. I didn't really do anything extrordinary, but did get good cards which enabled me to put my A game together.

I was much happier with th way I played PLO8. First thing I did was slowed down. First and foremost were my hands w/no redraws. Instead of trying to force anything, spent more time value betting, trying to keep weaker hands in the pot. I started to slow down a little and floated my bigger draws a little more and waited until they were closer locks both ways and I think it was just as profitable. I think it worked because I would then float some of my huge made hands, getting more value out of them on the turn and river.

I was focusing alot on pot control and bet sizing. I often open pot raise with some lesser holdings, stuff like A369ss, in position. Or big hands like AA2Kds. The reason I do it is to build a pot. Occasionally my goal is to isolate, but mostly to build a pot. This is a good thing and a bad thing. The good aspects are obvious, bad are expensive. If you didn't get that part, I'm saying you find yourself involved in big pots often with bad hands. I started to be as aware of that as possible today.

I also discovered a new passion of mine, a deadly weapon, the preflop minimum raise. That's right, the preflop minimum raise. It is a powerhouse in $25PLO8. It accomplishes so much. It:
Builds a pot
Helps control a pot
^Doesn't build the pot too fast
Helps define opponents hands
Helps trap laggy players

My goal is to build a pot. I do like to control it also, so when I want it to get big quickly, I can. The min raise helps accomplish this. The same players who'll call a pot size raise w/crap will call the min raise. The rocks who'll fold to a pot size raise w/crap will fold to a min raise. When the rock reraises you, you're not nearly commited w/your crap hands. When the laggy guy reraises, you are commiting fewer chips when you call him or are able get a good size bet in when you re-pop it. I'm going to see how my success with it continues. The preflopn min raise can have so much meaning, or none at all. It's confusing.