Review: Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad
Overall Verdict: Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad, led by renowned PLO expert Dylan Weisman, is widely considered the gold-standard introductory course for Pot-Limit Omaha. It is a masterfully structured curriculum designed to take players from zero knowledge to being competent, confident, and fundamentally sound thinkers in the world of four-card poker.
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5) for its target audience.
Who is this Course For?
This course is specifically designed for a few key groups:
- Absolute Beginners: If you know the basic rules of PLO but have no idea where to start with strategy, this is the perfect course for you.
- No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Players: Players transitioning from NLHE often make critical, fundamental errors in PLO. This course is expertly designed to deconstruct bad NLHE habits and rebuild a strong, PLO-centric thought process.
- Struggling Low-Stakes Players: If you’ve been playing low-stakes PLO (PLO10 – PLO50) and feel lost, breakeven, or are a slight loser, this course will immediately plug the biggest leaks in your game.
This course is NOT for experienced, winning mid-to-high stakes PLO players. While they might pick up a few things, the content is primarily foundational.
Key Strengths (Pros)
- Exceptional Instructor: Dylan Weisman is not just a world-class player; he is a phenomenal teacher. He has a rare talent for breaking down incredibly complex topics into simple, digestible, and actionable steps. His communication is clear, concise, and engaging.
- Brilliantly Structured Curriculum: The “Launch Pad” name is perfect. The course is built logically from the ground up. It starts with pre-flop hand selection—the absolute bedrock of PLO—and systematically builds upon that foundation. You won’t be thrown into deep GTO (Game Theory Optimal) concepts before you understand why you’re playing a hand like A♠K♠T♢9♢ in the first place.
- Focus on Actionable Heuristics: Instead of just showing you solver outputs, Dylan provides you with robust heuristics (rules of thumb) that you can immediately apply at the tables. This is crucial for beginners who can’t possibly memorize thousands of simulation data points. For example, he provides clear guidelines on when to c-bet, what types of boards favor your range, and how to think about blockers.
- Emphasis on “The Why”: The course excels at explaining why certain plays are correct. It doesn’t just tell you “3-bet this hand from the cutoff.” It explains the strategic reasoning based on concepts like equity realization (RE), board coverage, and playability, empowering you to make better decisions in spots not explicitly covered in the videos.
- High Production Quality: As with all Upswing Poker products, the videos are professionally produced with clear audio, visuals, and well-organized on-screen graphics, making for a smooth learning experience.
Potential Drawbacks (Cons)
- Too Basic for Advanced Players: This is the most obvious drawback, but it’s by design. If you are already beating PLO100 or higher and have a solid grasp of GTO principles, this course will be too elementary for you. You would be better served by Dylan Weisman’s more advanced course, “The PLO Matrix.”
- Lighter on Deep Solver Work: While the course is built on GTO principles, it doesn’t involve deep dives into solver software like PioSOLVER or MonkerSolver. It’s designed to give you the fundamentally correct strategy derived from solvers, not to teach you how to become a solver expert yourself.
A Glimpse at the Content
The course covers all the essential pillars of a solid PLO game:
- Pre-flop Fundamentals: Detailed breakdowns of which hands to play from every position, how to adjust to opponents, and comprehensive 3-betting and 4-betting strategies.
- Post-flop Strategy: In-depth modules on flop, turn, and river play. It covers everything from c-betting strategy on different board textures to check-raising, barreling, and bluff-catching.
- Key PLO-Specific Concepts: The course masterfully explains concepts that are unique or far more important in PLO, such as:
- Blockers: How holding a key card impacts your opponent’s likely holdings.
- Wraps and Combo Draws: Understanding the true strength of your draws.
- Equity Realization: The crucial concept of how likely you are to see your full equity in a pot.
- Stack-to-Pot Ratio (SPR): How SPR should drastically alter your strategy in PLO compared to NLHE.
- Play & Explain Videos: You get to see Dylan put the theory into practice as he plays sessions and explains his thought process in real-time.
Final Verdict
The PLO Launch Pad is not just a good course; it’s a transformative one for its intended audience. It’s the most effective and efficient way for a new or struggling player to build a winning PLO foundation. The investment in this course will almost certainly pay for itself many times over by preventing costly beginner mistakes and setting you on the right strategic path from day one.
If you are serious about learning Pot-Limit Omaha the right way, this course is the single best starting point on the market.