Only 40 players will earn seats in that final event, with the PGT leaderboard and select PGT Championship ‘Dream Seat’ winners desperate to play for their share of the million dollars. As well as starting the PGT Championship with the most chips, whoever earns the most PGT points during the year will be awarded a $50,000 bonus as the 2023 PGT Player of the Year.

This season, the PokerGO Cup, U.S. Poker Open, and Poker Masters will all feature a $50,000 championship bonus while the just completed PGT Mixed Games Series and forthcoming PGT PLO Series will each give a $25,000 championship bonus to whoever finishes top of the pile in those respective festivals. The 2023 PGT PLO Series will run from March 11-19, and be comprised of nine events with buy-ins ranging from $2,200 to $25,000.

The Weis Man of Mixed Games

One player who is very excited that the PLO Series is about to start is Dylan Weisman. Having won over $1.2 million at the live felt and made a run at the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard in 2022, the popular Californian is a previous winner inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA and believes that a Pot Limit Omaha series has been a long time coming.

“I am stoked that the PokerGO Tour is doing a PLO Series,” he says with a glint in his eye. “I’ve been asking them for more PLO high rollers for a long time they have been incredibly communicative. Tim (Duckworth), Paul (Campbell) and Cary (Katz) all ensure that the players are heard and I think it’s going to be the most fun series that I’ve ever played!”

In the PLO Series, the overall winner gets that $25,000 Championship bonus prize. But while that’s important, is it the same as bragging rights in this most exclusive of poker communities, the mixed game high roller set?

“It’s the cash for the majority of poker players,” says Dylan. “I think that winning PGT events is incredibly prestigious, being able to battle against the best in the world. With that being said you have to put the money up top and think about it from that perspective in my opinion.”

Making a Run for the Title

Cash may be king, but tournaments are where it’s at for Dylan and so many others. That cash is clearly important in terms of making the money. As with event series such as the PokerGO Cup, the events start out with a standard $10,000 High Roller event — a WSOP Main level buy-in — before ramping up in the latter events. With more points available in the latter events, is timing that momentum a priority, or is getting off to a fast start more vital to any player’s chances of winning the overall championship?

“It’s important to time yourself during the series but more so to prepare effectively before hands for the PGT PLO Series. I’ve been preparing physically in terms of working out, mentally in terms of meditation and breathwork and in terms of my poker game. Your job is not to pace yourself through the series; your job is to show up ready knowing that you’re going to be playing for 10 straight days.”

What’s Your Favorite Mixed Game?

That’s an elite mindset to be in and we’re not surprised Weisman is already in it. A former WSOP bracelet winner in 2021, when he took down the $1,000 buy-in PLO 8-Handed event for over $166,000, Weisman, who defeated Craig Chait that day for the gold is a fan of all mixed games.

“I think my favorite mixed game is deuce-to-seven triple draw. I was looking forward to it so much I played a satty and won it yesterday!” he laughs. As well as winning a WSOP bracelet in 2021, he followed that victory up with a PGT trophy lift in 2022, winning Event #10 of the U.S. Poker Open. That too was in Pot Limit Omaha, although it cost a massive $25,000 to enter.

Image credit: PokerGO

Beating Cary Katz heads-up to win that top prize of $416,500 – the largest cash of his career at the live felt – Weisman is proud to be part of the mixed game poker sub-set.

“I definitely think that mixed game players benefit from having a smaller community,” he tells us. “It’s very similar to the PLO community; we’re all part of this smaller eco system and we’ve very incentivized to keep it going. There’s a lot going on in terms of people working together, making sure the games run. When you have a smaller community, everyone knows each other, and you get a lot of diverse personalities – it is really cool.”

Is PLO Still a Niche Game?

Beyond winning, Weisman has done his part to grow the game as well, having created PLO Launchpad for Upswing Poker. Pot Limit Omaha’s growth is recent years is well documented. For many, it’s the far less solvable game of all the poker variants, with the sheer degree of variance meaning it is a lot harder to win in the short or even medium term by employing standard moves and strategies.

“I do still think that mixed games are niche.” Weisman agrees. “I think that there’s a lot more growth to be had in mixed games and the amount of training [for them] is going up all the time, in terms of if its best for the bankroll or not. For poker, its more important to find something that you can continue to do sustainable for a long period of time, no matter what the game or format is; that’s your job.”

Dylan Weisman’s job is winning big at poker and so often has he proved himself capable of doing so in PLO events, it’s almost expected that he’ll do so again in the upcoming PGT PLO Series. Whether the toughest opponents lie in wait for him or not, Weisman’s love of PLO is inspiring and proves that if you’re prepared to work hard at something that you’re passionate about, there are no limits to what you can achieve.

As this is a beginner’s course, each lesson is broken down in easy-to-understand terms, and your hand is held throughout. There’s no feeling of being overwhelmed by the course content as most lessons are bite-size in length, being around 15–20 minutes long. Absolutely perfect for those with busy schedules or those with short attention spans! Another great factor about the course is that it’s all meat, meaning that you’re avoiding any fluff and nonsense.

Dylan Weisman, the creator of the course, is one of Upswing Poker’s Advanced Course Pros (along with poker titans like Nick Petrangelo and Alex Millar) so you know that the lessons you are learning are coming from one of the sharpest minds in the PLO sphere.

READ MORE: 15 Upswing Poker Coaches and the Skills They’ll Help You Master

But just because someone has an advanced knowledge in a certain topic, doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to make a great teacher. Thankfully Weisman’s background in education further entrenches his credibility. Couple that with him being a beast in the PLO streets, and you will definitely be in good hands as you begin your PLO journey.

If you’re unfamiliar with Weisman, you can get to know him a bit better and why he’s devised the course with his latest appearance on Joey Ingram’s YouTube Channel. This would be a great way for potential course takers to introduce themselves to Weisman before spending any cash and putting you in the best frame of mind of how to learn PLO in 2021.

To summarize course expectations in a sentence: Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad is a great program for beginners to establish sound fundamentals, correct decision making and seeing results skyrocket when playing PLO.

Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad: A Course Breakdown

For $99 you’re getting just shy of 9 hours of video content as well as a couple of quizzes to test how well you’re understanding the program. Now that may not seem like a lot, but when you break it down you’re paying around $11 per hour for expert-level coaching, which is great value. And as already mentioned, there’s little to no content that you won’t find useful when beginning your PLO pilgrimage.

Another great aspect to have in mind is that those who purchase the course can keep coming back to it for referral, so the more time you put into the course, the hourly rate of what you pay for looks even better than the initial $11.

Overall, PLO Launch Pad is broken down into 6 separate modules (although for the sake of this review, I’ve combined the Flop module and Turn/River module together). Over those 6 modules there are 30+ lessons, with the ‘Play and Explains’ section being the biggest contributor to this. This final module is really useful for beginners because you can see the theory being put into action and get to see how your newfound knowledge can be used on the live or virtual felt.

Pot Limit Omaha 101 (Around 40 mins)

What you’ll learn:

• General Introduction to PLO
• How Equity is Generated with Preflop Hand Selection
• Pro Poker Tools Lesson

As expected, the introductory module of this course covers the basics. Those with no knowledge of PLO will be shown the rules and how to calculate the size of the pot, which although basic is crucial for pot-limit games.

One myth about PLO, when first starting out, is that you can play just any hand. Of course this completely incorrect. When playing this game, it’s all about trying to make nutted hands, so Weisman’s clear articulation of how to identify the strength of starting hands in PLO is one of the most important lessons in how not to burn money.

Nobody wants to be the person with all the gear and no idea how to use it properly, so the lesson on how to use Pro Poker Tools will be valuable to many. Those who are serious about climbing up the PLO ranks will need to how to run sims – the benefit of this is that you will see how different hands fair against each other, which helps develop a deeper understanding of PLO.

PLO Preflop Play (Around 48 mins)

What you’ll learn:

• Raise First in Ranges
• PLO Matrix Tutorial and Additional Nodes
• Tips For 3- and 4-Betting
• Tips for Playing Aces Preflop

Nailing down preflop fundamentals will help you massively when playing lower stakes online and in brick and mortar casinos. Much of the player pool at this level aren’t aware of the nuances of what makes a hand a 3-bet or 4-bet candidate, so this module is crucial.

Simply, this module is where you will see that you are beginning to develop an edge over inexperienced and non-studied players.

Navigating the Flop, Turn & River (Around 1 hour 10 mins)

What you’ll learn:

• Stack-to-Pot Ratio and C-betting
• Board Textures in Single Raised Pots
• Board Textures in 3-bet Pots
• 2 Concepts for Playing the Turn
• 2 Concepts for Playing the River

The third and fourth modules cover everything players need to know when playing on the flop, and then there are some additional concepts taught when playing later streets. From this, course takers will have a basic foundation of understanding board textures and what hands play well on a variety of flop run outs.

The Turn and River module, although only touched briefly upon, is useful for knowing what course to take on certain turn and river cards. It explains what bet-sizing players should make as well as introducing the topic of blockers. Although this module is brief, there’s enough meat in there to make it essential for your PLO introduction.

Miscellaneous Fundamentals (Around 28 mins)

What you’ll learn:

• How to Set Yourself Up for Success in Poker
• What to Expect From Your First Live PLO Experience

This module picks up on the human elements to consider when playing PLO. Weisman gets you to think about what you want from poker as well as the dynamics that exist when playing live.

When first starting out in any poker variant, every player has asked themselves at some point how can they win when every pot is seen multi-way. This is a regular occurrence in live PLO games where many people think they can see a flop with any four cards. The most useful advice on how to make money in these settings and combat this is in this lesson. Those who complete the PLO Launch Pad course will be aware of how to play to against certain people depending on their stack size and the adjustments they’ll need to make, which is important for live games especially.

Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad: Play & Explains (Around 5 hours 35 mins)

What you’ll learn:

• PLO10 (4 Parts)
• PLO25 (4 Parts)
• PLO50 (4 Parts)
• PLO100 (4 Parts)
• PLO MTT Review with Pav (3 Parts)

The Play & Explain module is the most time-consuming part of PLO Launch Pad but is the most important. You will see all the theory you have learnt in action at various stakes online; this really helps the lessons learned to hit home.

What’s great about this section is that you’ll see concepts applied to both online cash games and tournaments, so both cash game grinders and tournament aficionados will get a lot out of this module.

By the end of this course, players should have a holistic approach to PLO through understanding basic fundamentals, the nuances that exist in the game as well as the platform to take on more advanced PLO concepts should they wish to.

Upswing Poker’s PLO Launch Pad: Worth the price!

For me personally, getting the opportunity to take on the PLO Launch Pad has helped reinforce lessons learned from Fernando “JNandez” Habeggar‘s recently published book Mastering Small Stakes PLO. If you’re someone who learns better through video content, then this course would be the recommended route to go down. When it comes to books it can be difficult to visualize hand recaps and, in that respect, this is where PLO Launch Pad offers something unique and different.

Some people may turn their noses up at fact that the course has less than 10 hours of content, but you have to remember that this is an entry-level learning opportunity catered to those who’ve only seen a couple of Pot Limit Omaha hands in person and on a stream. But to its credit, a seemingly difficult game to understand becomes very accessible to the most novice of players in that time. So, it would be fair to say that Weisman’s PLO Launch Pad achieves what it sets out to do – giving beginners a strong foundation and comprehensive fundamental knowledge in PLO in both live and online settings.

It is also worth pointing out that despite PLO’s increasing popularity, just taking this Upswing Poker course will give you an edge at the micro and low stakes games, as much of the player pool will not be as studied as those who take this course. Course takers will be able to make better preflop decisions and navigate themselves more appropriately in difficult spots post flop which should see results move in the coveted positive and upwards direction.

The Upswing Lab stands as the main course on the Upswing menu. The Lab offers hundreds of hours of courses on No-Limit Hold’em, from beginning strategy to advanced, solver-based techniques.

Upswing Poker also offers standalone courses on Pot-Limit Omaha, heads-up poker, mixed games, Short Deck Poker, and multi-table tournaments. The training site truly offers everything a player could need to find success at the poker table.

In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at the 15 coaches on Upswing’s roster, the standalone courses and course modules they instruct, and the poker skills they’ll help you master.

Doug Polk

Study focus: No-Limit Hold’em, Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em, mental approach and mindset

Upswing Lab Modules: Most of the 29 modules included in the Lab Core Strategy section of the Upswing Lab. Topics include: Ranges, Raise First In (RFI), RFI vs. 3-Bet, Playing vs. a Raise First In, The Value of Position, Micro Stakes Bankroll Building, Lab Member Online Cash Review, and several others.

Standalone courses: Advanced Heads-Up Mastery

One of the co-founders of Upswing Poker, Doug Polk established a reputation as one of the world’s best No-Limit Hold’em players before announcing his retirement from the game in 2019. Polk and fellow Upswing co-founder Ryan Fee launched their poker training site in 2016, and since then Upswing Poker has grown into one of the most comprehensive collections of training materials in the world of poker. The Lab Core Strategy section offers hours of video training courses from Polk himself.

READ MORE: Our review of Upswing Poker’s Advanced Heads-Up Mastery

Ryan Fee

Study Focus: No-Limit Hold’em cash games, database management

Upswing Lab Modules: Ryan Fee and Doug Polk are your guides through the Lab Core Strategy portion of the Upswing Poker Lab. This section contains 29 different modules, designed to build a solid fundamental No-Limit Hold’em strategy from the ground up.

Fee, a cash-game specialist, also appears in several courses from Beyond Core Strategy, the advanced courses from the Upswing Lab. Fee’s modules in the Beyond Core Strategy section include Mastering Database Software, which is a must-watch for online players.

READ MORE: Our review of the Upswing Poker Lab

Fried Meulders

Study Focus: 6-max NLHE online cash games, advanced solver-based poker strategies

Upswing Lab Modules: Graduating to the Beyond Core Strategy section of the Lab introduces you to online cash-game specialist Fried Meulders. Known as “mynameiskarl” on PokerStars, Meulders has a well-forged reputation as one of the best regulars in the PokerStars Zoom 500NL pool.

Those games are some of the world’s toughest, and the training materials produced by Meulders break down the solver-based approach that’s put him in the top echelon of cash game players. Modules include Intro to Solver-Based Strategy, Advanced Pre-flop Strategy, Single Raised Pots Button vs. Big Blind, Single Raised Pots Blind vs. Blind, and four different modules covering 3-Betting strategy.

Upswing Poker could easily offer any of Meulder’s modules as standalone courses, and they’d be well worth the price. An Upswing Lab subscription is all it takes, however, to access eight modules and more than 60 Play & Explains from Meulders.

Nick Petrangelo

Study Focus: Multi-table tournaments

Standalone courses: Winning Poker Tournaments

Watch any high-stakes poker tournament show from the modern era and you’ll see Nick Petrangelo as a ubiquitous presence. Petrangelo’s live tournament earnings stand at $17.5 million as of August 2020, and that’s not counting his equally impressive online tournament resume.

Petrangelo’s standalone course, Winning Poker Tournaments, offers advanced training for players looking to achieve success in the realm of poker tournaments. Petrangelo teaches you how to use solvers and apply the outputs to build a winning tournament strategy.

Winning Poker Tournaments also comes with pre-flop range charts for six different stack sizes and multiple different strategies.

READ MORE: Our review of Upswing Poker’s Winning Poker Tournaments

Mike “Piano Mike” Finstein

Study Focus: Live No-Limit Hold’em Cash Games

Upswing Lab Modules: Mike “Piano Mike” Finstein offers content geared specifically to live poker cash games. The Live Poker section of the Upswing Lab features five modules by Finstein.

Ryan Fee joins Finstein for modules like The Upswing Poker Live Approach, A Deep Dive Into Live Dynamics, and Bayesian Adjustments Live. Members of the Upswing Poker Engage group on Facebook frequently reference Finstein’s modules as some of the most popular in the Upswing Lab.

Alex Millar

Study Focus: 6-max NLHE online cash games, advanced solver-based poker strategies

Standalone courses: Advanced Cash Game Strategy

Alex “Kanu7” Millar shows a profit of more than $4.5 million in tracked high-stakes cash games on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Millar’s Advanced Cash Game Strategy course aims to lift your cash game strategy to the next level, using the same techniques Millar used before retiring from the high-stakes scene.

Millar covers topics like GTO vs. Exploitative Strategies, How Hard Should You Exploit?, Theory of Betting, and Frequencies & Sizings in his can’t-miss standalone course.

Image credit: Jayne Furman for PokerNews

Jason McConnon

Study Focus: 6-max NLHE online cash games, advanced solver-based poker strategies

Upswing Lab Modules: Single Raised Pots OOP (out-of-position), Check-Raising From The Big Blind, Probe and vs. Delayed C-Bet On the Turn

One of the online cash game specialists on the Upswing coaching team, Jason McConnon crushes the games at stakes up to $100/$200. McConnon’s modules are based on his extensive experience with solvers, and his detailed insights into his own study habits and thought process are a must for players who want to take their game to the next level.

McConnon specializes in breaking down common but complex spots, including big blind check-raising strategy.

Daniel Merrilees

Study Focus: 6-max NLHE online cash games, advanced solver-based poker strategies

Upswing Lab Modules: Reintroduction to Multi-way Pots, Raising on the River

Daniel “DANMERRRR” Merrilees is yet another online cash-game specialist, and Upswing Lab members get access to the mind of this highly successful mid- and high-stakes player.

Merrilees’ debut module for the Lab, titled Reintroduction to Multi-way Pots, takes a deep look at a button vs. small blind vs. big blind spot, using detailed analysis derived from Monker Solver outputs.

Image credit: Alin Ivanov for PokerNews

Moritz “Mo” Dietrich

Study Focus: Multi-table tournaments

Upswing Lab Modules: MTT Advanced Pre-flop Guide, Betting on the Flop, Probing from the Big Blind, Check-Calling on the River Out of Position, Check-Raising Flops as the Pre-flop Raiser, How ICM Impacts Your Flop Strategy.

Moritz “Mo” Dietrich joined the Upswing Team in 2018, bringing with him a multi-table tournament resume that includes more than $2 million in cashes.

The addition of Dietrich allowed the Upswing Lab to update the Multi-Table Tournaments section with six new modules, with Dietrich breaking down his tournament strategies over hours of content.

Daniel McAulay

Study Focus: Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em, 6-max NLHE online cash games, multi-table tournaments

Upswing Lab Modules: Heads-Up 101

Much like Upswing founder Doug Polk, Daniel “dougiedan678” McAulay represents the rare kind of poker player that seems to be good at every format.

McAulay grinded out a well-earned name as one of the world’s best heads-up players throughout the 2010s. McAulay’s heads-up prowess is so impressive that he was called on to take on artificial intelligence supercomputer Libratus in a 2017 humans vs. AI heads-up poker challenge.

McAulay has recently taken to studying and playing six-max cash games a multi-table tournaments as well.

David Yan

Study Focus: 6-max NLHE online cash games

Upswing Lab Modules: The Art of Simplification

The Upswing Lab’s newest coach debuted with a module titled “The Art of Simplification”. The material in Yan’s first Upswing module focuses on taking complex solver-based concepts and refining them into simplified strategies.

The resulting strategies present a simple yet effective way to approach cash game poker in 2020. Yan is a PokerStars Zoom 500NL winner, and brings that resume to the table for Upswing Lab members.

Dylan Weisman

Study Focus: Pot-Limit Omaha, mental approach, and mindset

Standalone courses: Advanced PLO Mastery

Upswing Poker extensive strategy materials include extensive coverage of games outside of No-Limit Hold’em. Dylan “iheartco0kie” Weisman teaches as one of two Pot-Limit Omaha experts heading up the Advanced PLO Mastery standalone course.

Weisman’s materials include not only in-game strategy, but also a multitude of lessons on healthy mindset and mental approach needed to play poker at the highest level.

READ MORE: Our review of Upswing Poker’s Advanced PLO Mastery

Chris Wehner

Study Focus: Pot-Limit Omaha

Standalone courses: Advanced PLO Mastery

Chris “bluffmast” Wehner joins Dylan Weisman as one of the masterminds behind the Advanced PLO Mastery standalone course. Wehner’s study approach comes from his firm status as a cash-game grinder.

Wehner started on the bottom rung on the stakes ladder, but in his career has climbed from $0.01/$0.02 all the way up to his current stakes of $10/$20 and $20/50.

Jake Abdalla

Study Focus: Mixed Games

Standalone courses: Mixed Games Mastery

Jake ““JLlama” Abdalla presents two things on his official Upswing page that pretty much say it all about his poker acumen. One is a PokerStars graph displaying more than $1.4 million in high-stakes cash game earnings. The other is an account of playing Phil Ivey heads-up, and winning.

Abdalla takes his place among the Upswing coaches as the teacher behind the Mixed Games Mastery standalone course. His course prepares you for success at the highest of stakes in the world of mixed games.

READ MORE: Our review of Upswing Poker’s Mixed Games Mastery

Kane Kalas

Study Focus: Short Deck Hold’em

Standalone courses: Master Short Deck Hold’em

Kane Kalas’ Short Deck course offers the opportunity to learn poker’s newest popular game variant from one of the best.

Kalas’ standalone course breaks down nine-handed, six-max, and heads-up Short Deck strategy, with a focus on the unique ante-based betting structure used in many Short Deck games.

READ MORE: Our review of Upswing Poker’s Master Short Deck Hold’em