Pot Limit Omaha Bankrolls
In pot-limit omaha having a proper bankroll is going to be one of your biggest advantages on the opposition, if not your biggest advantage. Having played a nice amount of cash pot-limit omaha live and online in my career, I can tell you that there are numerous players whom you will encounter are just playing way over their head and some are even on degenerate runs with only 5-10 buy ins! Now I do not need to tell you in what ways such bold bankroll strategy will effect their play, that should be apparent! It should already be quite apparent. Don't let this happen to you! Its a huge trap, it usually ends with a long walk to your car(or your couch if you are at home) and you talking to yourself in a not so nice fashion.
Lets start with the basic rule that in general you are going to need 2x the amount of money/bankroll to play the pot limit omaha games then you use to play the same stake not limit hold em games. Pot limit omaha is a game with a lot higher variance, and you're going to need to respect that fact right off the bat. Do this by having a nice bankroll to pad the swings you are going to take in pot limit omaha. And don't try to fool yourself or anyone else, you are going to take the big swings, it is more a question of when then if. If you begin to take swings, that is a sign you are playing right, an aggressive style of pot limit omaha play is just going to encounter swings, swings are how you make money as well.
Pot Limit Omaha tournaments you can use as many buy ins as you use for No Limit Hold'Em tournaments.
That is only because PLO tournaments are generally very soft and plo tournament players are generally just not very good until you go to the high buy in tournaments. So use your standard tournament buy in amounts, 100 tournament buy ins for tournaments that aren't turbos, and 200 buy in for tournaments that are turbos will keep you from going busto, in general. (Albeit the rustier your tournament/plo game is, the more prone you are to taking a huge swing and busting your bankroll, so it could technically happen. But in general anytime you only have 1% of your bankroll in play at a single table you are using very good bankroll management.)
Buy-ins per stake / Pot Limit Omaha game type
- Having said this, 100 buy ins in PLO is usually a fine bankroll in cash games. This works if you're playing live PLO or only playing a few soft tables online.
- I'd recommend 200 buy ins if you're playing high stakes live PLO or any sort of toughie online games. I'd also recommend 200 buy ins for live 6max and a few tables of easier online 6max.
- 300 buy ins for 6max online where the tables are semi tough+. For heads-up you should be fine playing live with 300 buy ins, and also should be fine with 300 buy ins against any sort of weak players online.
- 400 buy ins in heads up PLO is necessary if you're taking on all comers at online plo hu, sort of like Jet Li in the movie one towards the very end of the movie.
- Add 50 buy ins to any games with antes. and subtract 50 buy ins for any double stack deep games.
Final Words
Until next time, keep those bankrolls safe and healthy!