Mixing it up in Pot Limit Omaha

In many situations, the equities in Pot Limit Omaha tend to run close.

I remember when I was first starting out in PLO, one of my friends would crush a small stakes live PLO game every night and I invariably asked, how do you do it. He told me, “I’m never that far behind with any four cards, so I get in there and splash around.” I thought he was joking at first, but I soon learned that albeit he didn’t tell me the whole story, he did tell me an important fact.

You can't just and sit and wait around in PLO, you have to get in there and gamble

This does a few things for you, it tends to balance your range and defend you in spots where its obvious to everyone what you could have. Assuming you are one of the best players in the game, it also forces your edge on the opposition whereas if you keep folding you’re not playing enough hands to really come out a big winner.

You will want to avoid playing marginal holdings out of position (SB, BB (not counting a min-open),EP1,EP2) if you are just starting out and not comfortable with flop play, turn, river play.

We will focus on pre flop play in this article and get into post flop play in later articles. Since pre flop hand selection effects your post flop decisions to a large degree , its important to play decent holdings. Having said that it is probably more important to get in there and play with bad players when you have some sort of edge.

 SITUATION A.

$1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha – 3 players

Hero (BTN): $200

SB: $200

BB: $200

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with jj77

Hero raises $5, BB calls $3.

Flop: ($11) j26 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero ?

This is a new game that started up so you have no reads on both the blinds and have never played with them.

Opening here is pretty standard and so is the size so we will not go into that too much. We flop top set and versus a normal BB defend range that consists of a lot of suited rundowns we have him equity crushed. Our best play in this exact situation is to bet using the sizing what we would normally bet with our whole range and hope that we are lucky enough for him to make a move or also have a hand.

This is how this hand could play out :

Flop: ($11) j26 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $7, BB re-raises to $28, Hero calls $21.

Turn: ($67) j (2 players )

BB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($67)5 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $19, BB re-raises to $101. Hero goes all in. BB folds.

 SITUATION B.

Poker Stars $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha – 3 players

Hero (BTN): $200

SB: $200

BB: $200

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with J J77

Hero raises $5, BB calls $3.

Flop: ($11) akq (2 players)

BB checks, Hero ?

This is a mimic hand from the first situation, same villain reads except the flop runout is different.

The role reverses as now our hand is equity crushed against his perceived and actual BB defend range.

Note that our best play in this exact situation is still to bet using the blockers we have to the nut straight and hope to not get much action from him and preferably a fold. Checking and giving up in this spot is also a good option as you should not barrel the no equity hands a high volume of the time since that is pretty much burning money.

This is how this hand could play out :

Flop: ($11) akq (2 players)

BB checks, Hero $7, BB re-raises to $27, Hero re-raises to $57, BB folds.

 SITUATION C.

Poker Stars $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha – 3 players

Hero (BTN): $200

SB: $200

BB: $200

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with jj77

Hero raises $5, BB calls $3.

Flop: ($11) 789 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero ?

This is a mimic hand from the first situation, same villain reads except the flop runout is different.

The last situation that comes up on the flop is when you’re not exactly sure of your exact or even approximate equity vs a villain’s range and that’s where a lot of guesswork and practice comes in and players who can pinpoint where they are at exactly make extra money.

This is how this hand could play out:

Flop: ($11) 789 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $8.5, BB calls $8.5

Turn: ($28) j (2 players )

BB checks, Hero bets $21. BB re-raises to 59$. Hero quickly calls.

River: ($146) a (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks. BB shows 10qj7 for a flopped nut straight. Hero mucks.

A feel for equities comes with poker training, play around with numbers and go over your PLO hands to get better at solving equities on the go.