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Playing Pot Limit Omaha is an extremely lucrative profession. The highest stakes poker games are all played at Pot Limit Omaha because of its exciting nature and ability to create large pots on a regular basis. In PLO the best hand of a double suited AAKK is only a 2 to 1 favourite over pretty much any other hand. This means that pre-flop you might be tempted to play too many hands but in this article we will explain how to avoid being on the wrong end of a big pot.
Analysing your starting hand:
In PLO the winning hand is rarely just a single pair and it is almost impossible to win a hand without your hole cards improving. With so many outs for players to hit it is very easy to blow a stack of chips in no time at all. Hands that work well in large multi-way pots are double suited connecting cards. Whilst A-A-K-K statistically is the strongest hand in poker if you are looking at playing for big pots a double suited J-10-9-8 provides many more redraw options. This is why A-A-J-10 is the second best starting hand in PLO.
Why is J-10-9-8 such a good hand?
If we imagine that the J-10-9-8 is double suited with hearts and diamonds (Jh-10d-9h-8d) this means any red card that falls on the flop helps our hand. Also any card between a 5 and an Ace helps our hand. If we consider that the J-10-9-8 hand outperforms an A-K-Q-J hand we can identify why J-10-9-8 is so powerful. This double suited connecting hand allows us to draw to Broadway straights (AKQJ10) all the way down to 98765 whilst keeping us protected if two to a flush is flopped. A hand like J-10-9-8 is extremely powerful as even in a big pot against a strong hand you will nearly always have multiple outs to win the pot.
PLO is a drawing game
The reason the hand above works so well in PLO but is dangerous in Hold’em poker is that PLO is a drawing game. The player leading on the flop will often find their hand counterfeited by the turn or river.
An example:
Player 1 holds Ac-Ah-Kc-Kh
Player 2 holds Js-10d-7s-6d
The flop is dealt As-9s-8d
Whilst Player 1 has flopped the top set and would currently win the hand if there was no turn and river, because there are two more cards to come, Player 2 is actually a 59.76% favourite. This is because Player 2 has an extremely strong drawing hand:
Eight of the remaining spades give Player 2 a flush (the 8 spades is an anti-out)
The concept of outs, anti-outs, true outs and blockers will explained in a later article.
One remaining King – the King of spades has been counted in our flush draw already
Three remaining Queens – Queen of spades is counted already
Three remaining 5s – the 5 of spades is counted already
Two remaining 6s – the 6 of spades is counted already
Three remaining 7s
Two remaining 10s – the 10 of spades is counted already
Two remaining Jacks
Therefore Player 2 is left with 24 outs whilst Player 1 would need the board to pair to secure the full house and negate the straight or flush of Player 2. This hand clearly demonstrates the power of a hand where all four cards work together. Whilst AAKK is a 61% favourite pre-flop against Player 2’s hand, once cards have hit the deck Player 2 is an in extremely strong position.
Even if the flop was not quite so helpful to Player 2, they do have the option of pushing aggressively at lots of flops as almost any card on the turn will help their hand. Big pots in Omaha are pots which have reached the river with both players having some piece of the action. In Omaha you need a strong drawing hand if you haven’t flopped the nuts and in the best possible world you will flop the nuts with a nut redraw.
This week’s tip:
If you want to win in PLO the key is to always be drawing to the nuts and this begins with selecting the right starting hand.
