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PLO cash strategy
first of all sorry if this is badly written, this is the first time ive done anything like this. I started playing plo cash about a year after learning holdem and ever since have preferred it to holdem cash, i hope you players that have never tried it give it a chance, and if you do im sure you will never look back.
PLO or 'pot limit omaha' is primarily a cash game, where each player is dealt 4 cards rather than 2 like holdem. Each player MUST use 2 cards and ONLY 2 cards from their hand to make a 5 card hand using 3 from the board, so for example or the beginners if you hold Ah-Kc-Qs-10D and the board rolls out 6H-7H-9h-Kd-2H even though you have the ace of hearts in your hand and there is 4 hearts on the board unlike in holdem you do not have a flush because you MUST use 2 cards from your hand, this may take some getting used to for players that have only ever played holdem.
The thing that makes plo great in my opinion is that because you are dealt 4 cards instead of 2 it means you can play a wider range of starting hands because it is primarily a post flop drawing game, so if your like me and you dont like folding alot this game is perfect.
you may have heard people say about the swings of plo compared to holdem, this is because the money goes in on the flop alot more often than in holdem because it is so common for 2 hands to clash for example,
player a Ah-Ac-9H-10c player b 6d-7d-8s-9s flop Ad-5d-6s as you can see player a has top set and player b has wrap and a flushdraw and i know that some holdem players wil think that this is a very extreme scenario but in fact this and very similar situations come up alot more than you think, you often find getting all your money in on the flop in a flip or 60/40 situation.
im sure a few people may have never heard the term 'wrap' before this is where your hand wraps around the flop and you have a block of cards that give you a staright so in the above example player b has any 4,7,8,9 that gives him a straight.
Starting hands for beginners, you want to be playing hands that are connected and preferably double suited so that the cards in your hand work together so hands like
Ad-Ah-Jc-Kc
6d-7d-8c-9c
Kh-Kc-9h-10c
9c-10s-Jc-Qs
As-8s-9d-10d
one of the biggest mistakes that beginners make is drawing to weak flushes and bad ends of straights this can get you in alot of trouble somy advice until you feel comfortable about reading your opponents hand is make sure you are drawing to the nuts as often as possible. Also aces in plo are very vunerable so dont get too carried away they are far from invincible.
i know to alot of players that have played the game what i have just written is very very basic, but i thought this would be a good place to start until people get the conversation going and can build on startegy further.
Comments
Just to give a bit of my background.
I'm mainly a DYM player and converted from Holdem to PLO8 DYM's about 6 months ago, so i have a basic idea of the 4 card game.
Just wondering how a PLO cash game would differ from a PLO DYM?
Also in your starting hands for beginners you have 6d-7d-8c-9c.
I understand that they are connected but you could end up with either a weak flush or the wrong end of a straight?
Cheers
Mick
Great start, thank you Phil.
In my experience the PLO8 DYM's play like most DYM's should.
Most play tight early on, letting the looser players knock each other out.
Its when its down to 4 left that the interesting plays start.
Not much limping when there's 4 left, then its just pot pot pot !!
Taking notes is key and with a smallish player pool its not long before you have good notes on people.
Then its just down to Miss Variance to do her work !
Just thought i would like to give cash a go for a little more action as DYM's can get boring unless you play 4 tables or more.
Also would be another string to my bow.
Are there many games running on the PLO cash tables?
Cheers
That 6d-7d-8c-9c hand?
Personally, I'm very happy to take a flop with it in PLO, very happy indeed. If I end up drawing to the bad end of a straight, fine, I'll let go. In fact I would happily take a flop with that hand if the betting indicated (as it usually does) one of the opponents has the Aces. Great hand to take Aces on with, just as long as we can let go an bad flops.
The same hand in PLO8?
I'd be too embarrassed to play it. It is AWFUL, I mean REALLY awful. Dreadful in every way. Bin it pre, every time. NEVER play that hand in PLO8.
Strange how 2 similar games play so different, eh?
Great to see you in the PLO8 DYM's last night. Was great to test my game against such a good player.
First, the easy question - how to leave spaces.
Just press ENTER when you want a line gap.
Job done.
In previous years, I never go bust there, as I was looking to cash, not win. This year I played to win, tried to play for stacks whenever possible. (Which you allude to). As it happens, this was my worst Vegas trip ever (financially), & I lost a lot. But that was really because I played & ran bad in equal measure, & variance was catching up with me I suppose.
As it happens, I've adopted the same policy in the UK this year (PLO only, not played any Live PLO8 this year apart from Vegas), trying to WIN not cash, & although the sample size is small, it has yielded excellent results, 4 MTT's played, cashed every time, including 2 x 2nds (but no wins, boo), & a profit of some £9,000.
It's a shame it has taken me 15 years to eventually suss that I should play to win, not cash, but there it is, live & learn. Eventually.....
Yes, a dream spot, & we generally KNOW when we are facing aces in PLO. Think I want it Heads Up, so that I know if my flopped 2 pair (say) is good.
You'd struggle to get me to fold it pre though. We just have to be able to let go if the flop offers no encouragement.
It's a question of "committment", too. We must realise, before we make this play, that it might well end in busto if it goes wrong, as if we DO hit our flop, it is going all-in for sure. Once we catch that flop, there must be no backing down.
I'll be putting a "real-life" hand in the Tourney strategy shortly, hope a few of you guys will take a look, & comment.
In a hand i had yesterday (I can't find it in HH i was playing a few tables for awhile)
I am in CO 2 limps in front I have AsKQs10 and pot it. Button flats somebody else flats utg+1 who over limped previously not pots it back. I shove and it goes in.
Do we think readless this is a reasonable holding to GII with
1) given the action?
2) just in general?
Turns out i was against bad aces and i missed but was happy with the situation this time do we think it is +EV in the long run?
There are some instances where your play here is fine though. For example, in a more aggressive game where you are facing an opponent who is 3-betting a lot, 4-betting with our hand here can be a great play. It's high variance because we are generally pushing small edges, but definitely +ev. We can get some fun situations too where we 4b and flop is say 552 - we put the rest of our chip stack in and opponent is going to be folding lots of hands thinking they are drawing close to dead against AA where in fact they have plenty of equity vs our hand.
What do you think the optimum play would be pre?
Overlimping because most flops we would like to see will be giving us nut straights/flushes or draws to either so we want it multiway ideally?
Potting as i did but reasses when 3bet considering all other players and stacks involved?
From having read basic articles I think my starting hand selection is reasonable, but I suppose my two queries are:
How does/should 3-betting pre compare to NLHE? Should I be more frequently calling in position (to an early position raise) and drastically drop the amount I 3b from the blinds?
Post-flop how does bluffing compare to NLHE - should we be bluffing much less, are there different flop textures to NLHE that make it worth considering? I assume that any bluffs should be way more bias towards semi-bluffs on flop and turn as we're getting way more calls than at NLHE?
I'm very aware that I am way too fit-or-fold when I play the game... probably fine for micro levels... but never going to be enough to play at higher stakes.
i'll stick to sub 25bb hold em play thanks.
my cap is doffed you 4 card boffins
*head spin*
Quick point to PHilany2q if you are trying to get new players to the site how about stop wishing they get ebola when they beat you little bit childish methinks.