PLO question - pre flop play

silentbob

Apologies in advance as I think this may be a very vague question.

Obviously when playing ABC NLH there's a range of hands that you can open raise (or 3 bet) with (PP, AK, AQ etc) & I was wondering if there's a similar thing in Omaha?

I'm very new to the 4 card game & I gather it's very much a game of draws & redraws, so even if you've got a couple of aces in your starting hand you're pretty much guaranteed to be behind after the flop unless you hit a monster.

I do appreciate there may also be a difference depending on whether you're playing tourneys or cash, so as I plan to mainly play cash PLO assume that's what I mean.

Apologies again if this is very vague.

I think what I'm really asking is, is it just generally better to limp pre with decent drawing hands or are there any kind of hard "rules" for raising pre with certain sorts of hands?

LOL_RAISE

typed out long reply then it logged me out when posted

dont ever open limp

basically you want 4cardsthat work together well. this is so when the flop comes you can mash the pot button until your finger hurts.

high rundowns (KQJT) are better that low rundowns.  in rundowns with 1 gap in it e.g. QJT8. the lower down the gap is in the rundown the stronger your hand. (more over cards to gapper = more nut draws when that gapper is on the flop)

obv if rundowns are suited that is better than unsuited, not because we go mad when we hit 9high flushes but because a BDFD = 5% worth of equity.

big pairs are goot just dont go crazy with them pre if the other two cards arent that super.


if you are playing PLO8 middling rundown hands are complete garbage, either you have the nut straight but there is a low available so we chop, or there is no low available but we dont have the nut straight.  also they obv. make terrible low hands themselves.

Talon

  The main thing in omaha is to think about starting hands. The starting hand consists of 6 x 2 card hands and you want as many of these to be nut drawing as possible. The key is quantity of nut drawing hands not the quality of them. So AA94 rainbow is a bad starting hand because despite the AA you have junk and so only 1 nut drawing hand. A hand like 6789 has all 6 nut drawing so is a much better hand to be playing with.

  So basically you want to be seeing a flop with quite a few possibilities of winning. Remembering that the more nut drawing hands you have the better chance of hitting the flop and the better chance of winning the pot.A good guideline figure is 3 nut drawing hands this gives you a reasonably good starting hand.

 The main reasons for preflop betting are to build up the pot and to remove the very weak hands preflop.3 betting preflop is never a good idea and if you ever see 3 and 4 betting preflop you can normally tell it is AAxx vs KKxx. In omaha you are never assured of being better than 65% favourite preflop even with the best starting hand so getting yourself committed preflop is not a good idea. So you want to be looking at 3-4 nut drawing hands to raise pre and 3 to call a raise pre.


  The fastest way to the poor house with preflop raising is if you auto c-bet every flop. Any good omaha player will take you apart and you will find yourself winning small pots and losing big ones.


  Hope this crash course in preflop aggression helps you.If you want to know more feel free to ask.

silentbob

Cheers peeps

Generally makes sense & I think, in part at least, I was kinda thinking along the right lines with good drawing hands.

One thing I don't think I understand fully though Talon, you mention that a hand like 6789 being nut drawing but wouldn't you need something along the lines of AKQJ (or basically some similar combo that draws to an ace high straight)?

Talon

  In all cases the best hand to have is the one that connects with the board so as far as that is concerned 6789 and JQKA have equal potential, depending on how the board turns out. But if you want the best running combo available then 89TJ is the best available because TJ can be the nuts in both directions.

  As far as the pocket pair is concerned they should not be overrated or overplayed unless they have good back up like AA78 ds or JQKK ds. These give you much better chances of connecting than just relying on setting up.

beaneh

You CAN limp in omaha. wait till your very good.

once you're very very good you'll be just raising all the time in position for the heck of it.

YOUNG_GUN

In Response to Re: PLO question - pre flop play:

You CAN limp in omaha. wait till your very good. once you're very very good you'll be just raising all the time in position for the heck of it.
Posted by beaneh

+1 limping is fine in omaha, just dont get too attached and if any 4 dont go calling a re-raise

also plenty of bluff opportunities in omaha :P although you need to read the board and learn to play it first