No-limit hold’em (NLH) players who struggle to make a profit playing pot limit Omaha (PLO) are often making at least one of these mistakes. Here’s how to avoid making them yourself and what to do instead.
Mistake #1 Backward Thinking
They play their SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) backwards. They tighten up when they’re short and play fast and loose when they’re deep. But the truth is that the higher the SPR, the more careful you have to be, since the bigger the effective stacks are, the more you have to lose and the tighter your opponents’ ranges will be when they commit all their chips.
What to do instead: When you’re short, make it primarily a preflop game as you’ll often have enough equity to call the rest on the flop even if you’re behind. And when you’re deep, recognize you’re now playing a postflop game which will require hands with nut-potential such as nut flush draws and high pairs that can cooler your opponents with flush over flush or set over set. This is exponentially more true if you’re not only deep, but also playing multiway.
Mistake #2: Bad Kings
One of the most common mistakes NLH players make when playing PLO is 3betting and generally overplaying KKxx when holding weak side cards. As opposed to hold’em, where pocket kings will almost always be a huge favorite preflop, in PLO, the equity distribution is far less one-sided. In fact, in many games, treating weak KKxx hands as drawing hands will be the best approach.
What to do instead: rather than building a huge pot preflop with a hand that will struggle to play on most boards that don’t contain a king, consider treating it more as a speculative hand preflop. Once again, this is even more true when you’re deep and/or playing multiway. Of course, if you’re holding a hand like KKAx (thereby reducing the odds your opponent holds AA or will hit one on the flop) or KKpp (with pp being another strong pair), you can play your hand much more aggressively.
Mistake #3: Wrong Rundowns
Many NLH players who try their hand at PLO become enamored with rundowns like TJQK or JQKA and will pile the money in without considering who their opponent is. This can have disastrous effects as against even a relatively tight range, these types of hands will often be dominated by ones that include high pairs. Conversely, NLH players undervalue low rundowns like 4567 and rarely 3bet them. But this type of hand will not only give you board coverage (meaning you’ll be able to play more aggressively on more boards), but they’re perfectly suited to stack stubborn opponents who will never see it coming.
What to do instead: firstly, be careful overvaluing high rundowns against tight opponents, especially when you’re deep. You really don’t want to go to war with TJQK against hands like AAJT or KKQJ. Instead, look for spots where you can mix up your range and keep your opponents guessing by adding more low rundowns, particularly ones that are double-suited, to your PLO arsenal.
If you make these three adjustments – watch your SPR, play weak kings like the drawing hand they are, and stop overvaluing the wrong rundowns, you’ll be much more likely to skip past the expensive learning curve that drains most NLH players when they first sit down to play PLO.
Good luck and don’t forget to have fun playing the 4-card game!
