PL-UH-OH

Throughout my time as a professional poker player, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to learn different games. I started off playing wild card kitchen table games with my friends and then progressed to limit hold ‘em, limit Omaha-eight-or-better, no-limit hold‘em, pot-limit Omaha (PLO), triple draw, etcetera. I have a pretty firm grasp on the strategy for all of these games though I would consider myself world class at few. One of the advantages this affords me is being able to game select a little better than most, especially at the lower limits. If the limit hold‘em game I’m in isn’t very good, and there are no seats in the other games going, I can play Omaha-eight-or-better or PLO. This allows me to be in the best game possible for me at any given time and is a huge advantage, especially for someone trying to build his bankroll.

As a result of being able to play in several games, I have found some pretty good success over a very small sample size at low limit PLO at the casino I play at regularly. I tend to stay out of the game right when it starts in the early afternoon because the players are a little tighter, the stacks aren’t very deep (the buy-in is 50-100 BB, but most buy in for 50 BB), and most of the players quit if they are winning a few buy ins. However, if the game is good in the afternoon, or it’s late at night when people are gambling a bit more, I jump in. There are lots of small mistakes that people make that don’t seem like much, but together make a huge difference.

The first big mistake people make is playing too many hands. People think that because they can make so many more hands in PLO because they have four cards, they should play more hands. This is pretty much the opposite of how you should play in a 9-handed PLO game, especially from early position. The hardest hands to play in PLO are the medium strength hands like non-nut straights and flushes and sets that aren’t top set. If you’re playing lots of hands that flop things like this, it becomes super difficult to play post-flop. When you add in a positional disadvantage, you are in for a painful PLO experience. Therefore, it makes sense to play very tight from the early positions, only playing hands that flop the nuts or draws to the nuts. This is still a considerable range of hands because you have four cards to put into combinations, but also remember that you want all four of your cards to work together. I think one of the types of hands that people really get into trouble with in PLO, especially if they are just transitioning from hold‘em, is the A-K-5-4 (especially double suited) type hands.

Card Player columnist Jeff Hwang (if you want to learn PLO, start with his book, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker The Big Play Strategy) calls this type of hand “Two hold‘em hands.” It looks nice at first, because you can make the nuts with it. The problem is that you often end up with hands like two pair, the bottom end of an eight-high straight, small straights with no redraw, or, if your king is suited, a king-high flush.

These types of hands look great to a hold‘em player, but they aren’t the type of hand you really want to have in a really big pot. You’re looking to flop the nut straight with a flush redraw, a big wrap with the nut-flush draw, top set, the nut straight and set, a set and the nut-flush draw, etcetera. You can’t really do that with this type of hand except for when you flop Broadway or a five-high straight with a flush redraw. The best way to flop big hands with big redraws is to play hands where all four cards are coordinated. You may not get yourself involved in all of the fun and crazy action that’s going on at your table, but you will have the pot on lockdown when you play a big pot.

The second big mistake that people make is not realizing what your Stack-to-Pot Ratio or SPR is and what that implies. Stack-to-Pot Ratio is calculated by taking the amount in your stack and dividing by the amount in the pot. For example, if you have 200 in your stack and the pot is 20, your SPR is 10. The higher your SPR, the fewer hands you should be getting all in with. This seems to be clear, but it’s not something that people take into account quite often in low stakes PLO. They got the money in with middle or bottom set when they had an SPR of 3 or 5 and they think they still should when it’s 10 or 15. In reality, when you have an SPR that high, you should only be getting money in with the nuts or a big draw to the nuts. Otherwise, you should attempt to get to showdown for as little as possible

These two concepts share quite a bit of the same ideas. It’s important to realize what hands flop the best and when you get those flops, how you should react to them. Though it often looks like a crazy action game, the best strategy in low limit PLO is to peddle the nuts and get paid. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG