Applying the Fundamentals in a New Context

Pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better (PLO8) is one of my favorite games, but I rarely get a chance to play it. I’ve never seen cash games spread for significant stakes in a live card room, and even online they are rare.

Opportunities to play large-field PLO8 tournaments are even rarer. An online tournament series such as the World Championship of Online Poker or the Full Tilt Online Poker Series usually includes no more than a single event, and many live series exclude the game entirely, presumably due to lack of interest.

I’ve studied the game a bit, and I try to play the bigger PLO8 tournaments whenever I get the chance. Despite the fact that I’ve had some success in these events, including final tables in Ultimate Bet Online Championship and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournaments, I don’t by any means consider myself an expert.

How, then, did I come to finish sixteenth out of nearly one thousand players in the 2013 $1,500 PLO8 World Series of Poker event? I won’t deny that luck had a role to play, but I would also contend that basic knowledge of a somewhat obscure game like PLO8 combined with a deep understanding of concepts fundamental to all poker games is a powerful combination.

Moreover, branching out to play or even just study and think about games beside your usual (no-limit hold ‘em, in my case) is a good way to deepen your knowledge of fundamental poker concepts and may help you to play your main game better and more creatively. This article will examine several hands in which I applied concepts learned from hold ‘em to relatively unfamiliar PLO8 situations with good results.

Hand Reading and Bluffing in Multiway Pots

Blinds were 75-150, and there were four limpers around to the small blind, who completed. I checked my option holding Q 4 3 2.

The flop came 9 6 3, and we checked it around. This is a deceptively bad flop for me. Although I have a flush draw, a low draw, a pair, and a gutshot, the 5 is the only card that could give me the nuts in either direction. The sorts of hands that will play a big pot on this board will have me in very bad shape, so my plan for the flop was to check and fold.

When the board checked around, though, I remembered an important mantra about multiway pots: people play honestly. They check weak hands, and they bet, usually strongly, when they have it. In this case, “having it” would certainly mean a set and quite possibly a nut flush or low draw with a little something else to go along with it. I learned this playing no-limit, but it’s probably even more true in a game like PLO8 where fold equity is more important. After the flop checked around, I concluded that if there were other flush draws out there, they probably weren’t to the nuts, and if anyone had A-2 for the nut low draw, he probably had nothing in the way of a high hand.

The J on the turn was one of the blankest cards that could come. There’s always a chance in Omaha that someone was out there with J-J and just turned the nuts, but in all likelihood, if my read that no one had much on the flop was correct, then they probably didn’t have much now either.

The small blind bet out 200 into a pot of 900. Although he showed some strength by betting into five players, I have to believe he would have bet bigger with a strong hand. PLO8 is not generally a trapping game, and with so many draws on the board no strong hand would be eager to let opponents draw cheaply.

I raised the pot, putting in 1,300 of my 2,000 chips and prepared to call off the rest reluctantly if that’s what it came to. As an early position player, I’m somewhat more likely than the others to have checked a good hand on the flop hoping to check-raise, and this raise should be extremely intimidating to hands as strong as non-nut flush draws with pairs, nut low draws with no high, and weak two pairs. My raise took it down.
Checking a Medium Strength Hand

At the 300-600 level, I opened to 1,600 holding A A Q 9 in middle position. The big blind (BB) called.

The J 10 9 was a welcome sight, but when my opponent checked, I checked behind. This was based on a principle that I first learned in hold ‘em: when your opponent is more likely to raise than call, then you ought to bet a polarized range consisting of monster hands with which you are eager to play a big pot and low-equity bluffs that you won’t mind folding to a raise. What you want to avoid is betting strong draws with which you’d rather not face a raise.

Although my hand has a lot of equity on this flop, I’m not eager to play a big pot yet. My equity is dynamic, meaning that it’s likely to change dramatically, for better or worse, on the turn. Rather than putting the money in now and taking a big flip, I’d rather see the next card, get more information about how to value my hand, and have the opportunity to use my position with money behind.

There’s also some deception value here since people will generally expect me to bet the nut flush draw. And I often would, if I didn’t have so many other draws to do along with it. I think a hand like A-4-3-2 with nut diamonds would be a clear bet on this flop. So it’s nice to find opportunities to check the nut flush draw.

A 3 on the turn gave me the nuts. My opponent checked, I bet 1,800, and he called. The river came a nice blank 2, and he checked and called off his last 4,200 in chips. I showed first, so I don’t know what he had, but he did look surprised to see the nuts.

Assuming he had something like two-pair or a set with a straight draw, he surely would have check-raised the flop, and although I would have actually gotten it in as a small favorite against that hand, I would have foregone the opportunity either to put my money in as a much bigger favorite on a favorable turn card or to get away cheaply if the board ran out badly for me.

Better for The Caller

Blinds were 1,000-2,000, and a player in early position opened to 5,500. The action folded to me in the BB, where I held 7 6 5 3. It looks pretty, but this is actually a weak hand. It has difficulty scooping pots, since the sorts of boards that will give you two-pairs, straights, and straight draws also tend to make lows possible, and this hand can’t make very good lows.

However, in a short-stacked tournament setting — I began the hand with barely 40,000 chips — a hand’s ability to win a big pot is generally less important than its hot-and-cold equity. Considering the price I was getting in the big blind, I chose to play.

The flop came J-J-9, all different suits. In hold ‘em, I often classify flops as either good for the raiser or good for the caller, and this is a board that is clearly better for the caller. Middle cards like nines, tens, and jacks are the weakest cards in PLO8. Even very strong high hands like Q-J-10-9 aren’t really good enough to raise from early position in this game, though many people either don’t know that or choose to ignore it. Still, this is a hard board for the preflop raiser to hit, as he shouldn’t have a lot of jacks in his range, nor even a lot of Q-10 or 10-8 combinations with which he might play back at me a little light.

I, on the other hand, could more plausibly play these sorts of hands out of the big blind. I checked, he bet 6,500, and I raised to 15,000. He folded instantly.

The conventional wisdom in PLO8 is that there’s no room for bluffing because it’s too easy for someone to have some piece of the board. In this case, though, it was actually quite difficult, and my background in hold ‘em helped me to see that.

There are more similarities between poker’s many variants than there are differences. That’s why they’re all called “poker.” Understanding fundamental poker concepts such as hand reading, balance, deception, and bluffing apply in all forms of the game. ♠

Andrew Brokos is a professional poker player, writer and coach. He blogs about poker strategy on ThinkingPoker.net and is co-host of the Thinking Poker Podcast. Andrew is also interested in education reform and founded an after-school debate program for urban youth.