Tip #10: 6-max Pot Limit Omaha Part 2

This is the second article of our six-max omaha poker series, about aggression on 6-max PLO.

You could say that poker is a game of aggression, and playing a loose-aggressive style may be good to you on holdem, but you have to adjust to six-max pot limit omaha.  First of all, stealing pots are not that easy on omaha, specially pre-flop. People love to see a flop on this game, and you won’t see a lot of people who give up their hands easily pre-flop.  Once the board is built you have much more chances to try a bluff, but you have to be careful. For instance, if a third card from a suit hits the board, most of the time someone will have completed flush. Paired boards make trips and full-houses much more frequently than in holdem.

Aggression should be used when you do have made hands or excellent draws. If the opponent hit some part of the flop he will be eager to continue in the hand, so take the opportunity and bet strong. If you feel he has some game, re-raise him and make him pay for over evaluating his hand.

Pre-flop aggression should be tailored depending on the table action so far. Do the players fold to pre-flop raises? Do they play 50%+ pots? Are they calling-stations? Sometimes the right action should be to open-limp, what would be considered a weak play on holdem.

Facing raises, you should try to determine the raise-range of the opponents, knowing that some of them will only raise with AAxx or AKQJ. Others, specially newbies, will raise with JJxx+ and low sequential cards (like 7654) too. If you get a good read, calling in position could be good, because you would play the hand knowing almost exactly what they have.

3-Betting on omaha

If you play No Limit Holdem you probably know something about 3-betting light, a semi-bluff pre-flop to try and steal the pot from a pre-flop raiser. In pot limit omaha, 3-betting as bluff is much more rare, because it is not very efficient. Since the game is pot-limit, most of the time the pre-flop raiser (pfr) will have odds (or be close to it) to call your re-raises. This is even more frequent in pots where some people will act after your 3-bet.

Because of this, you should avoid three-bets as a bluff most of the time, and use this weapon for value when you have a decent hand. If you have position, 3-bets and get called, you may have a chance to steal the pot when you hit the flop strongly or partially. You can even try to bluff the pfr out of the hand if he checks to you on the flop. It will depend not only on how you hit the flop, but your reading about the opponent, of course.

If you are a Holdem Player and want to excel on omaha, I strongly suggest the book: Transitioning from NLHE to PLO. It is not a book for beginners, as you can check for the pricing tag. But if you play mid to high-stakes, the book will pay itself many times.