This is part 6/7 in our series on PLO differences. In this article we’ll look at why it’s possibly to tone down your Pot Limit Omaha aggression and still play profitably.
6. Playing loose/passive pre flop can be okay
When playing No Limit Hold ‘Em you can often immediately identify weak players by certain passive or weak things they do. In PLO, however, seeing somebody do these same things might not give you quite as much information, in fact they could well be crushing the games with a much more passive style than you could get away with in NLHE.
Limping pre flop
In Hold ‘Em a classic sign of a weak, fishy player is open limping (being the first into a pot and just calling the big blind rather than coming into the hand with an ‘open raise’). The reason this is interpreted as fishy is because there are very few times in NLHE where open limping is the right strategy: firstly, because by raising we can often take down the blinds whereas by limping we let lots of people into the pot and the big blind can play for free; and secondly, by raising we maintain the initiative post-flop, we can often win the pot even if we miss by making a continuation bet or firing multiple barrels.
In Pot Limit Omaha these advantages are minimised. Firstly open-limping isn’t nearly as bad, especially in early position, because people call far more often in PLO so you have less fold equity. Secondly, because it’s so easy to crack big hands on the flop there is a lot of value in seeing a flop, by limping and calling a raise we can easily see a flop against AAxx or some other big hand for the price of 4 or 5 big blinds, whereas if we raise and get reraised we could be playing out of position in a much larger pot. By keeping the pot small we can actually maximise the amount of money that goes in post-flop and minimise how much we put in pre-flop.
Also, by limping in early position with a variety of hands including AAxx we can get into good situations where somebody in the CO might raise pot, both blinds call and we can now come in with a 3bet for a large amount. This should be used with caution, however, depending on stack sizes and the quality of your aces (see part 5 for more information on this).
Ultimately open-raising is still usually the best play but unlike in NLHE limping isn’t nearly as bad and can often be quite reasonably employed as a profitable way to play a hand; especially in very aggressive games with a lot of 3betting pre-flop, by controlling the size of the pot you make sure you can see more flops with your hands.
Keeping the initiative
The second reason why always open raising if it’s folded to you in NLHE (that you keep the initiative post-flop) is again far less important in PLO. Initiative in general plays much less of a part in Pot Limit Omaha because it’s much harder to represent strength on the flop when you raised pre-flop because your opponent can so easily crack any hand you opened with.
Because of this fact there should be a lot less continuation betting with air in Omaha than in Hold ‘Em, especially on certain boards. Bluffing, generally, is less common because we can rarely pin down our opponents hand-range accurately. In NLHE we can often put our opponents on pretty exact hands and so we can know when to keep barelling and when to slow down, when to continuation bet and when to check back. However, your Pot Limit Omaha aggression should be toned down significantly in many situations because your opponent really could have any hand. There are many exceptions to this general point but as a rule: raising pre-flop in PLO does not mean as much as it does in NLHE.
So with that in mind we can see why limping pre-flop in PLO really isn’t too big a deal in certain situations, we can often gain more than we lose by controlling the size of the pot against aggressive opponents and still take the initiative after the flop depending on what hand we make.
Semi Bluffing
In No Limit Hold ‘Em you will often be in situations where just calling with a draw is unprofitable because you’re not getting the right pot odds but raising will be profitable when we combine our fold equity along with our odds of hitting our draw. In Pot Limit Omaha this concept applies too: very often the optimal play is to wield our draws aggressively, raising our opponents strongly and squeezing as much fold-equity out as we can. That said, if you suspect your villain has a very strong hand himself it can often be correct to play your big draw more passively. Flat calling is actually a very effective play in these spots because, unlike in NLHE, you will often be getting the right odds to make a call on its own merits.
Playing more passively, in this way, might seem weak if you’re coming from a Hold ‘Em background but it can actually be perfectly correct in the right situations. Here’s an example. You’re dealt the following hand:
You raise and both blinds call, the pot is $9 and the flop falls:
The player in the sb leads for pot and the BB calls. You have an open-ended straight draw and a couple of backdoor flush draws, what should you do? Well unless the SB is especially spewy you should just call. The odds of him having a made straight are high and sets are also in his range, unlike in NLHE you have very little fold equity with your draw but you are getting great implied odds to hit your hand.
You call, the pot is $27 and the turn card falls:
You’ve picked up a flush draw to go with your straight draw and you’ve also got some showdown value if your opponenet has a draw of his own. He fires full pot at you again, $27. What’s the right play? Again, unless your opponent is unusually aggressive, you should just call. It’s become very likely that he has the straight himself with a smaller chance that he has a set, against most players you can expect to have very little fold equity if you raise in this situation, calling, however, is immediately profitable. Against most made straights you have about 33% equity and you are getting 2:1 immediate odds on a call. Calling by itself is a breakeven play even before we factor in implied odds. Even if you only win $5 on average when you hit your hand (and you can expect to win a lot more) you’ll still be making an easy profit by just calling.
Many new players can easily go overboard with their Pot Limit Omaha aggression in spots like this, it can feel like you have so much equity that shoving must be correct. The trouble with this way of thinking is that if you’re getting called more than 80% of the time with a straight or a set you’ve actually only succeeded in turning a profitable call into a slightly unprofitable shove. Here, as in many spots in PLO, the passive approach can be the one that yields you the highest return.
Reduce variance
Finally, Pot Limit Omaha is a game with much bigger swings than you might be used to from playing NLHE. Because of that choosing to play more passively can reduce the inherent variance of the game which can keep your losses smaller and your tilt under control.
As with all the things discussed in this series, realise that there is a time and a place for everything. Playing aggressively is rarely bad in any form of poker, the good player, however, wields his aggression selectively in situations he deems to be profitable. When transitioning to PLO make sure not to be aggressive for the sake of it but rather pick your spots, try to accurately estimate your equity, and don’t be afraid of just calling.
Click here for reason #7: Variance is much higher
