What do I raise with in this game? (PLO HI)

[MasterShakes]

I've played PL/NL Hold 'em, limit O8, and limit HE, but the few times I've played PLO HI, I've had no idea what I should be raising with preflop. What hands should I be willing to get all-in with? What hands are a favorite over just about anything? In other words, what hands are similar to AA and KK in hold 'em, if any? I get the idea that this game is more about the draw, and I could envision never raising preflop, but then again, I'm pretty inexperienced with this game. Enlighten me...

[dogsballs]

There's no real equivalent of HE's AA - ie you're never that far ahead in Omaha preflop. However, you still raise preflop because you want to play big pots when you have a hand likely to have more equity than your opponents hands, even if it's a smaller relative difference than you get in HE. People will still try and play junky stuff.

More importantly, you play raised pots when your hand can make something that can be bet hard and stand action postflop, ie you're hitting to the nuts. Two hands might have similar chances of winning by the river, but one can be much more valuable since you're able to bet and raise with it when it hits the flop, while the other might only be able to gimp along usually and hope it's best at teh river. Hitting to the nuts lets you play hard and play the big pots.


Ideal starters are generally paired and connecting stuff that's big, hopefully with suits. AAKK, AAJT, KKQT, 89TJ, etc are excellent; the more suited the better. Smaller runs and pairs are good in PLO as well, eg 3456, 6678, etc. Small stuff is less valuable in limit cos more multiway and something bigger usually shows by the river, but you can raise them and call raises preflop in PLO.

Big pairs on their own can be playable, looking for top set, eg KK74r (which coincidentally just popped up in my game this instant. Smaller than JJ and you really need backup to the pair, such as connectors (small sets alone can be expensive). So K994 isnt really anything, but T997 is worth a look.

There's horses for courses of course; some players play a looser more wide open style, seeing more flops. Others are squeaky tight and only see flops with premium hands. Unless you've played a bit, it's better to play squeaky tight, esp in the loose smaller games, where the nuts are going to be shown most of teh time.

Just my ramble
dogs

[Acesover8s]

Perfect answer.

[bholdr]

Rolf Slotboom has an excellent series of PLO articles available at pokerpages.com i found his starting hand selection advice to be valuable.