Preflop PLO Advice

[lehighguy]

I need preflop advice for PLO in loose low limit games. Like starting hand charts in holdem.

[PorscheNGuns]

Here's a repost of my previous thoughts on preflop PLO designations. This would be considered a very tight preflop selection:

Hand rankings are best done in groups. My personal selection, not based on any Omaha books, is:

Top hand can easily be placed on AAJTds.

Group 1, the best hands, are AA(paint)(paints)ds, KK(paint)(paint)ds, any four paint cards doublesuited, or AAKK and AAQQ.

Group 2, any run of cards higher than 4. 5678, 89TJ, etc. ds preferred.

Group 3 is any 3 card run (one gappers allowed) that has nut flush backing, or high pair backing, so QQT9, JJT9, or KKJ9 for instance. Or A5s67, or ATs89, or A6s78 for example.

Beyond that I dont play much else, unless its AA rag rag and I can go close to all in on the flop against 1 or maybe 2 opponents tops (which is done via a huge preflop reraise of course)

-Matt

[jhall23]

What about hands like Axs99 where you can flop mid/top set plus the nut flush draw. Seem's like these would fit into your type 3 hands.

[PorscheNGuns]

I dont like to call preflop hoping to hit middle set.

-Matt

[Acesover8s]

[ QUOTE ]

I dont like to call preflop hoping to hit middle set.

-Matt

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps if you improved your postflop play you would not be so fearful.

[bobman0330]

Anyone else disagree with ranking KKxxds over a hand like AKQJds, or JT98ds?

[PorscheNGuns]

IIRC you play much higher stakes than I do. At the $1BB and below, the best play you can make with middle set is to click the fold button IMO

The only play I'll make with middle set if I happen to catch it by accident on the flop is to bet pot, knowing that the only hand that beats me, top set, will surely reraise pot, allowing me to easily fold without any damage to my stack.

-Matt

[TheRempel]

IMHO I think you are wrong. The donks overplay bottom set and two pair w/o redraws so often at the lower limits that middle set is very profitable. Occasionally you will run into someone that plays their top set very well against your middle but that is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to all the times you will stack someone and win with a middle set hand.

[Big Dave D]

In most games above micro limits, especially on Party, middle set IS top set. There are some players I will pass bottom set to, and others I will slow down with middle set.

Hand rankings like holdem are useless. We have been through this many times before. As long as you have a VPF of less than say 55 and more than say 20, you should be ok. There are a lot of winning styles in PLO, much more so than limit holdem.

[LA_Price]

Play more in late position than early position. The reason being people play straightforwardly in this game and you'll make more when people don't know whether to bet or check on a scare card. There's not as much check raising in this game as players are afraid to give free cards.

I wouldn't call raises from good players without position as it'll be tough to double through them when you have to act first.

I err on the tighter side(around 20%-30% of hands) as it allows me to make bluffs and semi bluffs and win a lot of money by never seeing a showdown but as mentioned by Dave as well as many others a loose style can work well if you play well postflop. I usually use these deciding factors when deciding whether to play.

1. What are my cards
2. What is my position
3. How bad are the players in this hand and my relative position
4. How much does it cost me to call/raise
5. stack sizes

Hope this helps.

[Cooker]

[ QUOTE ]
At the $1BB and below, the best play you can make with middle set is to click the fold button IMO


[/ QUOTE ]

I used to feel this way about middle set, but at the low limits, middle set is a monster. I am constantly seeing people raise and reraise top 2 pair. I have passed middle set once on the flop and I was correct that time, but most times I have grudgingly called and ended up feeling stupid for not reraising hands that ended up being 2 pair or worse.

I will play almost any double pair hand, especially if I can get all in preflop. Also, hands like 2 consecutive pair are very nice as well (ds even better).

[PorscheNGuns]

I play on the Party network, $1BB and below, and I rarely if ever see raises let alone reraises made with 2 pair. People do however call down habitually with 2 pair, but only to the turn, rarely do they call the river if they havent boated up.

-Matt

Hi there.

It's rather important to realise that loose or poor preflop play in PLO is not nearly as costly as in NLHE. However, it can "feed" leaks in your post-flop game - if you don't understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various hands and card combinations it makes playing them a bad idea. Get to know how the features of an omaha hand works and you can play upwards of a third of the hands you're dealt profitably.

The single most important element in PLO preflop hand selection is position. You can play the vast majority of hands in the last three seats, and raise a lot of them. In contrast, you should be folding all but the premium hands in the early seats.

A fairly comprehensive article on the various features and hand-types in PLO can be found here - http://www.bet-the-pot.com/pot-limit-omaha-page35.html

Hope this helps.

Monk
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