Advice for a Hold 'Em Player Taking Up PLO?

[ML4L]

Hey all,

I'm an experienced hold 'em player who has decided to take up PLO. I made my decision after listening to players talk about how soft the $400 PLO game on Paradise is. Up until this week, I had played a total of about 20 hours of Omaha in my life and actually had done very decently, although there were times when I felt overmatched. Fortunately, I have yet to feel overmatched in the $400 game on Paradise; it is every bit as soft as advertised. But, I figure that I'd still benefit from any advice that the knowledgable posters here have to offer...

So, what advice do y'all have for a novice? (I already have that whole "play for the nuts" thing down... /images/graemlins/smile.gif)


Incidentally, here is a quick hand from that game that I was wondering about... 4 loose limpers, SB calls, and I pick up A /images/graemlins/spade.gifA /images/graemlins/diamond.gifJ /images/graemlins/diamond.gifJ /images/graemlins/club.gif in the BB. What now? I've begun to question my preflop strategy in light of the responses to my AAxx post... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks in advance.

ML4L

[crockpot]

have you thought of taking up plo8? i personally find the opposition at that game much softer. of course, i honed my game really well.

at any rate, my best advice for the high game is as such: either get in cheap with hands trying to make the nuts and get paid, or raise the pot preflop in good position to set up a steal on the flop or possibly get paid on a big hand. i still prefer that you have some sort of a hand to make this play, so that if you get caught you have some outs. remember that position is very important, especially in a game with fairly frequent pre-flop raises. stick to coordinated hands, ones that have redraws if they hit a flop. if you're going to call a big raise pre-flop, you may need to be prepared to make a play for the pot even if you don't hit anything, depending on who the raiser is.

with the AAJJ, even in bad position, raise pre-flop. your hand is much too good.

[goodguy_1]

Play supertight in ring games.Learn about "nut outs" vs just plan old outs ..this is the key to PLO.
Read Ciafones/Reuben Omaha book.
If you want to get a feel for the game like any other game play alot as cheaply as possible.UB has micro limits and PokerStars has a 0.10/0.25 blind game.
To really get a feel for the game play short alot ..you'll learn faster and you reading skills will improve much faster than just playing ring games but do this at a level where u will not get hurt.
For bankroll suggestions I suggest you have 1000 big blinds ie $500 for 0.25/0.50 game..thats very conservative..500big blinds or $250 may be sufficient.
Other suggestion are this dont play trap hands which get begginers like bottom set or bottom twopair and non near nut flush draws on the flop..
Hope this helps, Lee

[24hPOKER]

Hi
24hPOKER have little traffic when it comes to Texas limit but we spread some of the best PLO and 5-Card Draw games online.

Mail me directly at marketing@24hpoker.com and I'll set you up with $25 for free to get you started.

As in all games, the quality of players in the PLO $0.25/0.5 have very different character than the ones at the PLO $15/25 game and compared to limit games the PL format is so much more profitable for even average skilled players that I am amazed that PL is not the preferrd structure in the US.

Anyway, just mail after you signed up and I'll set you up.

As to advice, I would recommend Ciaffone as well. I would also like to add that in PL it is much more important to pay attention to different playing styles than in limit. You should often play the player and not the cards and vary your play in a much higher extent than is necessary in limit.

Best regards

[ML4L]

[crockpot]

the mini-limits like .10/.25 and .25/.50 are a good place to learn how to play in multi-way pots, but they play very differently than the 2/4 game. pot raises pre-flop tend to narrow the field to two or three players at 2/4, but more like five at the smaller limits. the smaller limit games are all about hitting a nut hand (preferably with redraws) and winning money on it, whereas in 2/4 you will need to steal a lot of pots to stay alive. you can also expect a lot more pre-flop aggression at 2/4.

if you don't like playing in games that are too tight-aggressive, you may just want to stick to .25/.50 or so, where you can still make considerable wins, especially if you play at three tables.

[muck_nutz]

wrt AAJJ one suite you havn't given the piece of important information you _should_ have learned was important from C&R. Whats your effective stack size? Without that information you might as well be asking what you do when you pick up 2 moons, a star, and a pipe and flop 3 quarks when somebody moos. The answers you get to the question will be worthless.

[ML4L]

Hey muck nutz,

And I'm usually so good about giving stack size too... Anyway, in this case, I had about $400 in front of me, which was more than a couple limpers and less than a couple others (no ridiculously large or small stacks). Thanks for pointing out my omission.

ML4L

[muck_nutz]

So the reason I asked that is I don't like turning my hand over preflop. Unless you are one to raise with a rundown out of position with the money deep then raising here _screams_ aces. If you can get some large potion of your stack in, sure pump pot. But otherwise just call. Expose your hand and let the others either set you in when they are ahead or get away from it when they are not. Instead, add a little deception and make money from you opponents later in the hand.

[crockpot]

i completely agree with this, but this is exactly why i like raising with aces only when i have great sidecards. when those sidecards flop a straight, flush, set, etc. the rest of the table will decide to take out my aces and call me the whole way. and if you fail to improve there is still a decent chance you can win the pot postflop.

of course i will also raise with KQJT or two big pair type hands so that the table won't put me on aces every time.

[sam h]

1) Don't overvalue AA.

2) Don't overvalue flush draws as integral elements of starting hands. Hands that have little going for them except a suited ace are not that strong. Even when you flop your draw, you will find yourself just calling bets until you hit and then often not getting paid off. Think more in terms of big straight draws and top set. Those are the things you want to flop. If you have a flush draw too, that's even better, but don't play a hand hoping specifically to find a four flush on the flop.

3) Figure out which opponents can be bluffed.

4) Don't play many hands out of position. Seriously. Especially in any game where bluffing is fairly common.