Why position is the MOST important factor at PLO?

[Acesover8s]

Position is much more important in PL games than any other form of poker because the usefulness of the information will allow you to save or gain a much larger proportional bet, and consequently size your bet well enough to make a meaningful bluff when checked to you.

Pokergoblins recent post (this one has been bugging me) is the perfect example of why positional play is so important.

Assume PG checks the turn there and his opponent bets, PG has been put in a tough spot, because his opponent could be betting the nuts, OR he could be betting because his opponent checked.

For the player drawing, he is in great shape as he can always fold to a bet on the turn if he misses and if he connects his oppponent is leading dead into him and overcommitting himself.

If we reverse the positions and put the draw first, now he is in a tough spot and the set is in better shape. When the draw hits on the turn, does he lead out and give up the information or hope to get in a checkraise?

The set, while not quite as strong here as its not entirely obvious if he's winning or not, can excise some options. Although in a live setting he can use his read of his opponent to some advantage.

Most online players are blithely ignorant of positional play and you will frequently see a "good" PLO player get into a 5 bet raising war on the flop with a powerful drawing hand against top set, flipping coins for their entire stack.

Finally, the reason why this is not as important in NL play as compared to PL play, is that in NL you can simply move your stack in anytime you don't want to worry about position anymore.

Hope this helps.