Poker Articles

Short-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

Now that we've discussed basic PLO strategy over the last two columns, we know how to play hands that encourage redraws, nut flushes and wraps and discourage ugly unsuited danglers and so on. This weekend I played in a few PLO games that made me laugh as I thought about sticking religiously to that prescription, however. Once you can play good tight poker, sometimes you need to loosen up a little or even a lot in order to get in there and give yourself a chance to win. Short-handed and/or overly tight PLO games are a perfect example.

I was playing live, in a small 1/2 PLO game a few days ago and it was soooo slow. No one was catching anything and bottom two, or even just one pair, was holding up on the river, time and again. That is almost miraculous in a game that produces so many hands, especially when the pots were rarely raised pre-flop. If you can see the flop for only the price of the big blind over and over in a weak pot limit game you really should, especially if you are one of the better players in the game. Once the flop is out there you then have a chance to outplay people and win a good-sized pot; it's hard to outplay anyone if you're not in the hand!

This is not to say you should abandon intelligent hand selection, but rather that sometimes if no one is playing aggressively you will be able to steal a lot of small pots and once you're giving action you will get paid off a lot more on your good hands. The whole table was seeing flops for two bucks, but no one was willing to really gamble after that and we saw endless small pots (which is ugly in a raked game, as the rake means a lot more in small pots. Only big pots will let you beat the rake over time). If you really flopped something it was hard to get much action; it was a very passive game and even after six hours it never really broke loose as there were no real action givers. Only the house makes money in that kind of game, which is exactly what happened.

It reminded me that in slow PLO games, which are rare, but do happen, you need to see lots of flops, because even a crappy dangler can flop trips on occasion and if everyone is playing pussy poker, you're often going to get the money even when you flop nothing at all. Also, it can be mighty frustrating to watch people turn over Q962 winners while you keep tossing the winning hand that was nonetheless hardly playable in a real game. With some good players in a full ring you must choose strong starting hands, but in weak games there are so many bluffing possibilities that you need to be in it to win it. Even in a strong game, get in there cheap when in the back with anything remotely playable if it's unraised. It's not impossible to flop a great hand with weak cards, just unlikely, but it is impossible to steal a pot you're not playing in. Reading players becomes very important at that juncture, however, so know your limitations. Sometimes top two is huge, sometimes it is pure junk. It is as usual all about knowing your opponents. That said, top two is usually worth a bet from the back to get the free filling card you need if the game is full of trappers who will give you the free card in hopes of check-raising. In a slow game it might even stay top hand to the end.

Making some baby raises before the flop with your middle cards can be smart poker (sometimes a big raise with these in a tough game is a great idea, as most will put you on big cards. No flop and you're out of the hand pretty cheap. Hit it and you get paid big.) Hands like 789T are great in PLO against aces and such. A standard play is to flop two pair and then bust the obvious aces raiser. Hold'em players always overvalue aces in PLO. Double suited aces are a monster, but simple aces with two danglers are damn weak indeed. I've seen more players go broke raising aces and following through without hitting one than any other PLO hand by far.

Even though I was seeing most every flop in that small game, I couldn't hit a thing and was lucky to drop only a little cash. My only regret is that I played too tight early on, until I realized no one else was hitting anything either. As the game got short-handed there was more room for creativity and I made some back. The next day I played online PLO and it only confirmed that six-handed or so is the best format if you like to really play.

Not only do you get to see more flops with weaker hands, you often play against folks who never relax their starting requirements. That's gravy because once you're in a pot with them and they bet you know you're probably beat, and they won't be getting much of your money. But sometimes you will have a hand they won't give you credit for and that's where money is really made. Show them the nuts with a redraw and next time their money will be even easier to steal with no hand at all.

There is no better place to really learn how to make PLO moves than those short-handed games. Check them out and see what I mean.

One hand from two nights before (another1/2 PLO game but somewhat faster) reminded me of last month's column on bluffing with the naked ace. A usually wild player brought it in with a raise, got five callers and the flop came A97, two hearts. The raiser bet and got called in three places. The turn brought the 4 of hearts and he bet the pot. Two people called and the raiser seemed rather annoyed. The river was a three and the raiser bet the pot yet again, and to his total amazement both people called and showed down flushes, a jack high and an eight high! The raiser looked at the players in disgust and threw his hand away. Three of his cards bounced face up and there we saw two kings and a jack, with the king of hearts among them. He was playing the naked ace trick, only this time it was the naked king as the ace was out there already. Not only did both players weakly call him down, but they each did it with the third nut or worse! The lesson was clear and it's a lesson that every player needs to relearn at various points in his career: you can't bluff a weak player. Show them the best hand or be gone. When you're always playing good opponents it's easy to forget how badly some folks do in fact play. Time to shift gears and catch some hands, or at least pick your spots a lot more carefully.

Last night I played in some online PLO tourneys. I was absolutely amazed how tight everyone was. I was patient for a while and then just started committing grand larceny and got away with it while never flopping much of anything. By the time we were down to a few players they were so concerned about not losing that it was almost impossible to avoid taking their chips. When they committed to a hand it was easy to get away from mine and give them few chips back. This went on until the tournament was a pretty easy win.

It's not always that simple, of course, and sometimes you will meet some major gamblers who are always in there with anything. But since you know what solid, tight pre-flop and flop play is, you can be a little more selective while still getting in there and gambling with the best of it most of the time. Playing short-handed PLO lets you make so many moves and the pot-limit format lets you distort pot odds in wonderful ways.

Essentially, a passive short-handed PLO game is a good poker player's dream: you can see a lot of flops and then use your skills to make reads and outplay your opponents. Full games make that much trickier, and you're going to have to be in there with the nuts and a redraw a lot more often. That can get boring to wait for unless there's real money to be won. Do yourself a favor and check out the short-handed games and small tournaments. When you know how to play tight and right you can play loosey goosey a lot more effectively, as you know how hard it is to flop the right hand.

And when no one wants the pot because they only flopped top pair and are afraid of the nuts, well, I guess it's time for someone to steal it. And shouldn't that someone be you?

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