How do you Play Pot Limit Omaha? Part 1 – Introductions

Pot Limit Omaha has become one of the widest played poker variant today. It has been popular in European poker rooms for ages as well as on high stakes gaming. But due to the convenience of low stakes poker in the Internet, it slowly become the alternative poker if a player is bored of playing Hold ‘Em.

Before becoming skilled at on PLO strategies, you need to know more about PLO itself and what distinguished it from other poker games.

1.Action is the statement in PLO: you’ll be given four hole cards as a replacement for two like in Hold ‘Em and the same five community cards. Due to this even the worst players can still have good playing cards and a decent pay-off.

This is a fact to players who have just played PLO from being knowledgeable in Texas Hold ‘Em. But don’t expect that the hands will give you an upper hand in Hold ‘EM can still hold their value in PLO, because most of the time they didn’t. If you are a good player in Hold ‘Em, then there is a chance to become a good player in PLO but you need to polished your game even more.

2.In PLO starting hands have a tendency to run closer in value compared to Hold ‘Em. It’s seldom that you’ll have a favorable hand before the flop.

Countless players have been unsuccessful on this aspect in PLO. It’s not that as easy as Texas Hold ‘Em pre-flop but the most difficult part is going to post-flop in PLO. But that doesn’t signify that post-flop Hold ‘Em don’t need a tactical approach but in Hold ‘Em you’ll have a better chance to win compared to PLO going to the flop.

3.In PLO you could do with the nuts in order to win. If you don’t have the nuts or not waiting for a draw that will make your hand a nut then it’s time to fold.

The second-nut flush is not a good hand in PLO. And hands with no nuts are just for back up. If you have a good hand then someone in PLO can have a better hand than you.

4.Draws, redraws, backup and blocking cards are often spotted in PLO.

You can have loads of draws PLO. An example would be having a 4589 hole card against a flop of 67K – this set alone can give you 24 draws for a straight counting any 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 or Ten in making a straight hand. Imagine getting a flush to go with the straight, you’ll get straight flush nuts that can be unbeatable in PLO.

Re-draws occur if you and another player have flop or turn the nuts, but still you have a chance to get a better hand post flop. For example, you got a hand of AKQJ and the other player has AKT5 then the flop is TJQ – you have the chance to redraw in order to get a full house four your two pair.

Blocking and backup card go together: these two poker terms can apply to draws that have no nuts and redraws that may give you the chance to win (backup) or lessen the other players’ chances of getting a better hand (blocking).

An occurrence of a blocking card would be holding a two or three kind of suit that might get your opponent a flush hand or a nut-flush. An example of a backup card would be having a top set and you flop it and possess a gut-hand that will lead to a straight.