PLO for Beginners: Tame the Game of Draws

Learning a new game can be one of the best decisions you can make as a poker enthusiast. It can spark again that fire you first had when you sat down at a poker table – a world full of possibilities and excitement! And, what could be the perfect game for you to learn if you’re used to playing No-Limit Hold’em? You guessed that right: Introducing Pot-Limit Omaha, the game of draws & big swings!

We asked our friends at Beasts Of Poker to reveal the secrets to success in PLO in a mini-series of two articles. The first part will cover what beginners in the game should look for to get on the winning track.

Why should you listen to Beasts Of Poker when it comes to advice on PLO strategy? Well, there’s no other way to figure this out than looking at their results. You could say these guys include some real end-bosses of Omaha. Eelis Pärssinen won the EPT Online 25k SHR in November & Poker Masters PLO Purple Jacket this summer. He has scored several million dollars in tournament winnings in 2020. Joni Jouhkimainen and Sampo Ryynänen are frequently seen at big cash games & final tables of high stakes Omaha tournaments online. Just recently, on Sunday 8th of November their Pro Team member AkuJ scored a massive $271,790 trophy on GGPoker’s $10k PLO event:

Behind these results are some simple principles & countless hours of study and play. Now, an easy way to start learning PLO is to avoid the biggest pitfalls. That’s why this article consists of five different areas of strategic mistakes to avoid. Let’s hear what the Beasts had to say on getting started in taming the game of draws!

Don’t play bad starting hands

If you’re new to Omaha, figuring out which starting hands to play from each position can be pretty hard at first. Our advice is simple: Throw those hands that look like garbage to the muck! If you play mostly premium starting hands, you have a good chance to beat more experienced players with your card advantage.

Playable hands include the following:

• Aces with another big pair to go with them, preferably at least single-suited
• AAJT and AAT9 double-suited or single-suited with the nut suit
• All double-suited Aces
• Big double or single-suited double pairs like KKQQ and KKJJ
• Big double-suited rundowns, KQJT, JT98

‘’Every serious player in 2020 should be familiar with which hands to play pre-flop. Yet, many do not. Much to my own shame, I also make mistakes pre-flop nearly every time I sit down to play. And, I’m a guy who plays hundreds of thousands of hands per year at mid-stakes making a living from this. Playing a great pre-flop game is not easy – it takes some effort to get good at it!’’

-‘TheJudas’, Beasts Of Poker Team Pro

Don’t go broke with a small straight or a flush

Remember one of those big cooler hands in Hold’em where one player loses with a small flush to a bigger one? This situation comes up much more often in Omaha. But, there’s a big difference to it. You see, putting your whole stack in and losing after flopping an 8-high flush is not a cooler in PLO. It’s simply bad play!

Dominating the draws of your opponents is one of the key concepts to playing winning Omaha. Therefore, you should have the patience to wait for those big hands, even more so at full-ring tables that are common in live poker. Playing draws that make the best hand when they hit is not hard to do, but it’s a surefire way to ensure you don’t make big mistakes on the post-flop streets.

Avoid playing out of position

You’ve probably heard that the power of position in poker is huge. Position becomes even more important in Omaha as opposed to Hold’em. This is because no starting hand in PLO is a big favorite against another one. When you have the button, you can force other players to fold their marginal hands. If they don’t, they’ll risk their stack to find out if you have a strong hand or not.

Controlling the pot size is also much easier in position. You’re able to take medium-strength hands to the showdown cheaper than you would when out of position. Blocker bluffs tend to be more effective when you have the position since your opponent is unlikely to be slow-playing the nuts OOP.

Don’t give free cards to your opponents

Slowplaying is rarely a great strategy in PLO, even less so than in Hold’em. Since the average players seeing the flop is much bigger in Omaha, your reward for taking a pot down on the flop is going to be bigger. Even a bigger reason to bet aggressively with your strong hands is the likelihood of different draws on the flop.

By giving free cards to your opponents, someone will likely outdraw your made hand by the turn or the river. There are exceptions to this rule though. If you have a pair of Aces and the nut-flush draw on a flop like A93, you would prefer that someone makes the second-best hand like a smaller set or a flush. With this hand, it would make sense to give a free card for your opponents to catch up a bit or at least bet smaller on the flop.

Don’t play in nitty games

This advice is one of the most important ones to follow in any poker game. Playing in a nitty game is not only a losing proposition – it’s not enjoyable either! You should aim to take a seat in games where there’s a lot of loose pre-flop open-raises and limping going on.

What’s the easiest way to find a great game then? If you think about, one method stands out: Choosing the times when most fun players are at the tables. This means playing on the weekends and evening hours when normal people are off-work. To summarize: hop in when the games are at their best – do something else when there are only grinders around!