plo: pre-flop (part 1)

Pre-flop is maybe not the most important or interesting street in PLO, but it's still the foundation of the game, the place where you start to plan out your hand. For the NLH player it's important to note that no PLO hand is a huge favorite over another. A superb hand like AAKK only has 67.85% equity against a random hand. Compared to hold'em AA is a 85,2% favorite against a random hand. This fact encourage the players to be more active pre-flop. It's kind of meaningless to talk about PLO hands in terms of a hand chart, if not impossible. The most important thing is to understand the relative value of different hands and in what situations they play well. Most of the discussion that follows assume the players got around 100bb stacks or a little bit deeper.

Since the equities run so close in omaha, there are different successful pre-flop strategies used by strong players. Most strong players tend to play between 20% and 30% of their hands, but there are exceptions (notably some super LAGs). The most important thing is to set yourself up for profitable post-flop spots. All hands are drawing hands in omaha. In hold'em hands like AA or KK are usually still the best hand by the river unimproved. This is not the case in omaha, AA** usually has to improve to win a showdown. Roughly speaking AA** resembles a hand like 33 more than AA in NLH. The exception is if you can get the stack-to-pot ratio really low. If you for example get in 1/3 of your stack preflop, bare AA** is an easy shove on all but the worst flops. We categorize hands by what they are most likely to draw to post-flop. Here are the basic elements:

• Pairs (AAKK): Build sets and boats
• Suites: (AA**ds) Build flushes 
• Connected cards (JT98): Build straights 

Bigger is better

In a general sense, PLO is a high card game. You want to build nut straights, flushes and boats. Premium hands combine the elements above, while at the same time drawing to the nuts. Examples are AATJds and JT98ds. In general hands consisting of cards T and higher (not trips of course...), belong in the premium had category. Bellow follows a table of the top 30 hands. Being suited or double suited adds a lot of value:

1. AAKK 11. KQJT 21. QQAK
2. AAJT 12. KKTT 22. QQAJ
3. AAQQ 13. KKAQ 23. AAAT  
4. AAJJ 14. KKAJ 24. QQKJ
5. AATT 15. KKAT 25. QQKT 
6. AA99 16. KKQJ 26. QQJT 
7. AAxx 17. KKQT 27. QQJ9 
8. JT98 18. KKJT 28. QQ99
9. KKQQ 19. QQJJ 29. JJTT
10. KKJJ 20. QQTT 30. JJT9
    

This table is not only based on pre-flop equity, but also playability. That's for instance the reason AAJT is ranked higher than AAQQ and JT98 higher than KKxx. These hands does not come around often, so what else is playable from early position? The simple answer is when hands are double suited and have the same structure as the top 30 hands. Examples are hands like T987ds and 8765ds. They have a lot of potential to flop huge draws, or made hands with back-up draws. For example T987ds on a 762 or 873 board. Hands with gaps such as QJ98 and T976 got less value, as it's harder to flop a wrap with them or strong draws to go with your made hand. The higher the rundowns are, the more playable they are. The lower rundowns such as 6543 can be dangerous hands, as it's a disaster to meet hand like T987 on a flop as 762. In this case you are about a 25% underdog, which is almost as bad as you get it in PLO. This illustrates well how important it is to build nut draws, especially out of position. In NLH it's a big difference between QJs and 76s, but not as huge one as between high and low rundowns in PLO. The reason is that you seldom will hit a straight over straight in NLH. It's one important exception to point out in this context. In a 3-way all-in pot pre-flop, low rundowns are usually better than the higher ones, as your opponents are likely to hold AA** and high cards:

AA** 34.79% AA** 49.02%

BBBB 27.62% BBBB 19.58%

6543ds 37.59% QJT9ds 31.40%

Single-suited hands with three connected broadway cards and a dangler, like JsQhTs5s and KdQhJs2d, might not look as pretty as double suited hands such as 3c3s4c5s or Qd9c7d6c, but they got a lot of value post-flop. They got high card value and can still flop 13 out wraps without having to worry about higher straight draws. It's very hard for the more pretty looking hands to hit the nuts while giving someone else a decent second best hand. By the same reasoning a hand like QJ96 got a lot more value than Q987, even though they got the same structure. Playing weak and marginal hands in position will nevertheless add to your win-rate. As we will get a better understanding of when we discuss post-flop play, position is huge in PLO. Position is of great importance in NLH too, but not even close to as important as in PLO. If it gets folded to us in the cut-off or on the button, we should therefor usually open anything that resembles a hand, such as a hand including a suited ace or any double suited hand.

Multi-way or heads-up?

Hands that doesn't have much nuts potential prefer to play in a heads-up pot, as the chance of your draws being dominated are smaller. If the pot is raised to you in late position, you should therefore 3-bet hands such as QJ87ds and 6543ds to isolate the raiser. If you just call and get a multi-way pot, you sure will find yourself in some rough spots. Due to the power of position these weak hands play well in 3-bet pots. Your 3-bets will rarely make anyone fold, but will put you in a nice post-flop spot. Hands like bad aces and kings (such as AsAc7h2h) and sutied aces (such as AhTc9d5h), would rather prefer multi-way action. This will give them a greater chance to set over set or flush over flush another player. Premium hands doesn't really mind if the action is head-up or multi-way, but to 3-bet them for value is usually a good idea.

Limping behind?

In PLO you should often concider limping behind. For NLH players this might feel a bit counter-intuitive, as isolating limpers with hands like 54s is routine. In PLO however wou seldom get anyone to fold, so all you acomplish by raising limpres with marginal hands is to create a bloated multi-way pot with hands that are difficult to play post-flop. Good candidates to limp behind are hands consisting of two hold'em hands, like KsJs8c8d or AdTcTd9d. It's not uncommon to limp behind with bad aces or kings either. If you are in the cut-off with an aggressive blayer on the button, you might be better of just folding the weaker hands.

In the blinds

You should play very tight from the blinds. It's tempting to defend light against a late position raise, but you will only put yourself in grose post-flop spots. Folding up against 90% of hands from the blinds is not uncommon. You should play at least as tight as from early position, including folding hands like Q965ds and 7632ds, especially against strong aggressive players. You should also play tight from the SB versus the BB, and call/3-bet a wide range of hands when in the BB versus the SB. Also raise anything semi-playable versus a limp from the SB.

Related articles/posts:

plo: introduction

decision making