In part one we tried to get a broad picture of the relative strength of different type of PLO hands. In the two next parts we will look at more specific situations, talk about playability and 3- and 4-bet pots. Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of some of the dynamics in PLO, and give you some useful tools to analyze pre-flop situations on your own.
Playability
Even more so than in NLH the playability of a hand increases in value as stacks gets deeper. The single biggest mistake most new players do is to overplay bad AA** and KK** when stacks are deep. Bad aces constitutes of those who aren't suited and can't make good two-pair hands, such as AcAdjh3h or AhAsQc6d. A hand like AhAs7h2d is also considered weak, even though one of the aces is suited. It's true that all these hands have an equity advantage against any non-aces hand. Nevertheless double and single suited rundowns, like KQJT, KQT9, QJT9 and so on, might have greater value. With these hands you can flop a lot of draws and continue on a wide variety of flops and turns, a statement that seldom holds true for bad AA**. Most of the time you will feel "lost" with AA** when you doesn't flop a set. Pre-flop equity is of course important, but you should be cautious with putting a lot of money in pre-flop with AA** as other hands often catch up and are easier to play. If stacks are shallow, this does of course not matter, and getting the money in as fast as possible with any AA** is correct. As a general rule; if you can get in about 1/3 of your stack with AA** pre-flop then go for it.
A hands playability is determined by how many flops and turns it profitably can peel, trying to catch up if behind. An example would be AsQdJcTs on a Td8s2c flop. On this board you can continue on any 9, T, J, Q, K or spade, knowing that you at least got outs to the nuts. With a hand like AcAdQs2h you might already be drawing slim, and there are not many turns you can withstand a lot of pressaure on. Another sort of hand with a lot of playability are connected nut-flush hands, such as AcTs9d8c. The nut flush draw has a lot of power in PLO. It never got less than 25% equity (against a set) on an unpaired board, and is even a favorite against a 13 out wrap. Having a pair in your hand raises your equity with 5-10% depending on your opponents hand and blockers he might have. I would suggest you go to propokertools.com and run some equities to get a feel for how the nut flush draw, with or without a pair, runs against other hands such as sets, two-pairs and wraps.
3-betting
In NLH you find a lot of 3-betting. You have a lot of fold-equity in this case, so you do it both as bluffs and for value. This doesn't really hold true in PLO, where you seldom will get a fold after 3-betting. So in PLO you should 3-bet for value and to create profitable post-flop spots in position. You should never 3-bet garbage hands, but rather semi-connected hands that want a heads-up pot. In today's games most players seem to automatically put you on AA** when you 3-bet, so 3-betting a hand like T976ds or 6543ds in position to isolate, will also have the benefit of being able to represent AA** on A-high boards. This is another reason to just flat bad AA** as well, as both plays add some deception to your game. You should be considerable more Conservative with 3-betting oop.
4-betting
Against aggressive habitual 3-betters you should in addition to 4-betting AA** start to 4-bet premium rundowns such as double suited AKQTds and JT98ds. Premium KK** are also good candidates, like KKJTds or KK97ds. Be aware that this is a suicidal strategy against the wrong opponents though. As stacks get deeper (200bb+) it's probably a good idea to stop 4-betting at all out of position. This also include premium AA**. Playing big pots oop deep, with a narrow range of hands, is just not profitable. You are better of keeping the pots as small as possible before the flop. This does of course not mean that you should go into a passive shell. Post-flop you are free to come out with the guns blazing again!
Calling 3-bets
Since position is such a big factor in PLO and the equities difference between hands so small, you should call most 3-bets ip. it's fine to let some hands go until you feel more comfortable in 3-bet pots. To fold 40-25% of your hands is not a terrible leak. Some good players profitably manage to call about 90% of their hands ip, something that tells you a lot about the difference between PLO and NLH. Hand's you should let go are unconnected off-suite hands. It's also worth noting that the worst kind of hand you can have against aces are hands including an A and a lower pair (for example AJJ8). Oop you should be tighter, the power of position can't be over emphasized.
Calling 4-bets
3-betting ip is a very powerful tool and you should increase your 3-betting frequency as your game improve. Some players will fold a lot to your 3-bets and some players will call and fold the flop, while others mitht fight back with thinner holdings. Be aware of your opponents tendencies! To learn to handle players who 4-bet light, it's necessary to do some math. In our next part (and last about pre-flop play), we will take a closer look at these situations.
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