Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

I recently had a conversation with an old friend who’s been kinda out of the poker world for a year. He was telling me that one of his friends is very into PLO, and he was trying to convince him why the game was no good. Obviously, i was appauled. PLO bad for you? Hell no. So i’ve decided to write a series about PLO and how to play PLO as a FR nit.

Pot Limit Omaha is the best game online right now, in my opinion. I actually think that one is impossible to argue. There’s more action, more players who don’t have a grasp on the game playing. Honestly, I love Pot Limit omaha so much that I am often tempted to make it my full time game. The problem I find with making PLO my full time game is the swings. I personally don’t like losing more than 5 buyins at a time, and in PLO this can happen so fast you don’t have time to blink.

I use pot limit omaha as an excellent way to mix up my days. I find some days, i just don’t want to play with all the regulars at 2/4. I think its a great way to keep your sanity. If i am having a pretty big losing day, and the next day feel like i’m worth nothing at holdem. (i say next day because i don’t get on the tables later on after a big losing session) But after those kinds of days, i just don’t feel right at the holdem tables. So i often go play 6 tables of PLO.

Here’s the Damn Ringer Rules for Deciding what Pot Limit Omaha to play:

1. Have 100 buyins for the game you want to play. PERIOD. If you are playing at all scared at PLO, you will lose. 100 buyins is a must. I usually play one stake less than my FR NLHE stake. So i play 1/2 PLO, and need 20,000 in my bankroll to do so. Don’t play 0.50/1.00PLO with a bankroll of 5k.
2. Table Select. Table. Select. You don’t have to preach to me about higher stakes having no choice of table selecting. PLO at just about every stake has an amazing number of recreational players. Search out players with full buyins, who aren’t playing more than 2 tables. These are your ATM. These players likely have no idea what PLO is all about, and can be exploited.
3. Regulars. Take the time before sitting at new PLO games, to figure out who the regulars are. There aren’t many. The regulars, however, are usually very seasoned, and untiltable. Untiltable is not the kind of players you want to play in omaha. I can’t tell you how much profit i’ve made off of guys who i’ve tilted in omaha, its like 3 times more than i’ve made tilting players in holdem. You hit a 40/60 draw against their top set, and they will donate another $800 to table cause they are so tilted. Regulars don’t do this. Omaha is one of the easiest games to tilt from, don’t play emotionally sound players who are bankrolled for the game. They are avoidable for the most part, so avoid them. The difference between donkey and regular in PLO isn’t just the difference of skill, but also the difference of tiltability as well. Remember that bad players are far more likely to reload in PLO than in NLHE, because they will feel like they got bad beated far more often, because outplaying someone in omaha looks so different than outplaying someone in PLO, from the untrained eye.
4. Forget about FR PLO. Being the nit that i am, I love the nuts. Its pretty much why I play full ring. I don’t like marginal situations, i like to deal with as few of them as possible. You don’t need to play FR PLO, its BORING. 6-max PLO is the way to go. Play your position. You don’t have to worry about 2-barreling AJ on a KT4 board after the BB called your flop bet. You can play your position and not worry about spots like this. For pot limit omaha being so agressive, you’d be very surprised how much checking there is in the mid-stakes. You will find a comfort at PLO 6-max as a FR nit much like i did. Its a surprisingly easy transition.
5. Datamine. You will find guys who have 70/4 stats. Seriously, you will find alot of them. This goes along with the regulars section, but is different. If you haven’t spent the $55 on Pokertracker Omaha, wtf are you waiting for? Its completely worth it and works with PAHUD. A common thought process with donkeys is ‘i don’t need to raise, i’ll limp and play for the nuts’. Find these players. Your position will dominate them.

That should be all you need to know about finding the right PLO game. Next Part i will write about the actual play of PLO. I’m by no means claiming to be an expert at PLO but i know enough to beat 1/2plo. Its worth taking the time to learn the game. This is the holdem of 2004 on Party Poker. Its still here, if you want to stop grinding your gears at NLHE, take a break in the PLO oasis. Good luck.

Don’t you think there’s a reason all the high stakes games run at PLO nowadays?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.