How To Play Tight-Aggressive Pot Limit Omaha
The easiest way to win in any poker variant is to play tight-aggressive poker. Easy in theory; not so easy in practice. After all, how tight is tight? How tight is too tight?
Take Texas Hold’em for example. A tight player might voluntarily put money in the pot 17% of the time raising 15% of the time. Those stats are great for Texas Hold’em, but they’re way too tight for Pot Limit Omaha.
Your statistics for Pot Limit Omaha should be around 35/25 meaning that you enter the pot with about 35% of your hands and your raise 25% of them.
What Hands Should I Raise?
In Pot Limit Omaha, it’s not about what you should raise. It’s about when you should raise. Pot Limit Omaha is a positional game and you should be much more inclined to raise in late position than in earlier position.
The type of hands you should raise should be highly coordinated. Double suited rundowns (something like KQJT double suited), high pocket pairs with coordinated side cards (like KKQJ) and rundowns with a bottom gap (like KQJ9) are all good hands to raise when in position.
One of the biggest mistakes new Pot Limit Omaha players make is overvaluing weak pocket aces in early position. A hand like AA59 rainbow (all different suits) will be a tough hand to play in a bloated pot out of position. The only thing you can flop is top set. By contrast, AAKQ double suited can flop top set, straight draws and flush draws. Coordinated hands are far superior to one-way hands.
When Should I Bluff?
Hardly ever. There’s something to be said about deception and attacking weaker players, but the problem is that weak players have a hard time letting go of hands like the non-nut flush or two pair. Instead of bluffing these weak players, you should bet at them for value. Let the weaker players stack off with non-nut hands. You’ll be waiting with the goods.
Is It Okay To Draw?
Sometimes. Pot Limit Omaha is a game of the nuts. Winning hands are often straights, flushes and full houses. You’ll rarely flop these top hands so you’ll have to draw. The key to drawing is to make sure you’re drawing to the nuts. Drawing to the non-nut straight or flush in Pot Limit Omaha is a good way to go broke.
Combo draws are especially strong. For example, let’s say you have KQJT double suited and the flop is KQ5 giving you top two pair, a straight draw, flush draw and backdoor flush draw. Your hand is a monster and it would be right for you to draw even if your opponent had a set.
* * *
As you get better at Pot Limit Omaha, you can start to experiment with loosening up and exploiting other players’ weaknesses. Until then, however, you can’t beat tight-aggressive play for making money while you learn a new poker variation.
Finally, try your PLO tight aggressive strategy risk free with a free poker starting bankroll or no deposit poker bonus.
· 