Gaining an edge on PLO tournaments

If anything, the edge a good player can have over a bad player is higher in PLO than in hold’ em, which is great news if you’re the one holding the edge. This also means that as long as the structure of the tournament is good enough, you will have plenty of opportunities to exploit your opposition. Here are some areas where you should be able to gain an edge…

Speculation as a short stack

Having only around 10-15 big blinds left in hold’ em tends to narrow your options a bit – it’s basically all-in or fold. In PLO, however, you often find situations where being speculative with such a short stack is not so terrible. The threat of being re-raised all-in pre-flop tends to mean that opponents will be more cautious in the later stages. Knowing when you can get away with a speculative call is a useful skill.

Knowing the pre-flop match-ups

As mentioned in previous articles, some pre-flop match-ups can surprise hold’ em players. You should play around with an Omaha hand calculator to get used to what makes a good all-in Omaha hand. Later on in tournaments you will have to start taking chances. Pick hands to push with that run well in a showdown. Suited and connected cards are particular plusses, as are cards that block or dominate your opponent’s holding.

Spotting the hold’em players

Granted, if everyone else in the tournament knows what they are doing, it will usually boil down to the cards. However, there are still plenty of players out there migrating from hold’em who do not understand the intricacies of PLO, and their chips are ripe for the picking. Look for telltale signs in your opponents’ play: overrating A-K-rag-rag hands; re-raising pre-flop with ‘bad’ Kings when the stacks are deep; calling with bad mid-pair hands (something like 9-9-7-3 should be in the muck); and so on.

Fold equity

Given that the hands are closer in value in Omaha, it is often the case that an opponent has a decent amount of equity in the pot. Hence, getting an opponent to fold their hand when they should call is an absolute premium for you – more so than hold’em. Concentrate on the threat of leverage and pick on weak and tight players to accomplish this.

Pushing with Aces mid-game

Pushing with Aces in PLO tournaments is not dissimilar to pushing with A-K in hold’em. If you get a call, it will often be near enough a coinflip. There are times in tournaments when that’s necessary, but if you can’t get all your chips in easily pre-flop, don’t go mad with that move. Keep an eye on how desperate times are. If your table is soft, and the stacks are still reasonably deep, think of Aces preflop as a drawing hand.