Pot-limit Omaha Sit & Go’s offer players a new challenge in which the widely known strategies employed in hold’em are simply not as effective. The key reasons for this are the pot-limit betting restrictions and the fact that hands are very infrequently more than a 60% favourite preflop. These factors make for a very different strategic landscape.
If you’re a no-limit hold’em player and new to Omaha there are a few key pointers you must be aware of straight away:
1. You must use two of your four hole cards to make the best hand, therefore you do not have the nut flush holding just the bare Ace on a four-card suited board.
2. Be wary of drawing to the non-nuts; a Ten-high flush is unlikely to be the best hand come showdown in PLO, nor is the bottom end of a straight.
3. Slow-playing is bad. With six different hand combinations out against you for every player in the pot, giving away free cards is tantamount to suicide. Top pair, top kicker is a long way from the being the nuts…
4. Play your big draws aggressively. A strong draw is often a favourite over a made hand and reraising can give you two ways to win the pot: you make your draw or your opponent folds.
Starting-hand requirements
Good starting hands are those where all four cards work well together. Double-suited run-down hands like A-K-Q-J and J-10-9-8 have a great deal of potential, as do gapped run-down hands like J-9-8-7. You should be wary of committing much of your stack with these speculative hands preflop, especially as many flush draws will not be drawing to the nuts. Sets and the naked nut straights are vulnerable hands that can see you forced into committing chips to a pot where you are the underdog.
Double-suited big pair hands like A-A-K-K down to A-A-10-10 are very strong as you have two possible nut flush draws to hit in addition to sets and nut straight draws. Unsuited hands like A-A-3-9 or K-K-2-7 are actually quite weak, as naked overpairs are unlikely to be the best hand at showdown. Really, you want to flop a set with them cheaply (if at all) or get away.
Suited A-K-X-X rag hands are worth a look but don’t overvalue them out of position or if action has been frantic preflop. Small double-paired hands are usually worth playing as they have great set-mining potential, but again be aware that bottom or middle sets may often be the second or third best hand.