Crushing Omaha hi/lo (part 2): Early and middle play

In part I of this series, ‘Getting started’ we covered the basics of PLO8 and discussed the adjustments you need to make regarding starting hands. Now we’ll move onto some hi/lo fundamentals and the strategies required to cruise through the early and middle stages of a Sit & Go.

Early stages – tight is right

A lot of players tend to limp-call in PLO8, especially at the lower stakes, which means you end up playing a lot of flops. As such, picking your spots and starting hands carefully is a must. In early position you should be playing premium hi/lo starting hands like A-A-2-2 to A-A-5-5, A-A-K-K to A-A-T-T, top rundown hands like A-2-3-4 to A-4-5-6 (preferably with a suited Ace) and mix it up with the odd PLO-high double-suited Broadway rundown/big pair hand. Play tight for the first few levels and let the clowns knock themselves out while drawing to a quarter of the pot.

When you find a hand you want to see a flop with in early position you are better off limp-calling, even with a monster, as it is almost impossible to check-raise a large enough portion of your stack preflop to shove the flop. Even if you can, during these early levels when the blinds are low you have no preflop fold equity and will find people chasing draws and calling to the river with any mixed bag of spanners. Raise to thin the field, but be wary of committing a large portion of your stack unless you have the made high, both the nut high and low draws, or a massive nut high draw if there is no low.

Middle stages – opening the throttle

As the blinds begin to increase, so does the size of the pots. At this stage of the tourney it is possible to either check-raise most of your stack preflop or get it in on the flop. This is where your tight image will come to your aid; consider limp reraising from early position with your big hands to thin the field. Not only will this increase your fold equity, you also get first stab at the pot. Be aware though, PLO8 is a game with very little bluffing, so if you totally miss don’t be afraid to abort mission and conserve chips, unless you are already pot-committed.

Raising and limp-reraising with big Broadway hands now becomes viable, as you can bet a large enough portion of your stack (40% plus) to provide you with fold equity against the players left still to act.

Read part I
Read part III