Preflop play in Pot Limit Omaha can be daunting.
There are 270,725 hands to wade
through, and the all-in equities of ♠ said hands run very closely together.
A♠A♦K♠K♦ is
arguably the best starting hand in PLO. Let’s take a look at its ♠ equity against
T♠8♣4♣2♥:
This garbage hand musters over 34% equity against an absolute monster.
Edges
get smaller as equities run closer together, ♠ which is why PLO feels more gamble-y than
NLH. But there are still tactics you can use to maximise your ♠ edge preflop and set
yourself up for success postflop.
We’ll talk about two preflop tactics in this article:
‘pushing’ and ‘pulling’. ♠ These tactics can help give structure to the often-confusing
world of preflop PLO.
Let’s get straight to it.
Pushing vs pulling in ♠ Pot Limit
Omaha
‘Pushing’ and ‘pulling’ describe the two approaches we can take with a hand
preflop. More specifically:
Pushing: The act ♠ of fast-playing to reduce the number of
players that will see a flop
Pulling: The act of calling to induce other ♠ players to
call as well
If you’re a No Limit Hold’em player, you’ve probably used similar tactics.
Consider:
All the times you’ve ♠ attempted to ‘push’ multiple opponents out of the pot
preflop by squeezing with a strong-but-vulnerable hand like AQo
The many times ♠ you’ve
limped behind with a small pair to ‘pull’ more opponents into the pot for when you
spike a set
That ♠ said, figuring out which hands to pull and push with is more
complicated in PLO than NLH. Let’s dive into ♠ specifics.
Which hands should you push
with?
When pushing, our main goal is to minimise the number of players in the hand.
♠ Therefore, we should choose to push with hands that play well in large, heads-up
pots.
Hands that benefit from low stack-to-pot ♠ ratios–which allows us to get all-in on
earlier streets–function well as pushes. Semi-connected, double-suited broadway pair
holdings–think K♠K♥7♠8♥–and double-paired, double-suited ♠ middling hands–think
T♦T♣9♦9♣–are candidates that do well when the SPR is low.
Multi-component hands
function well as pushes as well. (If ♠ you’re unfamiliar with preflop components in PLO,
read this article.). Hands with multiple components will connect with the flop across ♠ a
variety of textures, thus allowing us to exert more pressure on our opponent(s).
Here
are five examples of hands you ♠ should usually look to push with:
AA45 single-suited
JJT9 double-suited 9988 double-suited ATTx double-suited T987 double-suited
Which hands
should you pull with?
Our ♠ goal when pulling is to incentivise calls from the players
behind. The resulting multiway pot means we should look to ♠ pull with hands that can
make the nuts relatively easy.
A single-suited, connected hand like A♦T♣9♦8♠ is a prime
example of ♠ a pulling hand as it can hit the nut flush and multiple nut straights. If we
make our hand, we ♠ may win a big pot against a player with the second or third nuts, who
came in behind us with ♠ a weak range.
Pulling hands realise their equity in a rough
way–they hit a narrow range of board textures–and thus perform ♠ best when the SPR is
high. It’s typically best to avoid committing to the pot with hands that realise their
♠ equity in a rough way.
Here are five examples of hands that function well as
pulls:
JT98 unsuited QQ98 single-suited AJ89 single-suited ♠ 789T unsuited AK98
double-suited
But it isn’t always that simple
Some hands are exceptions to the
pushing/pulling categorisation method used above.
Very strong ♠ hands that are connected,
double-suited and A-high–think AKQJ or AKT7–may seem like pulling hands, but they are
simply too strong ♠ to play as a call. Pushing with such hands is more effective, as it
will allow you to extract value ♠ and thin the field, which means your great equity is
more likely to hold.
Similarly, there are instances where we should ♠ pull with hands
that we would usually push with. For instance, using a push hand as a pull is a ♠ good
adjustment if there have been multiple callers and we don’t have enough fold-equity to
justify pushing given the strength ♠ of our hand.
Don’t get carried away with pushing
people around
Be careful not to go overboard when it comes to pushing ♠ and pulling. Just
because a hand seems like a push doesn’t mean you should raise it–or even play it–every
time. ♠ For example:
$1/$2 PLO Cash Game. 100BB Effective Stacks
Hero is dealt J♠8♦7♠6♦
in the CO
Tight player raises toR$6 from UTG. 5 ♠ folds. Hero…
Despite boasting multiple
features of a typical pushing hand, this hand should be folded. Since we are up against
♠ a strong UTG opening range, pushing with a relatively marginal hand like this one would
be far too loose.
J♠8♦7♠6♦ will ♠ find itself in a lot of tough spots postflop, and will
often lose big pots at showdown when it hits ♠ good-but-second-best hands.
Keep this idea
in mind when categorising your hands. Don’t just push or pull for the sake of it ♠ –
think about the ranges of your opponents and how your exact hand will shape up against
them before you ♠ make your decision.
Final thoughts on pushing & pulling
Following the
core principles outlined above is a good starting point, but always ♠ remember that your
ranges should be fluid and exploitative adjustments should be made depending on the
tendencies of your opponents.
Good ♠ luck at the tables!
P.S.: My next PLO article is
going to involve analysing some interesting high-stakes hands – if you’ve ♠ got any
requests for fun hands that you want analysed, tweet me at @GeorgeCMathias or post them
in the comments ♠ section.
Read more from George and Upswing Poker:
