PLO Lessons Learned Pt. 2

One of the first things you learn about Omaha as a NLHE player is to adjust your hand strength valuation. Hands are much stronger, and as a result, you find that the decent-and-better PLO players play pretty tightly with non-nut holdings. The corollary to this observation is that it is difficult to extract thin value with good-but-not-great holdings. I suppose you could say the same thing about NLHE, but NLHE play is generally looser and more bluff-heavy than PLO, leading to more opportunities to extract value with these types of holdings.

Lesson 4 - Refrain From Thin Value Bets Against Most Opponents
Lesson 5 - Don't Bluff In Small Pots

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($27.87)
UTG ($7.63)
Hero (MP) ($29.29)
CO ($10)
Button ($32.41)
SB ($12.28)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 5, Q, 2, Q
1 fold, Hero bets $0.85, 2 folds, SB calls $0.75, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.95) J, 4, 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.45, SB calls $1.45

Pretty good flop, good C-bet spot. Villain's call could mean a wide range, including any J, a lot of worse FDs, and some low straight draws.

Turn: ($4.85) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

The pair isn't great but it isn't too concerning. Villain more often holds a J than a 4. Regardless, no point in betting here...my QQ may still be good.

River: ($4.85) A (2 players)
SB bets $1, Hero raises to $3.15, SB calls $2.15

Flush comes in and it's extra nice that it's an A, making my Q-high flush the 2nd nut flush. Villain leads out tiny. I read it as a baby flush and figure it's a good spot for a small value raise.

Total pot: $11.15 Rake: $0.55
Results:
SB had 2, J, 4, 2 (full house, fours over Jacks).
Hero had 5, Q, 2, Q (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: SB won $10.60

Super-loose call PF, and super tight play with top-2 turned boat on flop and turn. But this point is the lesson - most decent PLO opponents aren't calling a river raise on a paired board with a weak flush. This is mostly because so few people raise with anything weaker. Low-limit PLO players tend to play really straightforward, and that makes thin value raises much less valuable. Lesson 4 learned.

On the flip side, it should make valuish-looking bluff raises a really nice tool. But timing is everything, as evidenced in the following hand...

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($28.55)
Hero (Button) ($30.94)
SB ($7.39)
BB ($16.10)
UTG ($48.22)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 9, J, 7
UTG calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.25, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: ($0.85) K, 4, 2 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.85, BB calls $0.85, 1 fold

Dry board = C-bet.

Turn: ($2.55) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($2.55) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $1.27, Hero raises to $5, BB calls $3.73

The great things about river raises in PLO is that they look so strong that they can fold out a really wide range of hands that aren't close to the nuts. The problem is, it can be a lot harder to get away with a play like this in a small pot where the raise doesn't look very intimidating (Lesson 5). Also, you can run into a lot of loose opponents who will still call with weaker holdings. Figuring out who to value bet and who to bluff is the real challenge in these games. This was clearly a guy I should have been value betting, not bluffing...

Total pot: $12.55 Rake: $0.62
Results:
Hero had 9, 9, J, 7 (two pair, nines and twos).
BB had 6, Q, 3, Q (straight, six high).
Outcome: BB won $11.93