Introduction to Pot Limit Omaha (PLO)
Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) is the most common form of Omaha. It is a card game unlike any other that is filled with excitement and often creates some of the biggest action of any poker game. The game is played much like Pot Limit Texas Hold'em, except with some key differences. For starters, each player holds four hole cards in their hands instead of two. Most of the time players are fairly inexperienced and it is a much easier game to beat than Texas Hold'em. Then again, you could be the one who is inexperienced and get completely crushed. The first place to start is to understand the basics of Pot Limit Omaha.
The Rules of Pot Limit Omaha
The first thing your going to need to know about Pot Limit Omaha is the rules. If you don't fully understand the rules of Pot Limit Omaha, then you obviously will not have much success with the game. Omaha is played with no more than 9 players. Each one of the players will get dealt 4 hole cards face down. During the course of the hand, there will be 5 cards dealt to the board, which will be face up and those are called community cards. Those cards are shared by each player at the table. The idea is to take the hole and combine them with the board cards to make the best possible 5 card poker hand. The restrictions are that 2 and only 2 of the hole cards must be used in the hand. That means that 3 community cards will always be used to make the best possible hand.
During the hand, there will be four betting rounds. Each player can bet as much as what is in the pot. The amount of money in the pot is the maximum amount that can be bet. So if there is $100 in the pot, the max bet is $100. Unlike No Limit games, there is somewhat of a limitation on what can be bet in Pot Limit Omaha. The pot is started with the small blind and big blind which are both to the left of the dealer button. The player directly to the left will be the small blind and the next player to the left of the small blind will be the big blind. The player after that will be first to act before the cards are dealt. Once the first three cards are dealt to the board, the player who was the small blind will be first to act (directly to the left of the dealer). The goal is to get the best 5 card poker hand by the end of the hand (or to get your opponents to fold) so you can win the pot.
Limiting your Hand Selection
A very important part of playing Pot Limit Omaha (especially as a beginner) is to really limit your hand selection. There are a ton of hands in Omaha, but only a small portion of the hands are worth playing. Hand selection is nowhere near as easy to figure out in Omaha versus Texas Hold'em. In Hold'em, there are a very strict selection of hands that are considered good starting hands. In Omaha it is a little bit more confusing than that. There are a lot of good cards but not a lot of good Omaha starting hands. The best thing to think about is whether or not your cards work together.
In Omaha, there is a lot less value on a lot more hands. For example, you can have the top two pair and you are probably beat. You can have pocket 3s and hit a 3 on the first three cards. In Texas Holdem, that is probably the best hand. In Omaha, there is a good chance that a hand like that is beat. The reason is because there are so many cards out there. If you are playing in a full game with 9 players, then there are 32 cards that are up against your 4 cards. You have to figure that someone has a very very good hand each time (and they usually do). Do not make the mistake to over value your hand and play too many hands. Be very smart and selective about which hands to play. Look at your hand and ask yourself how many different "best hands" could be made from the four cards in your hand. Remember that you want cards that work together. That is the key to Omaha.
In Pot Limit Omaha, you never want to draw to anything except the nuts. You want to play hands that are going to give you a good chance of getting some sort of best possible hand. You are almost never a huge favorite in Omaha, no matter what cards you are holding. There will always be somebody with a better draw almost every time. If you are aware of the board and you limit your hand selections, you should have no problem hanging in with most players at a Pot Limit Omaha table.