Champion of Poker

Pot Limit Omaha is an aggressive game that has become very popular with the high stakes Poker players like Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Illari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. These players like action and action is what they get with PLO! More than any other form of online poker you must be somewhat reckless in your play to combat the same aggressiveness you will encounter from your opponents. There are good and bad consequences to this type of poker play.

I have had many discussions with friends about whether PLO is dangerous for online poker players and on the whole we agree that for a new player it is better to focus on Texas Hold’em poker whilst you hone your knowledge of strategy and the other fundamental concepts. PLO is like a heightened from of Hold ‘em, it charges you more in terms of pot size to make the decisions you have learned in Holdem. Good decisions therefore earn you more and bad decisions cost you more.

A bankroll can be lost in a shorter space of time in PLO by going on tilt because the pots are bigger more regularly than in Hold ‘em. In Texas Holdem the chances of getting a big hand versus big hand confrontation are reasonable, but they do not happen that much. When they do, the money tends to go in and you flip for the pot. You will get such a situation quite often in Texas Hold ‘em if you play regularly.

In PLO, because you hold four hole cards instead of two there are more opportunities for you and your opponents to hit (perceived) strong hands and therefore you get a hand (and face a strong hand) more often per round that any other form of Poker. Many Holdem players do not make the necessary adjustments in realising that stronger hands are not necessarily so strong in PLO and they are willing to get their money in lighter than they should. This promotes players to play more hands than what standard PLO strategy would recommend and the game gets a little crazy as a result.

Bankroll management must be used and never forgotten in order to be a good PLO player. Any deviation from recommended bankroll management “law” will be cruelly exposed. You will not notice this if you go on a winning streak but when things go wrong you will be more inclined to panic if you are playing too high in this swingy poker game where losses can really hurt. PLO can lead to big profits which is why I think it is a good game to play, but with plenty of caution.

To play PLO I would increase the amount of buy-ins in your bankroll considerably. This will compensate for you “paying tuition” to learn some of the moves in the early days and also for the swings involved. Sometimes your straights, flushes and even full houses will be beaten so much you will be sure online poker is rigged against you but that is the game. Any frustration and emotion is heightened in this volatile game so being in control and fundamentally strong at tilt control is important before you attempt to play PLO. If your bankroll is not large enough yet to play PLO then wait and continue to study the game whilst it becomes large enough.

The good thing is that mastering these concepts at PLO will make Texas Hold ‘em seem far more relaxed and friendly as a game to you. Hopefully this new perspective on Poker will result in additional profits. PLO is an exciting game that demands respect and if you learn the correct strategies you can make a lot of money from it as it is a far less solved game than Texas Hold ‘em.

By Malcolm Clarke