Preflop raises - Pot Limit Omaha (Hi)

[clabbers]

Omaha hands tend to be much closer in value to each other than Holdem hands. AAKK double suited wins less often than AA, KK, AK or QQ in holdem. The best hand not containing AA is JT98 double suited.

So when you have AA it's highly likely that no one can have a better hand. The bad news is that if you reveal what you have by raising with AA and only AA, you give them an advantage in the implied odds department that makes it worth it for them to try and crack your aces. A hand such as bottom two pair that you would quickly muck in a raised multiway pot has real value (and some risk) facing announced aces heads up with no ace flopped.

So it seems to be wrong to raise with AA and only AA. You have to raise with some other good hands to double cross the ace crackers, and you have to consider not telling the ace crackers you have aces.

One reasonable thought pattern. Raise aces in early position only with a suited ace, two broadway kickers, or two wheel kickers. Add in double suited four card straights ten high or higher, and double suited kings with two broardway kickers. In hijack or later, raise most aces and kings and four card straights with gap in the middle or bottom. At a table where nobody folds, just call with aces you wouldn't raise early and kings.

What do you think? What do you do?

[Willem]

Crappy AAxx are just mediocre hands, except maybe when there is a 40bb cap. Being marked with aces and having 100bb behind is just a recipe for disaster.

[SpaceLord]

Yeah, I will almost never re-raise with AA, lots of people play naked 1 Ace hands, and a A on the flop will be very rare.

[clabbers]

So, what do you raise preflop?

[SpaceLord]

[jmbreslin]

I'm also not raising from early position unless it's a dominant hand. Position is huge in PLO. And I think Willem is right, AAxx is the most overvalued hand in PLO.

[sourbluff]

From early position, very little. For sure not AAxx unless I am short stacked and even then I look to reraise to get all in.

From late position, occasionally (less 10%) big pairs if have solid cards with. Any 4 broadway cards, solid rundown down to 7634, A567 type hands with suited A. What I do try to do is keep my raises consistent in that I raise same with all of these hands. I don't know if this is good or bad but at least in my head it helps hide which type hand I am playing.

Why? Because Jeff said to of course

Seriously though, I have been trying to use this strategy and it works. One you seem to be raising a lot but most players don't realize is only when you are in position (at least at lower stakes), they think you are donk for raising preflop and then folding or checking on flop fairly often* and start either calling with anything or reraising with hands like KK xx, JJxx, etc. This gives you a great shot at stack while in position.


*I probably fold and for sure check the flop far to often following my initial raise. This is an area that I need to really work on.

[clabbers]

AAxx is the most overvalued hand in PLO??
If this is true, it isn't for the reason you may think. I'll offer a more general statement:
All good PLO hands are overvalued and all moderately bad PLO hands are undervalued!!!
Coming from holdem, you expect to be a big favorite preflop when you pick up one of the top 5% of hands. Omaha doesn't work that way. AAxx is almost always better than any non AA hand. The very strong KKQJ double suited is almost a 58-42 underdog (compare 81-19 for AA vs KK no undersuits). Against AA any pocket underpair or single ace is a liability, but after the flop bottom two pairs goes way up in value. Trips and quads in hand are very flawed AA hands but still win some. I did manage to dig up a few other exceptions: AAxx < JT98 when the AAxx is rainbow, the kickers are 7 or below, and the JT98 is double suited. This leads to an an advantage that's a shade over 51-49. Strangely enough QT86 double suited does just as well! So to crack bad aces you're looking for double suited unpaired hands with ample straight opportunities. But beware, if there is a suited ace above one of your suits, an unpleasant surprise may be forthcoming. Make the JT98 or QT86 rainbow too and the AAxx goes ahead 55-45.
So AA is as good as it gets preflop, fearing only a better AA. Like holdem, AA benefits from cutting the field, but it weakens if it is telegraphed due to implied odds If you go all in with it there are no implied odds and you have gotten your money in good.
Unless your opponent knows you very well, and you do achieve a mix of raising hands, your opponent will put you on AAxx for a preflop raise. To know you very well your opponent must have had sufficient opportunity to observe, and must have been paying close attention. This is not the norm in the majority of games.
So the big Holdem motivators for raising aces, size of advantage and benefit of cutting the field are not as strong. Conclusion: don't raise all aces and only aces. They are good hands and you are happy to have them. Bet them hard after dispersed flops with little action. If you get a three flush or three straight with zero or one gaps hitting the table, check and fold to significant action unless you make the straight, flush or quality draw to either.

[jmbreslin]

When I say that AAxx is the most overvalued hand in PLO, what I mean is that people play it as though it is AA in holdem, i.e., they don't know how to pull back and let it go postflop.

[RaalphD6]

[sourbluff]

RaalphD6 you will find that Jeff suggests you play for a period of time without raising preflop just to get a very good feel for what starting hands to play and how they play post flop. So if you are just learning don't get so worried about preflop raises just yet.

[jmbreslin]

Hwang's book is fantastic. Completely opened my eyes to the complexity of PLO.

The challenging thing about PLO, however, is that it is the craziest, high-variance game in existence. PLO is all about getting your money in with small edges, much smaller than is typical in NLHE. The typical PLO situation is when a made hand comes up against a strong draw - depending on the strength of the made hand and the draw, you're usually looking at a coinflip situation. When you play PLO you should expect wide bankroll swings.