How to control the action in PLO

In any hand of poker, Pot Limit Omaha included, it is important to understand how to control the action in the pot post flop to accomplish your goals.  Some hands will demand that you stop the action.  In some hands you want to encourage action. After the flop you need to first decide whether you want to encourage action, for example if you have a huge hand like a wrap and a flush draw, or if you want to discourage action, for example in the case of a hand like top two pair or a set that are vulnerable to drawing hands.  After you have figured out if you want action or don’t want action you need to now examine how to accomplish your goal with the hand.  You do this by looking at where the initial action came from before the flop and what your betting position.

The important component here is to make sure you control the action on the pot.

Let’s look at a couple of situations to demonstrate action control.  In the first situation to consider let’s say you are in the big blind and a raise comes from early position with a few callers in between the raiser and you.  You hold a hand like AJTT and the board comes AT6 rainbow.  You hold a hand that is likely to be the best hand at the moment.  It is unlikely that some is holding the case two Aces left in the deck.  At the same time it is a hand that wants protection.  You don’t want several players drawing at you here since there are a lot of cards that make straights or, possibly, bigger sets.  If a K, Q, J, 9, 8 or 7 hits your hand is in jeopardy.  So how do you protect your hand.

The raise originally came from your left.  We know that a board like this is likely to relate to a raiser’s hand in some way.  If you check, the raiser will likely bet and you might get multiple callers before the action gets to you.  Now if you raise the price offered to the other players will be such that you are likely to get action on the hand, action you don’t necessarily want. Instead of checking, since the board is likely to relate to a raiser’s hand, you should bet out in order to control the action. Betting into the raiser to your left will often generate a raise from him, eliminating the players to his left. Most players when faced with a raise here will fold their weak straight draws. By betting into the raiser you have protected your hand. This is the perfect place to isolate because against one drawing hand you have to be a favorite since even against, say, a big wrap you are favoured since you have kill cards (all the board pairs that cause your opponent to draw dead).

If you lead out and get no raise it is still a win for you.  If everyone folds you have locked up the pot which is fine with a vulnerable hand.  Don’t get greedy when you have a hand that is vulnerable.  If you just get a few callers it is also fine in as much as you have several players drawing at you for much less money than if you tried the check raise play and still had several players drawing at you.  In a multiway pot against several opponents it is unlikely your set of Tens will hold up unless the board pairs, which will only happen about 20% of the time.  With so many straight cards and even back door flushes the cheaper you can play against multiple callers the better.  So if you bet and get flat called by several opponents it is still better than going for the check raise and having several opponents play, which is likely if the original raise before the flop came from your left.

Now let’s take the same situation where a raise came from your left before the flop and there are multiple callers to your big blind.  But this time let’s give you a big wrap and a flush draw. For example, let’s say you are holding KQJ9 with the KQ of spades and the board is AsTs8h.  Now this a hand where we are happy to have players in the pot with us, the more the merrier with this hand.  So now instead of leading out and having the original raiser isolate the field we are going to check into the field, let the raiser bet and trap players in between you and him so you can now check raise the field.

The beauty of this play is you are happy if people call and you are happy if they fold as well.  If they call, you are a favorite, a pretty big one, since the board will only pair 20% of the time.  And you are always happy to get lots of money in the pot as a favorite and take your chances.  If they all fold, well with that many people playing the pot was already pretty large and, afterall, you still only had King-high.  Granted it is a really good King-high but still, locking up a large pot and not having to stave off the other players is always okay. Any time we can make a bet in poker where no matter what the outcome we are happy, well that is a good thing.

In the next situation let’s say that there were a few limpers in the pot and the button raised your big blind and you called.  You have the same set of Tens as above. Now it is correct to check to the raiser on your right with the intention of check-raising to chase out the rest of the field and isolate heads up. Again opponents with non-nut draws will generally fold here leaving you as the favorite to win the pot even without improving your hand. Also you might get lucky with the check and have a bet and a raise to you at which point you can re-raise and really get some money in with the best hand. Checking in PLO multiway pots is much less dangerous than in Hold’em since it is much less likely the hand gets checked around and you allow your opponents to draw for free.

Now let’s say the raise came from your right before the flop, the pot is multiway, you are in the big blind and holding the wrap and flush draw.  Now checking is the wrong choice since the most likely person to bet if you check is the original raiser on the button, who is directly to your right.  If you check to check-raise him you will chase out all your action and the pot will be quite small when you win it right there.  Instead you should lead into the field now, encouraging the players to call, and hope the button has hit something big and will raise your lead out.  If he raises you can reraise and pick all that money up right there or just isolate against the one opponent.  If no one raises that is okay too as you are happy to draw multiway with this hand.

In position these hands become much easier to play.  If you are bet into you can just raise in order to either win the pot right there or isolate against just one opponent.  Notice that these plays insure that when you do just win the pot right there the pot has money in it.  By isolating through raising or check raising you insure the pots that you just win right on the flop are large.

One big point I want you to take away here is that when you have a good hand that is vulnerable, like the set of Tens in the examples above, chasing out draws is always the mathematically right choice.  I have often had players complain to me about how their opponent sucked out on them in some hand and I always ask, “Well, did you make them pay for the draw?”  When the answer is “No. I slow played the hand.” Then I tell them they have nothing to complain about.  One of the biggest and most disastrous mistakes a poker player can make is to force an opponent to make a good mathematical choice when they might have made a poor one.  If you don’t make your opponent pay to draw when they are an underdog then you have forced them into a good mathematical choice.  If you had raised then only one of two things can happen: Either your opponent folds and you lock the money up right there which is never a disaster unless you have the uncounterfeitable nuts (which is nearly never the case in PLO) or your opponent calls when he is an underdog and is not getting correct pot odds to call which is also never a bad thing.  Then when he sucks out on you can go ahead and complain (in private) all you want as well.

Understanding how to accomplish your goals through betting is what stops you from being handcuffed to your cards.  Your chips are your tools and your tools need to be use properly.  Don’t use a hammer to turn a screw.  Understanding what you want to accomplish and then using your chips to accomplish that goal is the difference between a winning player and a losing one.