Heads Up PLO
When playing any game heads up there are large adjustments you have to make to your play over playing a ring game. Pot Limit Omaha is no exception. In all aspects ranging from how many hands you play, how aggressively you play them and how much trapping you do play in heads up is almost a completely different game than ring game play.
Let’s start at the beginning, the beginning of each hand that is. First off, hand selection changes drastically when playing two handed poker in general and PLO follows the same rules. When determining what hands to play you need to consider the following: 1) How many cards are out against you and 2) What your position in the hand is. How many cards are out against you tells you what the probability of you having the best hand is right there, what the probability of your opponent(s) folding is and what the probability is that if you hit your hand that your hand is good. Your position on the hand tells you what the probability of you winning the hand is if you or your opponent misses and what the probability is of you making a big return on hands you hit.
Let’s take an example from no limit hold’em ring games. When you have a hand like T9 suited in early position in a hold’em ring game this is not generally a playable hand. First with 18 cards out against you it is highly unlikely that you are starting with the best hand. Second, it is unlikely that when you hit your hand (which is most likely to be a pair) that against multiple opponents the pair will be good. If you do hit the flush, the more cards out against you the higher the likelihood that your Ten-high flush will be no good becomes. And because you are playing out of position it will be much harder to extract money from your opponents when you do hit the flush.
In position everything changes. When everyone folds to your button T9 suited becomes a very playable hand. First, there are now only 4 cards out against you which increases the likelihood that either you have the best hand right there or one or both of your opponents will have a hand like Q2 that, while better than your hand, they will deem unplayable. Under both of these scenarios you are likely to win the pot right there. When one of your opponents does call and you hit a pair, that pair is now a favorite to be good. When you hit a flush you are also more likely to be paid off.
Heads up games are very much like playing from last position in ring games. In PLO the number of cards out against you goes from 32 to 4 so almost every hand that doesn’t contain trips becomes playable. In heads up hold’em on the button you will only fold the truly terrible hands like 72o and Omaha is no different. You fold only the truly unplayable hands in position. But should you raise them on the button?
In heads up hold’em the answer is always yes unless you are playing against a seriously aggressive opponent who will play back at you often. The reason for this is first that if you have the best hand you are going to be at least a 60/40 favorite and second if you do have the worst hand you know your opponent will miss the flop the majority of the time and you are the likely winner then when you have position. Making the pot big in position in no limit hold’em heads up is a value play.
In PLO, however, no hand is that big a favorite over any other hand. On top of that your opponent is not a favorite to completely miss the flop. And when they hit the flop in a marginal way, a way they would not generally continue with after the flop in a ring game, they are much more unlikely to fold those very marginal holdings heads up than in a ring game. Consider a situation where an opponent flops a low straight with no redraws to a higher straight or the non nut flush draw. In a multiway PLO pot any pressure on this opponent will cause him to fold. In Heads up that is not true. That same opponent is likely to go to the mat with the hand in PLO heads up.
Given all these factors, there is an argument in heads up PLO that raising before the flop has little value. There is very little chance that your opponent will fold right then and there. If you have the worst hand, it is difficult to bluff after the flop when they hit a marginal hand or marginal draw or even sometimes a draw for a draw. When you do have the best hand it will not be a big favorite over your opponent’s hand. Unlike in no limit Hold’em, your opponent is also unlikely to ever fold a hand that is better than the one you are raising with. Not only that raising your opponent gives you almost now information about his hand when he calls you since he will call with just about any hand that does not contain trips. When raising doesn’t accomplish much, making your opponent fold or getting information about the quality of his cards, raising doesn’t make a lot of sense. Because of this raising before the flop in heads up PLO is not a play for value. You have little equity in your opponent folding right there when you have the worst of it and you are playing very small edges when you do have the best hand.
Most of the luck in poker happens between before the flop and after the flop, at that moment when the three cards come down on the table. In PLO keeping the pots small until that flop is on the table and you see whether you hit your hand so in position you can then figure the line of play to extract the most money from your opponent when you hit and, on the flip side, when you miss you have the greatest likelihood in position of winning the pot anyway after you can get a good read on your opponent. When you keep the pot small you reduce you variance in a game that is high variance even in a ring game. Add in that you are playing head up, a game in which you play almost every hand, and the variance goes through the roof. Keeping the pots small before the flop will ameliorate this.
There are some arguments on the flip side, however, for raising when on the button heads up. The first is that you know that when you are in position you have the biggest advantage, even is this advantage is not as big as it is in no limit hold’em. The simple argument that applies is that making a pot bigger when you are at an advantage is generally not a terrible idea. When you have the edge, getting money in the pot should be a money making proposition. The question is does the extra earn make up for the increase in variance?
The second argument for raising before the flop has to do with how deep your stack is or your opponent’s attack is. By raising before the flop in position you, of course, make the pot bigger. This means that the bet size after the flop will be bigger. Now, obviously, the price the pot will lay your opponent when you bet will remain the same but the price your stack will be laying him will be different. If you are playing a $25/$50 game and you have $3K in chips a pot size bet of $100 after the flop is a very different bet than a pot sized bet of $300. In the first case your stack is laying your opponent on his $100 call 30 to 1. In the other your stack is only laying your opponent 10 to 1. When your opponent is considering a post flop call with a marginal holding this price difference might well influence his decision, making it more likely he will fold in the case that your stack only lays him 10 to 1. Therefore, raising before the flop might increase your likelihood of a postflop bluff working. Of course this will only work against an opponent who thinks about such things. You also need to make sure you are not against an opponent who thrives on playing big pots after the flop. If you raise against this type of opponent you are actually just increasing the pressure he can put on you while also oncreasing your own variance in the game.
Raising before the flop in heads up PLO is really a personal style choice because there are arguments to go either way. I personally think the variance issue trumps the justifications for raising making playing smaller pots preflop the primary choice. But, again, it is a matter of personal choice and personal gamble.
Out of position, however, personal choice does not enter into the argument. Out of position it is an imperative to keep the pot small. You are at an automatic mathematical disadvantage when playing out of position so keeping the pots as small as possible when you have the least edge is always going to be the right choice. Being out of position makes it difficult to do two things: Win the pot when you have the worst hand and extract a big pot from your opponent when you have the best hand. Therefore, there is nearly no hand that you would raise with out of the small blind, except your very large hands. But raising only your large hands can give your opponent a read on you. If you only raise with really big hands, then your opponent will know very quickly that when you check or flat call out of the big blind you are weak and when you raise you are very strong. So even raising with your large hands is not necessarily the best play since flat calling with those hands gives your marginal and bad hands some disguise. Getting as much disguise on your hands when you have to act first every round is so valuable to reducing your opponent’s edge on you.
PLO heads up is a complex game. Next month I will go into depth on playing after the flop in position and out of position with big made hands, big drawing hands and marginal hands and bluffs. Before the flop, remember small pots reduce your variance in a high variance game.
