PLO From Scratch Part 4

Theme: Speculative hands IP and over limping/isolating.

Remember that pre flop and post flop play is closely integrated in PLO, good pre flop play sets up profitable post flop situations in big pots.

We can play more hands in LP that do not flop so well such as T875ss as we rely more on steal equity. The looser we play, the more skills we need post flop, also the blinds may adjust their strategy to counter you.

Over limping is best when we have a hand that does not hit often but hits hard, e.g. KK72o or suited aces, rainbow rundowns etc. We want super high SPR’s so we can benefit from implied odds. Remember, people rarely limp/fold in PLO.

Non-nutty hands however play better HU so we can isolate a limper if we can, if we are going to need to bank on lots of SD equity versus the limper however, we need to strongly consider folding. T984ds is a good isolating hand, note it also does well in 3bet pots as we flop lots of equity therefore are happy to get it in a lot. Also, if we isolate, we seize the initiative. Q953ds though is just too gapped; we miss lots of flops so taking a free card is no use and we flop no wraps.

3Betting

We typically 3bet premium hands in PLO where we have an equity edge over our villains hand. We may 3bet speculative hands however when we plan to use lots of steal equity but also have some SD equity. We occasionally bluff, relying completely on steal equity. When IP we 3bet more liberally whereas OOP we only 3bet premiums. The more straight forward an opponent plays post flop the more we can 3bet them with speculative hands, the better the player the less speculative 3bets we should make.

When building big pots pre flop we do not want situations to happen where we have to fold often post flop.

Good speculative 3bet hands are suited rundowns and suited aces with good rundowns (less gaps the better).

3betting as a bluff is taking an extremely speculative hand and bank on steal equity although with four cards we should have some SD value! Never doing it OOP or versus more than one player when we expect to get called. The conditions need to be near perfect so beginners can disregard 3bet bluffing.

Facing a 4bet: When we get 4bet in PLO, we should assume we are up against AA**, therefore we should 5bet AA** (we only 3bet premium AA**) and call and ‘cherry pick’ flops with hands such as 9876ds.