NL Holdem vs PL Omaha

I have started playing in PL Omaha a bit but still having some troubles. Is there a few guidelines some people with more experience can give.
-Should I be playing more hands?
-Is it ok to limp more preflop?
-Is it smart to get all in preflop with aces?
-Should I expect more wild swings on my bankroll?
-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)?

LizaBuv said:

I have started playing in PL Omaha a bit but still having some troubles. Is there a few guidelines some people with more experience can give.
-Should I be playing more hands?Yes
-Is it ok to limp more preflop?Yes
-Is it smart to get all in preflop with aces?Yes
-Should I expect more wild swings on my bankroll?Yes
-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)?

Click to expand...

Can you clarify what that last question is. And with how vague those questions are, I can only give you the most basic of responses.

1)yup
2)of course - 4 cards have far more 'speculative value' than 2 cards
3)Yes and no - its still strong, but going BUSTO in Omaha due to over-valued aces is a common occurrence! People assume AAxx are as strong as in NLHE. In fact you're close to flipping against, say, a double suited wrap unless the aces are connected and/or suited. Don't look for two power cards, look for 4 cards that work together.
4)Depends how good you are, but generally, yes.
5)que?

LizaBuv said:

-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)?

Click to expand...

Reading a straight easier?

I don't play a lot of PLO and I don't claim to be any kind of expert, but for what it's worth:

-Should I be playing more hands? It depends - more hands compared to what? More hands compared to NLHE, more hands compared to how you're playing now... which one? Are you talking about full tables, short handed tables or heads up? In general, especially if you're a beginner I think the answer is no - you should actually be playing less hands and waiting for good ones. It's very easy to get trapped with a second-best (or worse) hand in PLO and you're only expanding the potential for this to happen to you if you play loads of hands.

For example, take a hand like Qs6hThJs - it's got two flush draws and all sorts of straight possibilities, that makes it good, right? But consider that neither of the flush draws are to the nuts and the 6h doesn't really help that much straight-wise. Plus people love to play suited aces in PLO. You could make one of your flushes and still be crushed and if you do that too often you'll be kissing a lot of money goodbye.

-Is it ok to limp more preflop? In general no, aggressive play should serve you better than passive play, the same as in NLHE. And as discussed above Omaha has the added problem that you can hit a lot of seemingly strong hands that are actually easily crushed. Limping something like AT33 and hitting bottom set, for example, can get you in big trouble whereas hitting bottom set in NLHE is a monster.

-Is it smart to get all in preflop with aces? It depends. They might be a strong hand but they're certainly not the monster preflop that they are in NLHE and they suffer even more multi-way in PLO than they do in NLHE. Plus Omaha is much more of a postflop game than NLHE so you don't always have the option of getting it all in preflop and even if you did, getting all in preflop with AAxx isn't where your biggest edges are going to come from. You'll get your biggest edges by playing well postflop. Or from playing a completely different game that you know how to play better.

-Should I expect more wild swings on my bankroll? It's a higher variance game so yes, you'll experience swings that might be in excess of the ones you experience playing NLHE.

-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)? Practice practice practice. I'm assuming you mean reading a straight - just remember that you have to use exactly two cards from your hand, play lots of hands and eventually it'll become second nature.

Brandon Adams has some very good introduction to PLO videos in the Full Tilt Academy that are worth a look if you've got access.

LizaBuv said:

I have started playing in PL Omaha a bit but still having some troubles. Is there a few guidelines some people with more experience can give.
-Should I be playing more hands?
-Is it ok to limp more preflop?
-Is it smart to get all in preflop with aces?
-Should I expect more wild swings on my bankroll?
-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)?

Click to expand...

Good advice already contained here, but I'll offer what I can as well:


-Should I be playing more hands?
-Is it ok to limp more preflop?

This really depends on the table. If you are at a table with people who don't really know appropriate PLO hand strengths and will overvalue their bottom two pair, low straights, and non-nut flushes, I will limp and get in on many hands because it is likely I will get paid off a lot post flop. At a table with more knowledgeable opponents, I prefer to be more aggressive and selective preflop.


-Is it smart to get all in preflop with aces?

Again, this depends on your reads on your opponent. Generally, in a multiway (3+) pot with even stacks and against decent opponents, naked aces are very fragile holdings. They are much better supported if at least single suited (double suited much better) and with high connectors or another high pair.

If heads up or if I think I can isolate against LAG opponents that have shown very poor opening hand selection, I am usually pretty happy to get it in preflop with semi-supported aces if given an opportunity. Usually in these cases, you are no worse than about 2:1 favorite and sometimes as high as 3:1 favorite.

-Should I expect more wild swings on my bankroll?
As compared to NLHE? Perhaps. I think people usually recommend something like 40-50 buyins to play at PLO comfortably, or about double the bankroll for being properly rolled for NLHE.

However, I do think it is possible to play a very tight style at the micros and actually encounter SMALLER swings than in NLHE micros. This is because in pot-limit games, you can control the pot size much more easily against bad opponents, whereas in NLHE your entire stack is possibly at risk from an aggro maniac on every round of betting.

-An idea to make reading a st easier(sometimes miss this)?

I'll assume "st" here means a straight? I think this just comes with hand experience. Also, counting outs when you have possible wraps is important to do, and this too comes with experience. I remember when I was just starting with PLO that I would sometimes miscalculate wrap outs, but after about 25,000 hands or so it starts to become second nature if you are making an effort at practicing it.

Thank You

Very helpful advice, ty to the 2 guys who were able to answer all my questions in quite a bit of detail...LizaBuv