Pot-Limit Omaha Basic Strategy

Since players are dealt four different cards in this form of poker, many have argued that it is important that players are more willing to gamble in PLO than in many other forms of poker.  This is because in large part, players are capable of making a much higher number of winning hands than would normally occur  in Holdem, and are typically going to have much stronger draws.  Still, even though any hand has the potential to win in PLO, good hand selection is still a very important component to being a successful Omaha player.  Typically you want to find hands that have strong drawing potential in a number of different ways, as it increases the potential of you eventually winning you the pot.  The best starting hand in PLO is AAKK double suited, meaning that both sets of ace-kings are of the same suit, giving the player a strong drawing potential to a number of different hands which can be played as the “nuts.”
However, it is important for players to view starting hand selection with a grain of salt – especially in pot-limit Omaha.   This game tends to be played much stronger post-flop as opposed to Holdem, which can be played much more as a preflop game.  This is because of the fact that players can hold a number of different draws post flop, drastically shifting the percentages from one player to another. For this reason, it is important that players are capable of analyzing what their opponents are likely to have.  For example, over pairs in your hand like AAxx have a high probability of no longer being good after the flop, and in many cases lose their once-dominant pre-flop strength.
That is why it is all the more important to also understand the concept of pot odds and comparing the strength of your draws to the number of players and texture of the community cards.  Typically, players hope to either be holding the nuts or to at least have draws which can turn into nut hands – if not both at the same time, of course.  If a player is holding the nuts with a redraw, or a way to improve an already strong hand on the turn or river, then these are the types of positions that players are going to attempt to maximize value in.  Because it is easier to make stronger hands in forms of Omaha poker, players should assume that you need to have much stronger hands than you would in Holdem to win a pot,.  Remember, holding big pairs in Omaha aren’t as strong as holding a big pair in Texas Holdem.
Since drawing is an important element to Omaha, players may wish to learn the concept of semi-bluffing and learn to implement it effectively.  In many cases, players may find their opponent is a little too willing to continue to play hands, where they are very open to having their opponent draw out and improve past their hand.  In such cases, when you are holding a “wrap” – which are a combination of multiple cards which are all drawing to either flush or straight draws (if you’re lucky, sometimes both) – you may find players are going to raise aggressively, because the hands their opponents are holding are very vulnerable, especially if they want to protect a set or a high two pair.  As a player, sometimes it is very important to be able to let go of hands that can be drawn out on, such as one pair, low two pairs, and bottom ends of straights – because if your opponent has not already beaten you, it’s very likely that you could be behind after the next card comes.  As a result, it is important in pot-limit Omaha to determine how your opponent likes to bet different types of hands as early on as possible, so you can begin to determine what type of hand they have or are drawing to, and what your action should be as a result.
Lastly, players who play PLO should have higher bankroll requirements than some of the other forms of poker.  Because of the extreme volatility involved in Omaha, there are more likely to be very large swings of wins and losses.  As a result, it’s important that players are both willing to play aggressively in good spots and are willing and able to take the high swings that can occur as a result of such a game.  Therefore in many instances players should look to play in stakes that are slightly lower than some of the other games that they may be used to.