Pre-flop play: Basic Concepts
Introduction
This article explains
- Playable and unplayable hands
- Importance of preflop hand selection
- When to raise or limp
Since Omaha is played with 4 cards rather than 2, there is a huge number of possible starting hands. In order to know how valuable your hand is, you should pay attention to position first and foremost, as well as your hand's attributes: does it play well in a multiway pot, or do you want to have as few opponents as possible?
This article will help you understand basic pre-flop play concepts to get started in Pot Limit Omaha.
Target hands
Before playing a given starting hand, you should wonder what type of hand you are looking to hit on the flop.
- a big Full House (or the step leading up to this, a set or trips)
- a nut flush
- a nut straight.
The first "goal" can be attained by playing hands with high cards.
These are hands with high pairs, e.g. KK**, or high connected cards,
e.g. A-K-Q-J.
Pairs
With high pairs, i.e AA, KK, QQ, you can almost always limp - supposing
that the table mostly limps and hardly ever raises - even if they
aren't accompanied by good cards. As a general rule, the lower the
pair, the more connected the side cards must be. Normally, it is not advisable to play pairs under 77. However you might play some very
well connected hands such as 6-6-5-4 or 6-5-5-4, etc.
The second point can be achieved by playing mostly suited aces (Axs**).
Here too, it is important to play hands that are well connected.
For example, with A
9 9
7
, you are not only drawing to a potential flush, but also to a set. With a hand like A 7 6
5
you also have a few straight possibilities. As a general rule, you
should have, besides your suited ace, at least one other potential hand
(straight, flush, or set)
Here is an example of your equity against given hands:
Your hand: A 9 9 7
Flop: A 8 6
| Hand 1 | Hand 2 | Pot Equity |
| AAxx | A, 9, 9, 7
|
71,26% zu 28,74% |
| 88xx | A, 9, 9, 7
|
64,51% zu 35,49% |
| A8xx | A, 9, 9, 7
|
60,03% zu 39,07% |
| 86xx | A, 9, 9, 7
|
48,99% zu 51,01% |
The third goal (nut straight) can be achieved by playing cards that
have as few gaps as possible. The closer the cards are together, the
higher the chance of hitting a straight, as well as chances for a
redraw to a higher straight in case another player has the same
straight as you (a very common, yet underestimated occurrence) .
The best cards for this are the ones that are all connected, e.g
8-7-6-5, called rundown hands. The bigger the gaps, the worse the hand,
i.e the lower the chances of making a straight or redraws.
Of course, there are combinations that can suit two points (e.g
A-Ks-Qs-J), or even three points (e.g KKQJss). These hands are the
strongest and you should not fold them against a raise, or even raise
yourself.
These different types of hands can be divided into two categories:
very good hands (which meet two goals) and premium hands (which meet
all three goals).
The difference is relatively marginal and many people only raise
their premium hands. This is mistake, indeed you should mix some good
and premium hands into your raising range, so as not to be predictable
(one of the worst things in Omaha).
Premium hands are often just high pairs with good side-cards (e.g,
A-A-7-7 or A-A-K-Q) or high connected cards (e.g A-K-J-T, K-Q-J-T). If
you only raise these hands, an attentive opponent will catch on to this
and start (bluff) raising you on low flops. To counter this, it is
important to have a wider raising range.
These are hands that can be played in multi-way pots. They should always be folded against a raise.
Such hands are, for example: A-Q-T-9, K-K-8-6, A 8 6 5, 7-7-6-6.
These are hands that can almost only be played from the SB and
should be folded in case of doubt (You only lose very little value to
not be faced with difficult decisions that can end up costing a lot)
Such hands are, for example: T-T-7-4, Q-J-8-6, A-Q-8-3 (including hands with a suited A).
Hands that are unplayable regardless of position.
Such hands are for example trips like J-J-J-*, or quads like T-T-T-T,
which can of course never be played, as well as hands like K-8-5-2 or
small pairs with bad side-cards like 2-2-8-5.
Here is a small equity calculation of trash hands versus two other hands:
Hand Pot equity
| Hand 1 | Hand 2 | Pot Equity |
| AAxx | Q, Q, Q, T
|
79,47% zu 20,53% |
| 8, 7, 6, 5
|
Q, Q, Q, T
|
45,47% zu 54,53% |
To raise or to limp?
An important point to consider pre-flop is not only what hands to play, but also how to play them.
In contrast with Hold'em, a given hand rarely has a big edge pre-flop.
This means that it is not always good to raise a lot, because a hand
gets its value mostly on the flop.
Sometimes, opponents will overplay their hands in a raised pot,
whereas they would play more cautiously in a limped round. If you
observe such a behaviour at the table, then it can be correct to raise
more hands, not because of their slight pre-flop edge, but because you
can force your opponents to make costly mistakes post-flop.
Position when raising
A very important point to consider when raising pre-flop is
position. Many PLO players advise not to raise from UTG and early MP.
This is because you will very often find yourself out of position on
the flop against two or more opponents in a raised pot.
Here is a small example to illustrate this point:
Your hand: A A 6 5
Pre-flop action: You raise from UTG, BU and SB call.
Flop: K 7 3
Flop action: SB checks, you bet 2/3 pot size, BU raises and SB folds.
Since you only have an overpair and aren't a big favourite even against
an opponent with only the K, it is rather obvious that continuing in
this hand would be -EV.
Even with the following flop action, the situation isn't much better:
Flop action: SB checks, you bet 2/3 pot size, BU calls, SB folds
Turn: Q
Turn action: Hero?
The turn is hard to play, on one hand because it is very rare for BU
to call with only a K, but also because he could hold a flush draw,
straight draw or two pair. If you check, he will almost always bet; if
you bet, there is a high chance that you will be raised or called. In
the latter case, there are very few outs that you could hit on the
river to win the hand.
Thus you can see that being out of position on the flop makes the entire decision making more difficult
Now, let's look at the same situation from another position:
Pre-flop action: UTG limps, you raise from CO, BB and UTG call.
Flop: K 7 3
Flop action: BB and UTG check to you
This is a significantly better situation. Whether you check or bet,
you can be sure that you have less money to invest in order to see a
showdown or to win the pot.
Let's continue with this example:
Flop action: You bet 2/3 pot size and BB calls.
Turn: Q
Turn action: BB checks. Hero?
Now you can decide, depending on the opponent, whether you want to
take a freecard and keep the pot small, or win the pot right here with
a bet.
When should Aces be raised pre-flop?
Generally, when one can invest 1/3 of one's stack pre-flop, a
re-raise with Aces, or in some rare cases with Kings, is good. You
should of course be able to read your opponent's hand relatively accurately, i.e. the flop should be good for you in order to go all-in!
Also, if you want to make a re-raise for deception with low connected
cards, in order to trap on a low flop, make sure that your opponent is
more likely to call than go all-in directly pre-flop.
How should I react to a pre-flop reraise?
There are two different scenarios:
- Scenario 1: You called the first raise
In some situations, namely when the table has a very tight
3-betting range - for example this is often the case on the
micro-limits at PartyPoker -, you can assume that your opponents have
high cards. This means that the chances of the flop being low increase
a little. This is not a general truth! You must be sure that the table
has a very tight 3-betting range for the above to be true! But when it
is, you should mostly play hands with good drawing potential and
implied odds, 9-8-7-6, preferably double-suited. Other suitable
combinations would be pairs with connected and suited cards, like
9-9-8-7 or 9-9-8-8.
Your calling range in such situation should
of course depend on your opponent's range and postflop skills; the
better the opponent, the lower your implied odds, and the better your
hand has to be to justify a call.
The above mostly applies when
you are faced with a potsize re-raise. In case your opponent raises
small, and you get better odds, then you can naturally call looser.
- Scenario 2: You made the original raise
In this scenario, assuming you stick to the raising criteria explained in this article, you should have no problem calling an opponent's re-raise, since a call will almost always be profitable due to implied odds.
However you should remember that you will often be dominated with hands like A*** or K*** by AA** or KK**. You should always be able to evaluate what hands besides the aforementioned two your opponent will re-raise.
In case the re-raise is pot sized, you can call very often, assuming of course you raised a good hand to start with. In case the re-raise is smaller than that, you will always get good enough odds to play almost any hand.
Hand quiz
Your hand: K Q J T
Preflop: MP3 limps, Hero (CO) raises potsize, BU calls, BB reraises potsize, MP3 folds. Hero?
Your hand: T 9 8 7
Preflop: UTG limps, MP1 raises pot size, Hero calls, SB reraises pot size, UTG folds, MP1 calls. Hero?
Hero?
Your hand: A 9 8 7
Preflop: Hero raises potsize from MP3, CO calls, BU re-raises pot size. Hero?
Your hand: K K 87
Preflop: Hero raises pot size from BU, BB reraises pot size. Hero?
Your hand: 6 5 4 3
Preflop: MP3 raises pot size, Hero calls, SB re-raises pot size, MP3 calls. Hero?
Conclusion
Due to the huge number of combinations in a 4-card hand, a starting
hands chart would be very impractical. However, if you master the
concepts discussed in this article, you should be able to judge if your
hand can be played, and whether it should be raised or limped.
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Answers |
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| Hand 1: Your hand: K Q J TPreflop: MP3 limps, Hero (CO) raises potsize, BU calls, BB reraises potsize, MP3 folds. Hero? |
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This is a relatively clear fold. In most cases you will be dominated, e.g. by KK**, QQ**, JJ** or TT**. Additionally, a player behind you could still push, in which case you will be committed with a dominated hand. |
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| Hand 2:
Your hand: T
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Call. You have a hand that is well connected and that has good equity preflop against two high card hands, as well as being rather easy to play post-flop. |
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| Hand 3:
Your hand: A
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Fold. This hand is normally not a bad raising hand, but does not play very well against two opponents. An Ace high flop can be problematic when your opponents hold A*** with higher kickers. On top of that, there is an opponent left to act behind you who could push all-in, and your pre-flop equity against two opponents is dismal. |
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| Hand 4:
Your hand: K
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Call. Your hand is double suited, connected and has a high pair, making it relatively strong even against something like AA**. Against an aggressive preflop raiser you could even consider going all-in pre-flop, especially if your edge on the flop is not big. |
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| Hand 5:
Your hand: 6
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Fold. Even though connected hands are very pretty, this one is very marginal and is hard to play against two opponents, mainly because a flopped straight or monster draw might not always be good, and lead you to trouble. |
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