PL Omaha Mistakes: Overplaying Pocket Aces
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One of the major mistakes in Pot Limit Omaha is overplaying pocket Aces. Many players who switch from Texas Hold’em to PL Omaha play pocket Aces like they did in Hold’em – very aggressively. This is a wrong technique in PL Omaha and I will tell you why.
In Pot Limit Omaha you can only bet the pot size which is a prerequisite for many players entering the pot preflop.
Depending on the players count on the flop and the board you decide whether your aces are good or not. Bad players do not take care of these two major factors and fire another barrel.
Let’s check an example. You hold A♠A♥5♦7♣ and make a pot raise preflop from the button. This is a pretty standard play. Don’t forget your hand isn’t that strong – you have pocket Aces, but your cards are not suited and also not connected. But still it is a very good starting hand. You can check the best starting hands in Omaha Hi here.
So let’s continue with the hand. You get 3 callers preflop. The flop comes 5♣6♣J♦ and it is checked to you on the button.
In this moment a weak player would say: “Well, I have an overpair and I feel comfortable with it. I will bet.” Betting is OK to me if you were heads-up. In a situation with 3 other players you might be already beat on the flop against set for example. If not, there is a big chance for you to get called on a big draw and if a scary card comes on the turn you have to give up the hand.
What should you do? You have to check here, because if you try to get the pot here you risk to get check/raised. And it is a big risk because you have 3 players in the pot and also a straight and a flush draws. Since the flop didn’t hit you, you have to give up the hand if you don’t improve on the turn and if another player bets.
But the main problem isn’t that you could not hit the flop, it is that you have no real draws. Every time you make a continuation bet into a multiway pot you have to take care about the draws on the board. This will save you a lot of money.