I just got an email from somebody subscribed to my 5 Free Hot Poker Tips email series wanting (specifically) PLO8 tips. Now it just so happens that I play a lot of this particular poker game online. So I took 5 minutes to scribble out some of my best tips for him, and thought I may as well share them with all of you as well. So here ya go:

1. Never raise from the early seats without aces - as it gives an aces hand too much ammunition to come back over the top.

2. When you flop nut low without much else take it easy for a betting round - check and call or bet small in late position only. Wait for the turn card to see if it will counterfeit you before committing a lot of chips. Try to measure your opponent’s hands by their actions and only get aggressive if it seems like another nut low is not out there.

3. On the other hand if you have any kind of decent high hand (like top pair) to go with your nut low against one opponent who is betting aggressively, try to get all-in as you have a good shot at quartering them.

4. Look for 12+ out straight draws on rainbow boards with no low yet and try to get all in on the flop if it seems possible, especially if you also have any low draw as well. Twelve outs twice is 24 - which is more than half the remaining deck - so you are a favorite to make the straight. However with two suited cards on the flop you just lost 25% of your outs so you would need a total wrap (16+ outs) in that case.

5. This one is very important and usually only pros know about it. Anytime you are against one opponent on the Turn or River and they would need to use all 4 cards to scoop you, raise max and try to get all-in if possible. (This works better in NLO8 because you can just go all-in.) For this scenario to exist there must be a possible low but no possible wheel and no possible flush, and it’s also better with no pair on board. If you have any straight or any set or any two pair plus any low (even 7-8) make this move. It’s very difficult for somebody to have a hand where they use all four cards to scoop so and you can really put the pressure on them and pick up a lot of fold equity this way.

6. Look for opponents who love to raise with pocket aces but not much else. When you spot one buddy-list them and always try to get into their game. You have a huge edge knowing what two of their cards are when they have no knowledge of your hand. When they have a large stack call liberally against them. What you want is for them to overplay their aces on an innocent looking flop where you flopped two pair or a set (of course if an ace flops abandon ship). Wait for them to Turn-bet then start raising max.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Poker strategy, Poker tips, Omaha poker, Plo8

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 10:39 pm and is filed under strategy. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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