Pot Limit Omaha blog post II - Tri "Slowhabit" Nyugen

There was a time not so long ago when I was finding a lot of success on the Pot Limit Omaha cash tables, but complacency has crept slightly in recently and I realise that in order to get to those same levels again, I really could do with reminding myself about some of the tips and strategies presented by Tri "slowhabit" Nyugen in the Pot Limit Omaha book: Transitioning from NL to PLO.

Recently I have been playing in the games and feeling a little 'lost' and feeling opportunities I could capitalise on are passing me by.  This morning I played for an hour on a 6 max Limit table and won exactly one hand, and had a set of JJs hit on the flop outdrawn by a straight and two pair outdone by another straight.  This two pair all-in raise, was for the whole of my buy-in.  Afterwards I felt this was overall bad play on my part, when I flopped the two pair and lost.  In other words, it means I'm in need of a bit of a literature refresher!  

Some of the insights that Nyugen reveals in his book are really very useful tips indeed and the main point he makes is that bigger is better when playing PLO.  For example, QJT9 and JT98 have more value than medium rundowns such  T987 and 9876, which have more value than 7654 and 6543.

Before playing your next Pot Limit Omaha game it really is worth asking yourself whether you are really sure about how to approach this game and take on some of the frequent callers and aggressive players that you are likely to encounter.  .  

What I really like about this book is that it really teaches you how to approach PLO with an effective and proven strategy by the five times WSOP bracelet winner and I think if you learn some of them you really will gain a huge advantage in the game.  My feeling is that most players, at the lower limits anyway, don't generally seem to pay that much attention to learning the game and treat it as an opportunity to quickly double up or something or just a spin of the dice, a bit of fun before hopping back to the more serious world of Texas No Limit Hold'em, where they return to playing less wildly again....perhaps.

I really strive not to qoute word for word from any of the book reviews that I do, but as you may have noticed I do think it useful to qoute directly from some of what is said by the authors to give you a sample of the kind of thought processes they go through in their books.  

As an overall summary, I would say that Nyugen gets you thinking about playing hands that will have value post-flop, but also warns against dangers of playing the lower suited connectors as these can land you in trouble versus higher straights.  Nyugen suggests that the higher holding cards the better and to be careful as otherwise it could cost you money.  The enigmatic Poker player, who dropped out of school at 16 to play underground poker games, goes on to say that you should only really be playing in pots about 20-25% of the time, and I definitely agree with this.

Now in terms of flush draws in PLO.  Flush possibilities definitely hold a lot of value and nut flush draws crush a wrap with a lower flush draw. according to Nyugen's analysis.  The example he gives is shown in the image below:

Interesting that on a wrap draw like this that the player drawing to the nut flush is a much bigger favourite at 65% v 35% in this situation!  I wouldn't have thought this without looking at the statistics!  What about you?  Nyugen's book is filled with many enlightening gems of key information like this.  These kind of insights definitely made me start to think about the game in a different way, and very rarely do I go all in chasing 'just' a flush draw in PLO, as it's likely that unless I hold the nut flush draw, I could be drawing dead.

As a further summary, other tips Nyugen comes up with include limping behind (with marginal hands) to keep pots small because players play less well in smaller pots and don't fight for missed flops.

I would like to end this second Pot Limit blog post by continuing to shine a spotlight on Nyugen's advice by looking at his chapter of 3 betting and 4 betting.  Overall he says;

• In PLO, people rarely fold to 3 bets (correctly so) due to small pre-flop equity difference between hands.
• So 3 betting should be more for value
• The key is to expand your 3 bet value range to include some medium strength hands.  Instead of only raising with AAxx and premium rundowns, add double suited hands such as ATJ9 and AKQJ to your range.

• When 3 betting you realise your opponents regard your betting as light then tighten up
• If they do fight back with marginal holdings, then tighten up your pre-flop range or widen your pre-flop 4 betting value range.
• When 3 or 4 betting (opponents will automatically put you on AAxx or high cards.  If you are doing so with a wider range you can bluff on flops like AJJ or AK9 when you don't have it.
• 'Against aggressive habitual bettors, you should 3 bet with premium showdowns such as                            A ♣️ K ♣️ Q 💎 T 💎  and JT98' says Nyugen, adding that, 'hands such as KKTJ or KK78 double suited are good for 4 betting.

I will finish by sharing with you a vital page from the book;

Hope you'll find this useful guys and gals out there reading this post and if you empower yourself by reading Nyugen's book for yourself, I would say good luck at the tables, but actually I won't need to.  You'lle be raking in the dollars against the weak untrained opponents coming your way!

All the same, good luck at the tables and thanks a lot for reading.  I'll be looking forward to reading all the other blog posts coming up in the future.