When you play poker you have to have your mojo fully engaged, and a few months ago mine had up and left the building. It would seem the 12 years of hold'em was plenty and I needed a new challenge. Pot limit Omaha was the answer, as it is for an increasing number of players. The brutal fact is hold'em games, particularly cash games, have become far tougher in the last two or three years. The general standard of play has increased a lot, the games are tighter, more aggressive and there are fewer casual players.
In Omaha the level of awareness is far lower, there is much less educational information and the game is not as close to being solved as hold'em. The problem when you move across from hold'em is that at first you are the dead money. Aggression is still key to being a winner, isolating limpers and weak players in pots, talking and keeping the lead in a hand, three-betting in position light, check-raise bluffing scary boards and so are still going to be valuable in PLO.
Also your well-honed basic poker instincts about hands and your opponents' tendencies will help you get a head start in the new game, however you will need knowledge and skill to be a winner.
Playing pre-flop is still debated about the amount of hands you can profitably and win. Good six-max players settle around a 27/21 (VPIP/PFR) style. However, there are players playing much looser, playing up to 40% of there hands. You certainly can win by 'nitting it up' at the low to medium stakes and playing tight pre-flop.
There will usually be a bigger gap between your VPIP and PFR numbers than in hold'em as you can cold call more raises and you'll also find yourself in more multi-way pots. The classic adage that hold'em players overvalue big pairs in Omaha still holds true. It takes a lot of trail, error and loss to finally accept that with Q-Q or J-J in them (unless highly coordinated) just aren't very strong.
In Omaha the level of awareness is far lower, there is much less educational information and the game is not as close to being solved as hold'em. The problem when you move across from hold'em is that at first you are the dead money. Aggression is still key to being a winner, isolating limpers and weak players in pots, talking and keeping the lead in a hand, three-betting in position light, check-raise bluffing scary boards and so are still going to be valuable in PLO.
Also your well-honed basic poker instincts about hands and your opponents' tendencies will help you get a head start in the new game, however you will need knowledge and skill to be a winner.
Playing pre-flop is still debated about the amount of hands you can profitably and win. Good six-max players settle around a 27/21 (VPIP/PFR) style. However, there are players playing much looser, playing up to 40% of there hands. You certainly can win by 'nitting it up' at the low to medium stakes and playing tight pre-flop.
There will usually be a bigger gap between your VPIP and PFR numbers than in hold'em as you can cold call more raises and you'll also find yourself in more multi-way pots. The classic adage that hold'em players overvalue big pairs in Omaha still holds true. It takes a lot of trail, error and loss to finally accept that with Q-Q or J-J in them (unless highly coordinated) just aren't very strong.
