Andris Kangeris talks about playing aces in PLO. Courtesy of 24hPoker.com:

Playing Aces in Pot Limit Omaha

A pair of Aces is the best starting hand in Texas Hold'em, and it often is a very strong hand unimproved after the flop. However, Omaha has its quirks and tricks - the most easily identifiable is the obvious: you get four hole cards instead of two! As an effect of this, AAxx hands in Omaha are much less valuable than in Texas from the flop and onwards.

One of the most common mistakes that a player having just made the switch from Texas to Omaha make is playing AAxx hands like Aces in Hold'em post flop.

AAxx is an okay to very good starting hand, depending on side-cards and suits. But Omaha is a game played post flop to a larger extent than Texas. Even while AAKK double suited and AAJT double suited are regarded as the best starting hands, they are more or less worthless on a 764 rainbow flop if there is any action.

A good rule of thumb for playing AAxx hands in Omaha is that if you have raised preflop and face only one opponent, you should always bet and try to win the pot then and there. Against two or more opponents it is however often a bad idea to put more money in on the flop.

Naked Aces - by that I mean unimproved AAxx hands where the side cards do no hit any piece of the flop (like a straight draw or two pair) - are seldom playable post flop. Think of it as raising 65 from late position in Texas, getting called and the flop coming QJ5. You will bet to try to steal the pot, but not put any more money in the middle if you get called or raised.

If you do not hit a set with your Aces, you need at least a nut flush draw to go with your Aces to continue playing after the flop should there be any action. Let us, for the sake of argument, assume you raised AA83 with A3 of spades preflop. The flop comes QJ4 with two spades.

You bet out, and your opponent raise. This is one instance where you actually can continue playing, because you have both the over pair and the nut flush draw. If your opponent isn't completely clueless, he should have either two pair (QJxx), a wrap straight draw (like KT9x) or a set (QQxx/JJxx/44xx).

Against two pair you are either marginally ahead or marginally behind (practically a coin flip anyway), against a straight wrap you are ahead and against a set you are a substantial underdog with a one-in-three chance of winning. Not optimal, but not terrible.

But even on a flop as the one above there is a risk of you being a pretty big underdog, which only proves how tricky Aces are to play in Omaha. Play them carefully post flop and don't put money in the middle with naked Aces and you will have eliminated a huge leak!

Written by Andris Kangeris for 24hPoker.com.

Andris Kangeris talks about strong drawing hands in PLO. Courtesy of 24hPoker.com:

Strong Drawing Hands: Pot Limit Omaha

Pot Limit Omaha is a completely different game than Texas Hold'em. One of the main differences is the value of strong drawing hands skyrocketing in Omaha, while drawing hands that one might play in Texas (like an open-ended straight draw) drop in value like the stock market on Black Tuesday. In Omaha, the strong draws are the so-called wrap straight draws. In Texas, an open-ended straight draw equals 8 outs. In Omaha, the wrap straight draws equal 13, 17 or even 20 outs!

To value drawing hands in Omaha is hard in the beginning. A 13-card wrap is in the low scale of good drawing hands. To play a wrap like this, we often want a flush draw to go with it. And Omaha being a game of nuts, it is important that our 13-card wraps make nut straights. Look at the following example:

The flop is 982 rainbow. A hand like QJT6 is relatively strong, giving us 13 outs, all of them making nut straights. However a hand like A765, which is also a 13-card wrap, is more or less worthless, since it makes so few nut straights! If we are to play a 13-card wrap, it is crucial to instantaneously spot if we hold the "high" or "low" wrap. With the high wrap, we can almost always at least call a bet, but the low one should be played as a gutshot straight draw in Texas - tossed in the muck!

A 13-card wrap is, as I already mentioned, not a that great hand. Whether to get all of the money in the middle or not depends on our own style of play, the opponent, stack sizes and the pot size. However, should the flop come 982 with two hearts and we have a flush draw to go with our wrap draw, we are suddenly in much better shape! Sure, a few hands have us in extremely bad shape (like A993 with A3 of hearts), but generally speaking it is a very good draw that should be played aggressively.

But now to the even bigger wraps. Let us take the same flop, 982 rainbow, and switch our hand to JT73 instead. Now we suddenly have 17 outs: 4 sixes, 3 sevens, 3 tens, 3 jacks and 4 queens! Against a set, we are flipping coins. This is a draw that we would like to get all our money in the middle with. However, be careful should the flop contain a flush draw that we do not have. That diminishes the value of our hand greatly, because many of our outs may very well be contaminated, giving us a straight but at the same time making a flush for our opponent.

A 17-card wrap is easily identifiable: on a coordinated board, we have two connecting cards above and one below (JT72 on 983, 983 on 762 etcetera).

The best wrap straight is the 20-card wrap. On the same example flop, 982, it would be JT76. 20 cards give us a straight: 4 fives, 3 sixes, 3 sevens, 3 tens, 3 jacks and four queens! With a 20-card wrap, we are a favorite even against a set.

But enough about wrap straight draws. There is one more great draw, and it is the set and nut flush draw combination. Suppose we hold A882 with A2 of hearts on an 876 board with two hearts. If there will be action on this flop, our opponent likely holds a straight. But it doesn't matter, since our set and nut flush draw is a favorite - we will win the pot 60% of the time!

Omaha is a complicated game, but by learning to evaluate the value of drawing hands we have come quite a bit on the way of mastering this oh so exciting game of poker!

Written by Andris Kangeris for 24hPoker.com.

Mini-raising Preflop with AAxx in Omaha

The play described in this article is quite advanced and a play that people playing internet poker rarely thinks about. The essence of it is to mini-raise with AAxx preflop if a shortstack has raised the pot preflop (instead of the common play which is to raise pot) in order to trap other players in-between.

When playing online poker, there are often people buying in short. Let us assume that a player has 40 euro in front of him on a table with blinds of 1/2. One player limps, the shortstack raises pot to 9 and a player behind calls. We look down at a really nice starting hand - AAT9 single suited. What is our course of action?

The natural instinct is to start thinking about all the money coming our way, pulling the slider to the far right and raising pot. It is correct to get as much money in preflop, preferably the whole stack, with AAxx in Omaha, and this is a perfect situation to get it all-in against the shortstack with some dead money in the pot. Right?

No.

The best play is instead to mini-raise to 16 total. At first, it might sound bizarre and irrational, but it is an extremely effective weapon. What we are now hoping for is for the first player to call our mini-raise and for the shortstack to push, so we can re-raise it again and play it heads-up against the shortstack with lots of dead money in the pot, or, force the first caller to play for his entire stack holding the worst hand. Of course, the most favorable scenario is if the player that called the initial shortstack raise calls the all-in from the shortstack, which almost guarantees us to get our entire stack in the middle.

Mini-raising entices the players behind to call. If they do, and the shortstack pushes, we have gotten more dead money in the pot and gotten the same result as if we would have potted it - a heads-up pot against the shortstack, or, even better, forced another player with a big stack to put it all-in with the worse of it.

But what happens if the shortstack just cold-calls our mini-raise? Well, then we have a big pot to play for on the flop, which increases our chances of winning huge should we flop a good hand.