Chipping Up in Pot-Limit Omaha Tournaments By Derric "Sixpeppers" Haynie Since US Legislation has tightened restrictions on fund transferring to poker

sites, I have noticed the no-limit hold'em ring games getting tougher. It makes sense; the fish are leaving because they can't put money onto the site nearly as easily. I have since been looking to diversify my games, looking for a new edge to exploit. I found it. Pot-Limit Omaha is the moneymaker of online poker right now. The edge on your opponents is much larger than in hold'em, even though the swings can be bigger. Pot-limit Omaha tournaments are not that different from hold'em tournaments, except the players are worse. They play more hands than they should; they overvalue hands that were strong in hold'em but hold little to know value in Omaha; they frequently undervalue strong draws or wraps; and they frequently overvalue and overplay AAxx, KKxx, and QQxx. Here are a few starting guidelines that should help you move from the middle stages of a tournament to finishing in the money or winning your next pot-limit Omaha tournament: 1. Avoid big confrontations. Most of your chips will come from blind stealing and continuation bets, avoid tangling in multiway raised pots especially with lone pairs (JJxx - KKxx). If you have a good drawing hand "a hit or miss kind of hand like QJT8, etc." this is a good time to see a flop, but a hand like QQ94 is going to be useless post flop quite often. Dry Kings can be folded from the blinds to a single raise from early or middle position raisers; it is just too unlikely that this hand will win you a big pot, and you will be out of position for the rest of the hand. 2. Stay away from loose players. You will likely be playing a loose aggressive style, but be patient (oxymoron). If a loose player limps in or raises, it is best to avoid a marginal confrontation. Exceptions would be of course, big hands, or strong drawing hands, as well as marginal hands on the button in an unraised pot. Otherwise, it will be best to wait for an unopened pot to make a positional raise, or wait for a bigger hand where you can get a large portion of your stack into the pot (50%+). 3. Blind Stealing. Early in a tournament, stealing blinds is a bad idea for three reasons: (1) Bad/loose players haven't busted out of the tournament and are going to be trying to see lots of flops. (2) When you steal, you won't be getting much at all. Just the 30 or 45 chips that are in the pot. (3) You can become a victim to a reraise and either not get to see a pot with your marginal hand, or put more chips in than you really needed to in order to see a flop. As blinds start increasing, players will naturally tighten up and you will begin to approach the bubble. This is where you need to identify the players who are not defending their blinds, and raise nearly any hand in good position first in. Your goal should be to capture on average about two blinds per round through preflop raising, or continuation betting. Now sometimes one of the best things that can happen to you is you find an opponent that is 'defending' their blind. They call your raise out of position with a marginal hand. Awesome, a continuation bet will often take down those pots and your opponent will go broke in no time. Just be weary of betting

those connected boards like 89T or 579. Sometimes a 'delayed' turn continuation bet is the best choice in those situations. Near the bubble is the best time to abuse the short stacks. If you have an average to above average chip stack, you should be raising every button through button +3 that you are first into the pot. A good raise size is 2.5 BB's just like in hold'em. I usually wait until the blinds are at or above 200/400 to change my raise from 3 BB's to 2.5 BB's, but that is just personal preference. There are different situations where you may want to make pot sized raises. If you are on the button and both blinds have 8 BB's or less, you should make a pot sized raise with the intention of playing the hand through if the blinds come over the top. As you begin to create this loose image, you can use it to your advantage by playing differently in other situations (other meaning other than raising first in from late position to steal the blinds). The best option is to play very tight in early to middle position, as well as not make any 'moves' with preflop button raises once players have limped into the pot. By doing this you will get weaker hands to come along with you when you want their action, and still apply the pressure to the blinds when you don't want their action. There is no need to be playing dry JJ-KK from early position at all! If they have suited or connected potential than they may be worth a raise depending on where you are at in the tournament, but the most important thing is position, so don't get overexcited with KK23 in early position and decide to limp in to try and find another K. Save your chips so you can keep making those ever so important steals in position. On that note, never limp first into a pot when you are nearing or past the bubble. If the hand isn?t good enough to raise 2.5 BB's then it isn't worth playing. Some players, even successful loose aggressive players, have a style where they will limp multiple pots with the intention of betting almost any flop in attempt to take it down. I disagree with this style because it is giving a cheap flop away to other players. 4. Almost never slowplay. This is a standard Omaha rule for five reasons: (1) Most of the time your opponent isn't drawing dead and you may end up trapping yourself. Then you may be the one ending up in the bubble. (2) You are likely to get action from weaker hands or drawing hands (that are drawing dead) if you bet out. (3) The pot is usually big enough to make it important enough to take down right now. Don't get greedy unless you can afford it. (4) You want to facilitate your loose aggressive image, as well as cash in on it. (5) Draws, wraps, or flush draws, may be going for a check raise semi bluff, and you may miss the opportunity to get all their chips into the pot, drawing slim to none. Most of the time if they see the turn card and don't make it, they will slow down to see the river rather than try and get all their chips into the middle. 5. Blind Play. Be aggressive. In the BB - If you are heads-up against the SB and he limps in, you should be raising about 70% of the time. They will be out of position post flop and at a huge disadvantage, often with a marginal hand. Odds are they are looking for a cheap flop with a weak to marginal hand and won?t be able to continue much farther than the flop. Of course if they limp call your raise, a strong continuation bet will often take the pot down. In the SB , if it is folded to you, you should limp 40%, Raise

50%, and fold 10% of your hands. And of course you will very often want to make a continuation bet, just be weary of being out of position. All these variables are highly dependant on your opponent, so keep in mind what kind of player he is and change your strategy accordingly (against weak loose players you should limp and go for more value bets, against LAG frequent reraisers, you should fold more often and occasionally go for a limp reraise, and against tight aggressive, you should raise frequently but continuation bet less often). 6. Raise weak bets. Many players will bet a hand they think is strong but are really afraid of it being no good, so they make a very obvious probing bet with the hand. Unlike hold'em, they will be much more likely to throw the hand away to a raise. So a good place to pick up chips is a steal raise post flop against a player making this kind of weak bet. Their hand will often be something like top pair an over pair or bottom two pair. These kinds of hands often hold no value to a raise, and are very hard to continue on with against aggression. Catching these weak bets and making a bluff raise is a little tricky. You do not want to be bluff raising someone that "> scpokerclubkid@hotmail.com . More articles and videos to come later. See ya at the tables. ",1] ); D(["mb"," Derric Haynie ",1] ); //--> is betting any kind of draw (and is willing to call down to catch it), so avoid attempting a steal raise on draw heavy boards. Obviously a great time to try this bluff is when you have picked up some sort of weak draw like one open ended straight draw or a small flush draw. And of course always keep in mind your table image and your opponent's player type.