They may be the nuts in Hold’em, playing the rockets is a different ball game altogether in Omaha, as Noel Hayes explains.
One of the more regular questions I get asked about PLO is how to play aces. My reply is always the same – sensibly!
Hold’em players are used to reaping huge rewards with A-A - their strength is unquestioned pre-flop and they also maintain their value very well post-flop so players making the transition from Hold’em make the mistakes of playing them similarly in PLO.
In Hold’em you are often quite happy to put 10% of your stack in pre-flop with A-A and proceed to put the other 90% in post-flop with an unimproved hand with a high expectation that you are still ahead. However, the reality in PLO is that if you are putting 90% of your stack in post-flop with A-A-x-x combos that have either failed to improve or have limited potential for improvement on later streets then your expectation of being ahead and your play being profitable is quite small.
AGGRESSION IS KEY
Of course not all A-A-x-x hands are the same. A-A-7-2 rainbow, while still a desirable hand, is not in the same bracket as something like A-A-J-10 double-suited. Your ‘backhand’ or ‘side-cards’, e.g. the other two cards in your hand with the A-A, should also bring a little something to the party. Preferably they should be suited to the aces and also offer straightening potential. For that reason A-A-J-10ds is considered the very best PLO starting hand. Others consider A-A-K-Kds to be the powerhouse but if I am being totally honest either one would be just fine for me and would be enough to be playing on with plenty of confidence.
You may deduce from this that the general key to playing A-A-x-x combos is to put as much of your stack in pre-flop as possible so as to limit the implied odds you are offering your opponent. This would ensure that come the post-flop play you will in turn be offered huge odds on placing the rest of your money into the middle against your opponent, irrespective of the flop texture.
Let’s thinks about this for a moment. With effective stacks of say, 100BBs, when you put in 33% or more of your stack pre-flop it is very difficult to make a mistake in your post-flop play. You have put 33BBs in pre-flop and so has your opponent, and so on the flop your stack is the same as the pot. If you are first to act you can make a pot-sized bet, thus ending your decision-making for the hand and forcing the decision on your opponent for the rest of his stack.
On the occasion that your opponent acts ahead of you and he makes a pot-sized bet you are now being laid 2/1 and it will only be a very occasional case where you have less than 33% equity in the pot so you will rarely be making a mistake by committing the rest of your money.
I will expand on that latter point a little more. All things being equal if you have put 33% of your stack in pre-flop you will have made the last raise and most people will polarize your range squarely towards A-A-x-x combos as by now you will either have 4-bet or put in a strong 3-bet after an initial open raise and a number of callers. For that reason when a player pots into you on the flop he is often doing so with a one-pair-and-a-draw type hand that is technically behind and he is funking to get a fold out of you. After all, why would he lead top set when he expects you to commit yourself to the pot regardless? For that reason don’t be scared and fear the worst every time somebody leads into you in a situation like this. You’ve got to have a big heart and stand firm!
TAKING THE INITIATIVE
Indulge me a little and allow me to stray momentarily. Think about this play and consider my previous articles where I stressed the need for one’s play not to be predictable. If you only ever 4-bet pre-flop with A-A-x-x combos a good player will play against your hand accordingly. For this reason you need to be comfortable being aggressive against other aggressive players. Don’t be afraid to take the initiative with 8-9-10-Jds or K-Q-J-9ss type hands; remember your opponent doesn’t have to have A-A-x-x combos and it’s not the end of the world if you do run into their A-A-x-x hands as you have the strongest possible category of hands to tackle them with. There is also the added bonus of being able to represent the A-A-x-x combo on suitable flops, i.e. ones that include an ace or low, paired boards like 8-3-3 rainbow or similar.
Despite this general rule of putting as much of your stack in pre-flop as possible it shouldn’t deter you from your responsibility to continue to think about your play. You have to consider what position putting in the next raise with A-A-x-x will leave you in. If stacks are deeper than 100BBs you don’t want to be putting in a 3-bet with bad A-A-x-x type hands from the SB where you are getting too small a percentage of your stack in the middle.
As with everything this is situation-dependent. Consider effective stacks of 150BBs; after an UTG raise it is folded to you in the BB with A-A-7-2 rainbow and you make a pot-sized 3-bet. At this point you are out of position having defined your hand somewhat and you have inflated the pot by raising it to 11BBs – the only thing you have achieved here is to make life difficult for yourself later in the hand.
If the UTG player is any way competent he should call your raise as with the effective stacks as they are he can steal the pot from you a large portion of the time. Unless your hand improves - and let’s face it, there are a very limited number of flops which improve your hand - you will likely fold to pressure from your opponent on a later street.
IN CONCLUSION
So that’s it folks. Just as in Hold’em aces should be your most profitable hand over a large sample of hands. It’s just that the journey to this result involves some cuter play and the application of a little more sense. If aces aren’t your biggest winner then you are doing something wrong and should spend some time to examine your plays and consider if some of the losses could have been avoided by applying some of the logic outlined above.
TOP TIPS FOR PLAYING A-A-x-x
1. You don’t have to play a big pot with A-A-x-x hands, but when you do, make sure it’s on your terms. There is nothing wrong with occasionally disguising the strength of your hand where other actions would lead to a difficult post-flop spot.
2. Continue to play sensibly – don’t be blinded by the pretty-looking A-A-x-x hand as they don’t retain their strength post-flop in PLO like they do in Hold’em. |
