With news that 2007 WSOPE champ Annette Obrestad is set to take on the vagaries of Omaha, we tracked her down for a little strategy one-on-one.
Annette, you said on a forum recently that you’d like to play more PLO tournaments in general. Why is this? Isn’t mastering Hold’em hard enough?
I like to take one game at the time. Eventually I'll jump into HORSE games, but I want to make sure I master PLO first as that’s the second most popular game nowadays, and it’s growing every day.
Why tackle PLO tournaments when everyone else is playing cash?
he main reason is that there are big differences between cash games and tournaments. I've specialized in tourneys in the past, so I feel that format is better suited for me, plus I love PLO.
How different are the skill sets that make a successful NLHE tourney player and a successful PLO one?
There will be a lot of the same strategies in any tourneys, but PLO is a different game, so obviously there will be some other differences. I think if you’re a good NLHE MTT player, you’ll have a chance in any tourney if you have an idea how to play the game.
What is the attraction for you when it comes to playing PLO? How much of you wanting to play it has come from seeing the kinds of games being played by the top pros online?
The high stakes games don’t really influence me. I started playing PLO because it seemed like a fun game, and it turned out I really like it. It’s a different challenge, and it’s a very complex game that few people have figured out yet, so there’s still lots of money to be made.
Have you got a particular structure for how you want to learn PLO tourney strategy?
For me it’s more important to just really learn the game. I already know how to play tournaments, so the better I get at actually playing PLO, the better my tourney results will more likely be.
What do you think playing PLO will add to your skill set as a poker player? Do you aspire to be a top PLO player, or is it more of a way of relaxing/diversifying your skill set?
It’s a completely different way of thinking about hands, and I think I’ve taken things that I’ve learned from playing PLO and incorporated that in my NLHE game with much success. I think the more games you know and learn, the better your overall gameplan in all games will be.
What do you think are the most common misconceptions about how to play PLO tournaments?
I would say they are three main things: not knowing when to get your chips in without the nuts, not bluffing enough and just playing too tight in general.
Is there a real difference in understanding how to best play PLO cash and tourneys? PLO cash seems to be all the rage now, but there’s less out there on tournament strategy.
As I said earlier, a tournament is a tournament and there are certain strategies that go for all games like blind stealing, picking on short stacks, knowing how to play different stack sizes, playing the bubble, ICM etc. Those are things you don’t have to think about when you play cash games because people are usually always deep stacked, the game changes a lot, and people play hands differently.
Omaha is very much thought of as a post-flop game – do you think there are different mindsets for playing Hold’em or Omaha post-flop, or is it all just ‘poker’?
That’s certainly true. Let’s just say that if you’re losing your stack with A-A-x-x in PLO post-flop on the same boards you would get in Hold’em, then you’re going to go bust pretty damn fast, so yes, there’s a big difference. You shouldn’t be treating aces the same in PLO. [see Issue 46 for analysis on playing aces in Omaha].
How do you go about broadening your hand range in PLO tournaments vs. PLO cash or Hold’em? Many players are unsure of how to adjust their ranges when short-handed or heads-up - any thoughts?
It depends on blinds and the table image. I do think in PLO tourneys people tend to play way too tight, and they never 3-bet for value without aces or very good kings, and late in tourneys that’s probably going to be a mistake.
Do you use HUDs or tracking software in general when playing online? If so, would you do the same for PLO? What significance would you give the stats?
I use Poker Tracker maybe 20% of the time. I only have it on my computer at home, so if I'm travelling with a laptop, I won’t.
Who, if anyone, would you like to chat PLO tournament strategy with? Which players do you think do have a good grip on PLO tourney strategy?
Probably Phil Galfond and Brian Townsend. They seem to really have a good idea what they’re doing.
Which moves do you think transfer well from NLHE tournaments to PLO? Are floats, c-bets and stop-and-go plays just as viable in PLO tourneys when you’re often relatively short stacked, say under 50 big blinds?
Trying to compare the two games is just impossible. It all depends on so much. Yes, you can float, but you wouldn’t do it on the same boards in PLO as you would in Hold’em. Stop-and-Gos might be effective but there are so few instances where it is the best play. Restealing is probably the least used strategy in PLO and also the most effective, because players will fold to re-pots live whereas online, they never do.
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