5 Reasons You MUST Raise Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha Poker

Misunderstandings about Pot-Limit Omaha seem to spread like viruses on the internet – some of them are misleading, others are actually dangerous. One of the worst of all is that you ‘should never raise before the flop’ in PLO, since hand values are close together. While good players often seek to keep the pot small in early rounds under many circumstances, never raising as a strategy is a sure-fire way to be easily exploited by aware opponents.

This article sets the record straight by giving you 5 solid reasons why you can and should be raising before the flop in Pot-Limit Omaha. Taking these reasons on board will help you take cash from the loose-passive callers again and again!

Raising Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha #1 – For Value

We can all agree that many playable Omaha Starting Hands are close in value before the flop. Coordinated hands can even be a favorite against high pairs without backup. However, players who wait to see a flop before assessing the strength of their holding are missing an important point – that your ‘calling’ opponents will often not be playing premium hands at all.

There are two linked points here. If your opponents are likely to play semi-coordinated (or worse) hands, making you a big favorite, then why not build a pot while you have an edge? Secondly, if you choose those coordinated hands with plenty of ‘nut-potential’ why do you fear a raised multi-way pot before the flop? If you hit hard then you are likely to have one or more opponents build a pot with you – more than making up for those times you miss. Putting it plainly why would you not increase the stakes of a hand where you can not be taking the worst of it and may easily have a profitable edge?

Finally, those limped pots where you do hit a nut draw you have the handicap of requiring several more bets and raises to get all of the cash into the middle – potentially tipping off your opponents to the strength of your hand.

Raising Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha #2 – For Balance

One of the most profitable opponents you will find is someone who only ever raises with aces pre-flop. By tipping off their hand early these players get stacked again and again. Since we want to get as much money into the pot with aces as possible – but do not want to be easy to read – we raise a wider range of quality coordinated starting hands.

There is a second advantage here, if you only ever raise the nuts and hit a set it is difficult to get paid-off with a big pot. Raising a wide range and continuation betting regularly will mean that opponents are less likely to ‘put you on the nuts’ – dramatically increasing your chances of being paid off.

Raising Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha #3 – For Positional Reasons

Position is more important in Pot-Limit Omaha than in no-limit Holdem games due to the bigger number of potential draws and pot-size maximum for each bet. Raising pre-flop from later position can buy the button, giving you positional advantage throughout the hand. Your button is worth protecting, and regularly raising and even re-raising may discourage your opponents from trying to steal position from you. We like to think of it this way, all else being equal, the player who player the majority of hands while in position will have a significant equity advantage – and raising pre is one way of ensuring that you act last throughout the hand as often as possible.

Raising Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha #4 – To Isolate

Isolating a weak opponent is the bread and butter of experienced deep stack PLO players. The idea is that a weak opponent enters the pot and you raise a wide variety of holdings behind them – trying to get exclusive rights to their entire stack for the hand in question. If you have strong post-flop skills then this can be profitable with a massive range of starting hands. Caution is advised in the situation where your opponents know what you are up to, they may call or even re-raise behind you and try and trap you for a big pot with inadequate values.

Raising Pre-Flop In Pot-Limit Omaha #5 – To Prevent Limpers Having A Free Shot

We saved the single most important reason until last. The key reason that you need to raise before the flop in Pot-Limit Omaha is that failing to do so encourages your opponents to limp into the pot with a huge variety of random holdings. By creating a ‘game flow’ in which people can limp with confidence you seriously compromise hand reading on later streets – there could be all sorts of random holdings which just spiked the nuts against your coordinated high hand. Raising before the flop regularly will at least discourage opponents entering the pot with the worst of their junk.

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