You are going to meet some serious extremes of player types at the PLO poker tables. From the player who raises every hand through to the type who only ever bet with the stone cold nuts. This light-hearted look at Omaha Poker Opponents will prepare you for the tables! By the way – … If you are serious about profiling your PLO opponents scroll to the bottom of this article for details of a great Omaha software tool which will do this for you!
The Ultra Aggressive Pounder!
Pot raise every hand pre-flop, pot bet on every flop – still someone left in the hand? Well then a pot bet on the turn should see them off!
The ‘pounder’ will use their chip stack as a weapon, literally betting all and any opponents into submission. Found more often at short-handed (6-max) tables, this opponent type can be very dangerous indeed – just as you make a hand worth re-raising they’ll come up with the nuts.
There are actually sub-varieties of this player type. Some will continue to bet whatever the action, others will slow down if they meet resistance. Calling is a great counter strategy here, let these types build a pot then re-raise later in the hand when they are already pot-committed. Sure, sometimes they will draw out on you – however the rewards when they do not will more than make up for it.
The Calling Station
As long as they have an out they’ll call you down, no matter if the out is just a gutshot to the 3rd nut straight. Locate the calling stations immediately, there is no bigger source of profit at an Omaha poker table. While you are ahead just bet pot after pot after pot, since these types will be nice enough to let you know if they hit the hand they were after… When a calling station re-raises you need a hand, they have hit! Call now only with a very good hand of your own.
The Nut Peddler
This opponent will see some flops, in fact they may see a good percentage of flops when the price is cheap. After the flop it is going to take an excellent hand of multi-way nut draw to keep them interested. Always continuation bet around half the pot into the nut-peddlers, they will fold often enough to make this profitable. If you get called and the turn does not make any obvious draws a 2nd barrel will usually see them off… if not then you are beaten, save those chips unless you have a monster hand.
The Aces-Only Raiser
These opponents will fold and fold and fold some more, then Bam! Raise with a pair of aces. The great thing about pot-limit Omaha is that you can call, in fact you can call with just about any 4 cards. The reason is simple, the aces-only raiser has already told you his hand, and at the same time has given you fantastic odds to out-draw him. Now a low straight, small trips or even 2 pairs becomes a monster after the flop. The aces-only raiser just waited half an our for his ‘strong’ hand, and there is no way on earth that the fold button is even an option… take the stacks of these players, they’ll complain about their ‘bad luck’ or your ‘bad call’ pre-flop – just tell them you got lucky and wait for the next time they willingly donate their entire stack!!
The Texas Holdem Player
High pairs look great to Texas Holdem players new to Omaha, that Q-Q-x-x is easily good enough for a 3-bet pre-flop and a pot bet on the flop, to their eyes it is good enough as an unimproved overpair at the river.
With Holdem players your coordinated hands go way up in value, that small run-down such as 5-6-7-8 is a monster against someone who over-plays high-pairs. Pair / draw combinations could easily be 70% or more to win on the flop. Sure, you’ll lose to the overpair sometimes – but against a Holdem player you will have plenty more opportunities to get big money into the pot as a clear favorite! As a side note expect the Holdem players to cry in the chabox when their pairs gets beaten. Resist the urge to teach them their errors – you’ll gain more profits over time.
