Common Mistakes Made by PLO Beginners

1. Home
2. News
3. Common Mistakes Made By Plo Beginners

As we reported last week, Poker Central is creating a Poker Masters PLO Series. Pot-Limit Omaha by nature is a high action game. As such, players need to take the time to make the right moves in order to keep themselves out of too many marginal situations.

With the rise of a new PLO series like Poker Masters Online, we expect to see an influx of new players. New players tend to make a ton of mistakes while learning PLO. Today, we will go over is some common mistakes made by beginning PLO players.

Playing Too Many Uncoordinated Hands

Many times a player will see a pair in an Omaha hand and automatically play it. Often, these hands can only help them in one way. Some examples of hands like this are K-K-8-2 unsuited , K-Q-7-3 unsuited, or 10-9-5-2 unsuited.

These types of hands are ones you want to really stay away from. A pair, even a big pair, without much to back it up means that you must flop a set and hope that it holds. A hand with just one straight draw possibility and no backup is nearly as bad, especially if the board comes with a flush draw or pairs.

Getting your Money in With a Set and No Redraw

Too often players will get all their money in on the flop with a set and nothing else to speak of. For example, a player with 10-10-8-2 with 10-2 of hearts sees a flop of Kd-10d-5s. The player then decides to come over the top of a pot-sized bet.

Chances are that your opponent is looking at a straight draw, a flush draw, or maybe both. The worst-case scenario is that you are already behind to a set of kings.

Even if you have two kings in your hand in the above situation and flop top set, if someone has a wrap with a flush draw, you are actually behind percentage-wise on the flop. You do not want to go crazy with just a naked set, unless you like giving away your money.

Getting Money in With Flopped Nuts With No Redraw

You have 5d-7c-9h-10c and the flop falls 6d-7d-8h. You just flopped the nut straight. But guess what, you are in trouble if anyone has any form of a reasonable draw. Often, the only way you’ll win this hand is if the board fails to improve.

Again, many players will flop the nuts without any type of a redraw and put all their money with other players still drawing very live. If you flop the nuts, you need to have a live redraw in order to play a big pot with the hand. In PLO, it is correct to commit your stack with a big multi-way draw or redraw, especially in cash games. Consistently getting your money in without backup is going to be a long-term losing proposition.

Drawing to a Non-Nut Hand

Beginning players lose money to this type of mistake more often than any other. For example, you have 7h-8d-9h-10d and the flop falls Qh-Jh-4d. You have a draw to a straight and even a flush, but neither are the nuts.

If you go crazy betting and calling bets here, you are likely throwing your money away. Now, if that 7h was the Ah, you would be in much better shape to move in with this hand as you have a nut flush redraw to go with your straight draw.

However, you should stay away from non-nut draws as much as possible. Remember that PLO is a game of big cards and big draws. That means nut draws. While there are times that you will win big pots with second or third nuts, they are the exception rather than the rule.