The Difference Between PLO and FL Omaha Poker

With the popularity of Omaha games at an all time high, especially in online poker, it is important to understand some of the basic differences between Pot Limit and Fixed Limit. You will see both variants quite often when playing online and if you treat them the same, you will encounter problems.

One of the most obvious differences, but one that people overlook is the power of the draw in PLO. In a fixed limit game, you might start out with the best hand after the flop, but end up losing to a draw for, say a flush or a straight. In a FL game if you do lose to a draw, it doesn’t hurt you that much and it is farily easy to recover from. However, in PLO, you have to make the decision much sooner. There may be times that you fold the best hand on the flop because the odds are good that you may lose on the Turn or River to a draw. If you do lose to a drawin a PL game, it may cost you all of your chips. So, while that 2 pair may look good on the flop, if there is a straight and flush draw with several people in the pot, your best course of action may be to fold.

The other aspect to look at in these situations is if you have top hand but also a secondary draw. Having a secondary draw will heavily influence whether or not you stay in the hand. Again, in FL it may not be so important to make sure you have some kind of a draw, but in PL, where you are likely to have much more of your chip stack at risk, it is very important.  You cannot play a PL game where you are just hoping your flopped hand will hold up. It will cost you too much money over the long run and if you run up against strong players who push their drawing hands hard, you will be on the rail before you know it.

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