Mad Man Poker

In my first strategy article, I’m going to talk a bit about starting hand ranges for a PLO ring-game. In PLO you want to get a big or even huge hand on the flop. This may be a made hand or a very big draw. There are certain hands that will get you in many more of these situations than others.

First of all, you should know that you can only use two out of the four cards that you are holding, to make your 5-card hand by the river. To get as many 2-card combinations as possible, all four cards in your hand should work together.

Big Pairs

When you play PLO for the first time, it is very tempting to think that holding a pair from Queens up, makes your hand very good. But you have to consider the possibilities here. When holding a pair, what are you trying to make? Yes, there is a very small chance of making quads on the flop, but this is not something that happens often and a lot of times you won’t get payed off. A set however occurs more often. This can take down the hand already and turning/rivering a full house is what keeps you from drawing dead against straights and flushes.

But these pairs need some help. For instance holding aces with two other cards, each in the suit of those aces. This gives you two chances of an ace-high flush, a hand that will almost always hold up until the river, unless the board is paired. Holding kings or queens with flush cards is a more dangerous. There may always be someone holding the ace-high flush.

Rundowns

These are  the hands that consist of four connected cards. These are very strong hands, because they have the biggest chance of hitting a straight. If you have the top end of a straight with your lowest cards, you can even outdraw the same hand on later streets, getting a lot of value. Combine this with a double suited hand and your hand is favourite against most others pre-flop.

With hands like these it is very easy to flop two pair. But let me tell you now, this is not what you’re looking for. If you’ve got two pair with a connected hand, someone is bound to have a straight draw or even a made straight, which could mean trouble for you if you can’t let go of your hand.

The best hands here are those that contain four broadway cards and are double suited. These give you nut straights and very strong flushes. Not to forget, two Royal Flush Draws!

General Guidelines

PLO is all about the nuts. Flopping this is hard, but at least make sure you can draw to it by the river! Here are some pointers to what hands stand a chance:

-          Only play the biggest pairs, and with help from other cards.

-          Double suited is the way to go.

-          Be careful with bottom-end straight (draws).

-          Two pair is weak, avoid big pots.

I’ll be writing some more about PLO later. I find it a very interesting game and there is a lot to say about it.