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Top 5 Mistakes PLO6 Players Make Without Realizing It

by Conscious Poker

Since poker online is going through one of its biggest shifts culturally, we all know what’s happening. We’ve seen the rise of “the solver nerds,” which has caused a complete takeover of our once fun and exciting games.

What was once a creative and fun place to play has become a cold and calculated landscape of pre-flop ranges and minimal defense frequencies. As we’ve lost the fun, so too have our win-rates.

As a result of the over-solverd nature of the games there has been an emergence of a very profitable, chaotic beast. That beast is known as 6-Card Pot Limit Omaha (also known as PLO6).

The reason why PLO6 is such a great opportunity for us to make money is due to the fact that each hand of 6-Card plo gives you the opportunity to create 15 unique 2-Card combinations, with an estimated 20 million possible combinations pre-flop. Creating an unbeatable bot/solver for PLO6 would be damn near mathematically impossible.

PLO6 is a much less researched area of poker. With no defined charts for optimal pre-flop actions, no unbeatable bots to compete against and very limited advanced level training materials available to the general public, PLO6 is open season for anyone looking to take advantage of the softest games available today.

However, since players continue to approach this untamed territory in the same manner that they would traditionally play 4-Card plo or hold’em, they are losing money without even realizing it.

Therefore, in order to ensure that you get your fair share of the blue ocean that PLO6 presents, you must identify and remove the top 5 common mistakes made by novice PLO6 players that they do not even know exist.

1. Overplaying weak, unconnected Aces pre-flop

Aces are the strongest hand in Hold’em. No surprise there. aces are also an enormous favorite in PLO4. But in 6-Card plo, single suited or unconnected Aces are nothing short of a psychological land mine.

The equities created when comparing pre-flop action in 6-Card Omaha to Texas Hold’em are incredibly similar. A naked pair of aces with uncoordinated side cards only possesses around a 56% to 57% equity edge versus a good, connected hand from your opponent.

Worse yet, “dry” aces don’t play very well postflop. If you are constantly raising or reraising weak, unconnected aces out of position, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. True value in PLO6 comes from having the deepest possible connections throughout your entire 6-Card hand – not simply a strong hand at the top.

2. Betting off with bare nuts (nut straight illusions)

Imagine the flop drops 8♦ 7♦ 4♣ and you look down at your six cards to realize you hold J♥ T♣ 6♣ 5♦ 3♠ 2♥. You flopped the nuts! You’d be grinning from ear to ear in virtually any other form of poker, and would bet off with confidence.

But in PLO6, betting off with bare nits and no redraws can cost you a fortune. Because your opponents possess six cards, their ability to hold wrapping straight cards, top sets and flush draws or backdoor flush draws simultaneously is massive. Especially if they are betting heavily.

In a multi-way pot, a player possessing top-set and massive wrap + flush redrew can easily be a 20% underdog versus your current “nuts”. Unless you have stronger connected cards or flush property to “freeroll” your opponent, you are merely guessing – not investing.

3. Using your gut instinct to estimate equity

With the sheer number of Card interaction possibilities in PLO6, it is completely impossible to accurately estimate your equity based on gut instincts. The amount of card interaction possibilities makes your head spin if you attempt to mentally calculate them during an online session time constraint.

Players who dominate this new frontier are not relying solely on gut instincts; rather, they are studying the exact parameters of multi-card friction in their free time.

To develop an effective intuitive radar system for identifying these wild areas, you need to review your most difficult/bloated showdowns in a specific 6 Card PLO equity calculator.

This is literally the quickest method to observe how significantly a single back door suit or small blocker reduces your true mathematical survivability or build your understanding of the non intuitive math of PLO6.

4. Overvaluing Second-Best (King-High) Flushes

In traditional PLO4 and sometimes even in PLO5, many players feel comfortable playing aggressive king-high flushes, or the second nuts. In contrast, nearly 80% of all starting hands in PLO6 contain two suits preflop. Players naturally like to play suited Ax hands precisely because they can make nut flushes.

Given this reality, secondary flushes (i.e., king-high flushes) go down dramatically in relative value, especially as the pot gets big or goes to showdown. Due to the high probability of multiple flushes being present among the field, a king-high flush in a multi-way pot is a dangerous hand to get committed to.

As such, unless you are holding an ace-high nut flush, avoid betting heavily in a multi-way pot. When doing so, you are risking drawing dead or being severely dominated by another player betting for value.

5. Playing Short Stacked and Under Bankrolled 

While preflop edges are thin in PLO6 compared to other forms of poker, postflop leverage is huge. One common mistake novice players make is creating low stack-to-pot ratios (spr’s) preflop by building too big of a pot preflop multiway. This reduces their ability to maneuver.

This problem is further exacerbated by poor financial planning. Equities run close. Pots are multi way. The best hand will often only have a 10% edge over their opponent. As such, the variance in PLO6 is extreme.

If you attempt to play PLO6 with a standard 100-buy-in bankroll suitable for Texas hold’em, the natural variance will likely get the best of you. Advanced professionals treat this aggressive game with extreme respect. As such, professional PLO6 players always carry a minimum of 200 – 300 buy-ins in reserve to protect themselves from potentially catastrophic swings.

This allows them to play aggressive, trust their reads and maintain their edge without worrying about short term volatility.

Conclusion

PLO6 represents one of the highest margin for profit games currently available online today due solely to the lower degree of solvency and players’ refusal to relinquish their outdated methods.

By removing unconnected hands from your playable range, protecting your nutted hands with adequate redraws, and continually adjusting your internal calculations utilizing a PLO6 equity calculator, you’ll be able to recognize the obvious errors made by your opponents on every table in which you play.

Quit making decisions based on emotions alone and begin respecting the inherent variance present in all poker games.

Good luck at the tables.

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