Part II of Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes’ PLO strategy article - see post below for Part 1
As the strength of our hand increases we become more comfortable with raising and calling preflop and playing a bigger pot out of position. Remember some of our hands we want to play a big pot with and some hands are deceptive, naked big pairs for example. Initially they look strong but they cant stand the heat of pressure when its applied, thats when it becomes acceptable to open raise the button and fold to a 3 bet.
Some of the hands are not that obvious but here is a quick snapshot of some hands that flip between raising and calling a 3bet; limping and calling a raise; and raising and folding to a 3bet. The stronger the hand the more raise calling you will be doing irrespective of position and as the strength of your hand decreases you more down the line towards raise folding – this also changes relative to your position.
Remember egos are bad for your profit in poker so don’t feel bad about either raising and folding, and open limping and calling. Also remember that you don’t have to always try and win big pots, if you can win enough of the small ones this will have a positive impact on your win rate also.
Depending on the strength of the hand you should picture them as being on a spectrum. The higher up the strength of your hand range you go the bigger the pot you wish to play, as you move down the more you don’t want to play the hand.
Hand AhJhJd7s
Raise & Call Limp & Call Raise & Fold
Button Yes No Maybe
UTG No Yes Maybe
Hand KhQcJh10c
Raise & Call Limp & Call Raise & Fold
Button Yes No No
UTG Yes No No
Hand KcKs7h2d
Raise & Call Limp & Call Raise & Fold
Button No No Yes
UTG No No No
Overall this advice should make you think a little more about how certain hands play from certain positions. Of course, overiding all of these factors is how smart you play your hands postflop and this is something I will touch on next time.
Top Tips on Position
1. From the Blinds – do not fall into the habit of repeatedly completing your small blind in limped pots or of calling single raises from late position openers from the blinds either. If you can break even from these positions over time then you are achieving far more than many poker players. Just count how often you will check fold unimproved once the flop has come down and you will soon realize how much this advice is worth to you.
2. The Power of Position – In a 6 max cash game you play a higher percentage of hands from the button than you do from under the gun. An examination of your Poker Tracker Stats will show you that if you play 24% of your hands in total (VPIP = 24) then your positional stats will reveal that you play maybe 32% from the button and 18% from UTG. If you do not see a sliding scale of activity from UTG to the Button then you are playing too loose out of position.
3. Hand Values Change - As the VPIP stats would indicate your hand values change according to your position. A hand like KK82os is a fold from under the gun but it is a raise from the button when it gets folded around to you.
4. Its ok to open limp – don’t be too cool for school – leave your 6 max NLH tendencies behind you, it is ok to open limp from early position in 6 max plo so long as you do not intend to fold to a single raise.
May 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
very nice write up noel.. i play a lot of plo at the $1-2 and $2-4 levels so ill take the advice and hopefully i will make a lot more than im making now