Playing Aces in Pot Limit Omaha (PLO)

With PLO’s rapid growth and booming popularity, thanks to the love affair the high-stakes online players have for the game, many new players are making the switch from Hold’ Em to PLO. And one of the most asked questions by these new PLO’ers is how to play AAxx pre-flop?

For most people -especially Texas Hold’ Em players-this question is simple, “just raise baby, what are you brain-dead?” And, this is quite true, if you are putting in the first or the second raise. However, if you are faced with two raises (or a re-raise to your initial raise) it really depends on the situation, and the “Just raise” theory no longer applies.

The simplest way to decide how to play your Aces in these situations is to use the 50% rule: If you can get 50% or more of your stack (or your opponent’s stack depending on whose is smaller) into the pot pre-flop you should raise and re-raise: If you can’t get 50% of your stack into the pot pre-flop calling is a better option.

This is one aspect of pre-flop strategy that gets players into trouble, and causes some very costly mistakes: The logical thing to do with Aces is to raise them at any given opportunity, but this just isn’t the case.

Suppose you are playing $1/$2 PLO, and both you and your opponent both have $200 stacks. You are dealt AAxx and raise to $7; your opponent re-raises to $24; when it gets back around to you, you have the choice to either call $17 or re-raise to $75. Now most people would raise, and let me tell you why this wrong.

By raising you are committing about 40% of your stack, and more importantly are broadcasting your hand to your opponent. Your opponent now has the option to bet any ragged flop -hit or miss-and can fold when the flop comes with an Ace.

By calling you are keeping your hand well disguised, and still have a very good chance to get your opponent’s stack into the pot by the river: Only in this instance you have committed only about 12% of your stack pre-flop. So, if the flop is horrendous you can simply fold, and move on to the next hand.

Now, if we switch the situation to $100 stacks it would be correct to re-raise, since the raise puts 75% of your stack in the middle –when you have the best of it– and your opponent cannot get you to fold post-flop regardless of the flop. Additionally, your opponent will be forced to call on the flop (calling $25 in a $175+ pot) even though he knows you have AAxx, regardless if he is ahead or behind. If he doesn’t call he has made a drastic mistake: It’s a classic win-win situation for you.