Strategy

Your edge will primarily increase while playing and gaining experience. Since it’s not clear what the GTO lines should be, we need to think about strategies that work in our favor, and what on the other hand must be wrong. This way we can improve our overall game and exploit opponents. 

Drawing logical conclusions from 4- and 5-card PLO and the differences between these formats can help. Here are a few tips on how to play to get a kickstart in 6-Card Omaha.

Choose strong starting hands.

Preflop selection is where it all starts. Which hands should be open-raised and what hands to call with, both in and out of position? Don’t be fooled by the ‘equities run close’-fallacy. Although it’s true, you should consider the realizability of a hand’s equity. Logically, the more hole cards players are dealt, the stronger the average made hand will be on the river. 

Moreover, the majority of hands are played multiway. Therefore you should be focused on selecting strong hands preflop. These are often multi-component and preferably non-gappers as well as nutted. 

If you’re holding a Queen-high flush draw it won’t be strong enough to withstand a lot of pressure since opponents will have the dominating hand so often, but is also relatively thin to bet for value. When playing nutted hands with strong additional components you’re a lot more likely to realize its equity, and playability differs day and night.

Use position to your advantage.

In 6-card PLO position matters even more compared to 5-card. This results in 3-betting tighter from out of position since we have a harder time realizing our equity postflop. So there will be many boards that we need to check and give up. 

Each player simply needs to give opponents a lot more credit compared to 4-card PLO for example, so make sure not to be hero-calling too lightly as it can be a very costly leak. That said, we can start playing wider when playing in position. Especially in ante games, you’re more incentivized to battle for the pot. 

Keep a close eye on the strategy of the blinds when attacking them from a late position and whether they adjust. If they stay passive, push the gas pedal. When they’re fighting back, adjust, but remember you’ll have the positional advantage postflop.

Don’t over-value your pocket Aces.

Playing Aces too fast preflop in 6-card is suicide. Analyzing how Aces are matching up against an opponent’s full range we find that it has 66% equity in 4-card PLO, 60% in 5-card, and only 57% in 6-card. 

Make sure to split your Aces between a fast-playing range (worth getting your stack in) and the rest in a passive way. The additional components of the hand should give you guidance on which line is likely optimal. 

For example, a hand containing Aces might take the fast-route playing out of position to minimize that disadvantage, whereas if it were in position, just calling would be best. And also worth considering is that the more players that will likely see the flop, the tighter you want to be when holding Aces. 

Don’t get me wrong, Aces are still beautiful! Passive lines need to be mixed in and I’m sure you’ll feel the appreciation when opponents are crushed holding set over set or with an overpair and dominating flush draw(s).