Building a big hand in PLO full ring

Someone asked me the other day if PLO poker games were a tougher game to play then NLHE.  I responded by saying that this all depended on whether or not you wanted to play full ring instead of six max. In full ring then a lot of the game comes down to hand construction. What do I mean by that? Well firstly a full ring PLO game is more orientated towards the nuts than any other form of poker that I know. So you absolutely need to adjust in this way otherwise you are going to be toast.

In no other form of poker is it correct to fold the current nuts on the flop but it can be in PLO. If you had say J-10-5-5 and the board came 9-8-7 with two suits and you didn’t have the flush draw then you are basically nearly always drawing with other players who have basically the same nut straight but who are free-rolling to a flush. Also you may be against someone holding a set as well and so any paired outs will decimate your straight.

In games like PLO/8 at www.pokerstars.co.uk  for example then you are often warned about the dangers of being quartered and this is often seen when you have hands with an A-2. A Hand like 8-8-A-2 with no flush draw is not shaping up too well on a K-7-3 board. You have the nut low draw but if someone else has the nut low then you have no fall back for high with nothing but a pair of eights and an ace overcard.

So in a multi-way pot then you are often drawing with one player who has another A-2 and losing to another player who has a better high than you at this time. But a hand like 8-8-A-2 is barely playable in PLO/8 because its high potential is minimal. I like hands likes A-2-Q-J where the ace is suited meaning that I have a nut low draw, wheel draw to the high, flush draw to the high and A-Q-J straight drawing potential to the high. This means that I can scope the pot or win three quarters of it.

In full ring PLO then you are essentially looking for the same or similar hand construction in principle where you are looking to scoop entire pots. This is why looking at how big of a hand you can make is critical in full ring because you need to be on the right side of a big pot.