With the help of our detailed review of the Best Omaha Cash Poker Sites you have found a great site to play PLO with a great rakeback deal. The next step is practiced my all experienced and profitable players – finding the best table to suit your personal style. Good table selection reflects directly on your bottom line, and with the right approach will take only a couple of minutes.
This article is divided into 2 complimentary parts – firstly how to use the statistics on display in poker room lobby listings to find a table that suits your playing style. Secondly, how to quickly assess the open seats at the table to make sure you are in the best position to maximize your profit.
There are two statistics on display in most poker site lobbies which give you an idea of the table conditions. These are, the percentage of players to each flop, and the average size of each pot. It is actually the combination of these two factors which it the important part – examples are:
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- High % of Players To Flop + High Average Pot Size: Likely to be loose and aggressive with big bets before and after the flop.
- High % of Players To Flop + Low Average Pot Size: Loose table but fairly passive opponents, likely to be folding non-nut hands (or draws) to flop bets.
- Low % of Players To Flop + High Average Pot Size: Tight players but big bets, expect aggressive confrontations after the flop between few opponents.
- Low % of Players To Flop + Low Average Pot Size: Tight and passive, players probably only calling bets with very strong hands.
The temptation of many players is to jump into the table with the biggest pots. The reality is that this might not be the best table for your individual playing style. For example if 6 players are seeing each flop and calling raises with marginal hands your superior post-flop skills would be largely ineffective.
In all forms of poker a profitable strategy is to play in the opposite style to your opponents. In PLO this is exaggerated further – playing only premium hands at a loose table, especially from good position, will allow you to get paid off with a big pot those times you hit a good flop. Contrast this with a tight table, where you may wait a while for a monster only to see all of your opponents fold – and for this exact reason a looser player could pick up many pots at the tight table.
The key to good Pot Limit Omaha Table Selection is to choose the table that best suits your personal playing style – consistently doing so will make you more money over time.
There is a second related skill which will prove more and more useful as you gain experience. This concerns choosing the right seat, especially in relation to the styles of the players to your immediate left and right.
Imagine for a moment that you are a good post-flop Omaha player, you sit down only to discover that the player who acts just before you is raising the pot pre-flop with 60% of hands, you can not call for risk of a re-raise ahead, if you do then your position for the rest of the hand is vulnerable as this player usually continuation bets! OK, this is an extreme example (though something that does happen).
The key skill here is having the discipline to wait for the right seat – if you like to raise a wide range of hands pre-flop then find a table where the players ahead of you are less likely to raise, and where the players behind you are reluctant to 3-bet. If you prefer to call raises in position you do not want to sit next to someone who re-raises a lot of hands… and so on.
Watching the tables for a few minutes before you join should highlight any patterns, sometimes the available seat will be taken while you are waiting – this is fine, your patience and effort in selecting the best seat will reward you with bigger profits over time.
The final point with good PLO Table Selection is to regularly review your surroundings. Just because a table was suited perfectly to your style 20 minutes ago does not necessarily mean that this is still the case. As players come and go review the situation. Has your tight table started to be loose? Are the pots now smaller then when you joined? Asking these questions will highlight when it is time to start the table selection process again – moving tables if you believe that this is the best way to increase your PLO profitability.
To get a head-start selecting the right tables you need to select the poker site with the widest range of Pot-limit Omaha Games, both William Hill and Lock Poker have a large number of tables available and are considered top destinations for those serious about Omaha Poker – Read our detailed Omaha reviews for further information.
