my game plan has gotten very strange in PLO due to the relativley short stacks and loose players at party. i generally play the 200 games and have generally stopped raising before the flop. i reraise if i can get a large percentage of my stack in, or have a hand i want to play heads up with a particular opponent but almost never raise. of all the reasons to raise an omaha hand the only reasons that seem to be worthwhile in these particular game are to increase the stakes on the flop, and to get more money in the pot with the best hand. hand values run very close in omaha though, and generally i feel no need to increase the stakes as so many players play so poorly it is not neccary to do so to get them to play for there stacks.
i find i dont really need the deception in these games as most players are too unobservant anyways. when i play higher, which i do fairly often, i have to mix it up a lot more.
anyways just curious what others think of almost never raising preflop in the lower limit PLO games(200 buy in with 1-2 blinds), and would be interested in hearing what their reasons are for more frequent raises.
matty

Well here's my take on the matter

1) To increase action and encourage a more action-based game; get other players putting money in and playing more loosely, show that you are prepared to be aggressive and give action on hands that are not necessarily a lock.

2) Put money in when statistically speaking you hold the best hand.

3) Build a pot so that on the flop a large raise can be made, if the hand has statistically a good chance of being bettable on the flop (two broadway pairs, a big wrap, AAxx etc)

4) Disguise strong hands; if you only raise with AAxx and the very best hands (which I've been tending a bit more towards lately) it makes it very easy for people to put you on a hand. Throw in a few LP raises with 4567 and it muddies the waters a little. I agree, as you say, that a lot of players will miss out on this disinformation at 200PLO, however.

I agree with you in that raising isn't necessary to win money in PLO. It's routinely always been part of my game, however, although I tend to do it slightly less these days. I think there are good reasons to do it at PLO200, some of the players are better than you might think. At the bigger games, 400 and above, the action tends to be a bit more aggressive and you havr to give a little action to get some back! 400 is as high as I play, though perhaps at some point this year I might try to jump up to the bigger games. I still have an issue with losing $1k in one hand though, lol....

I think the biggest reason for putting in a raise early in these games is to allow a big raise on the flop/turn if you hit, thereby charging the chasers the maximum and cutting down any implied odds they may have to play significantly weaker hands.

Monk
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