With its popularity ever rising, 6-Max PLO poker has become more ubiquitous than full-ring Omaha games at most online poker sites. If you’re a thinking player, you can see more money and better return on your investment in a shorter amount of time. 6-Max games allow you to play in more hands per hour and those that don’t adjust their game to the new demands can give you more money than you’d see elsewhere.
There are three core components that you’ll need to address when moving from full-ring play to 6-Max games. The first is how much more importance your position gains. It’s always important, but it’s absolutely critical that you understand how to maximize position in short-handed games. In a full ring game you are likely to be up against some decent holdings – that is to say that even when you have position the chances of one or more opponents flopping a good draw or made hand are high. In a 6-Max game, the odds of another player flopping a beast drops significantly and you’re likely to use your position to take small pots when nobody’s hit their hand.
After position comes hand selection. You should loosen up your starting hand selection pretty significantly to compete in more hands because too-tight play with fewer cards being dealt to fewer players means that you simply won’t play for long stretched if you stay super-tight. Keep your position in mind, but know premium pairs become a lot more valuable with fewer players in the round and you can be more aggressive after the flop than you are against multiple opponents in a full-ring game.
While you’re going to adjust your playing style, you’re also going to see that other players have done the same and that’s one of the biggest components you have to keep in mind when you’re playing in 6-Max games. You’re going to see a lot more aggressive players who bet on 80% of the hands preflop and keep going after the play. They’re doing their best to pick up easy pots and are looking out for resistance to avoid or use as they see fit.
Against these types, you should definitely take a hand that has a decent favorite over the range you’ve seen them play and get the chips in: let them stuff the pot for you and then take them for a ride. You’ll occasionally see people advising that you slowly these opponents, but I’ve found that that strategy rarely works because they’re hammering more than actually playing.
Hopefully, the advice here serves you will when you’re next playing in 6-Max games, or maybe it’s helped you make the decision to start playing in them. They’re certainly one of the most exciting ways to play Omaha poker and I personally find them to be a welcome change from girding at hold ’em games.