Three Things You Shouldn’t Do in Pot-Limit Omaha

August 20, 2019 PokerNews Staff

Vivian Saliba has had an eventful summer. And a successful one, too.

Near the end of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Saliba made a very deep run in Event #64: $888 No-Limit Hold'em - Crazy Eights — a fitting tournament in which to do well for a 888poker Ambassador.

Saliba finished fourth in the event out of a huge, 10,185-entry field to earn a career-high $308,888 payday. Soon after that she made an appearance on Poker After Dark on PokerGO to take part in a NLHE cash game in which her opponents included Matt Berkey, Mike Matusow, and 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan.

Vivian Saliba at the "Crazy Eights" final table

Of course, Saliba's favorite variant has always been pot-limit Omaha, a game in which she's also collected a number of tournament cashes including just missing a final table in the $10K PLO Championship at the WSOP two years ago.

Recently Saliba sat down with Tiffany Michelle to talk a bit about PLO strategy, in particular to share three PLO "don'ts" for new players.

Saliba's first tip concerns pot-limit Omaha tournaments, which unlike no-limit hold'em tournaments do not employ antes at all.

For that reason, Saliba points out, don't get impatient when short-stacked in a PLO tournament. Even with just 7-10 big blinds, she says, "you have a lot of room to pick your spots and pick the right hands" to play.

Her next tip goes for both PLO cash games and tournaments — namely, don't play too many hands. "You have four cards, and I know they look pretty and every hand the cards look nice," she says.

But you still need to be selective when it comes to getting involved, Saliba points out, especially in multi-way pots.

Lastly, Saliba has some specific advice for no-limit hold'em players making the transition to PLO — don't assume PLO plays like NLHE.

Many players mistakenly think of PLO as "hold'em with four cards," says Saliba, and thus mistakenly apply strategy better reserved for NLHE to PLO. Such players fail to appreciate major differences between the games, including differences caused by pot-limit betting (which isn't often used in hold'em).