Book Review: Pot-Limit Omaha — Understanding Winning Play

Pot-Limit Omaha — Understanding Winning Play marks the arrival of Two Plus Two Publishing on the rising PLO market, just some weeks after the publication of Jeff Hwang’s second PLO book and Rolf Slotboom’s Secrets of Short-handed Pot-Limit Omaha.

It is authored by William Jockusch, a gentleman with a passion for poker and games in general, from AD&D to Magic: The Gathering. He earned a math PhD at the MIT, but he was unknown on the poker scene till now.

Most 2+2 books are bestsellers and they have a solid reputation; it has been a long time since they have not published a bad book (The Psychology of Poker coming to mind). However, it is my opinion that some of their releases were rather disappointing, like both Collin Moshman’s books about SnG and heads-up NLHE. They sold well anyway, but I found them simply too basic. Let’s see if Jockusch’s PLO book falls into this category.

It is a bit more than 300 pages, divided into eight parts. The last two parts contains sample hands and a quiz, respectively.

Part One (50 pages) deals with preflop play. Starting hands are examined and their strength is broken down into five criteria: Connectedness, Suitedness, Rank, Focus and eventually your Position. Most of them are pretty much self-explanatory, except the Focus (which is more or less the ability to hit strong flops). Eight pages are devoted to these points, and another one for “putting it all together” with a sample.

The next subpart is titled Short Stack Play, and unfortunately it is a pretty bad sign to get there as soon as page 17, just after a very basic introduction to starting hands. Sure, it has an impact on the hands you should play, and short stacking is a favorite of many PLO players, for various reasons — but there would have so many things to say about PLO before mentioning short stacking. Anyway, it is five pages, and it had to be said somewhere in the book.

The rest of Part One contains preflop guidelines, advocating tight play and explaining why some players “get away” with a looser style. William also recommends preflop open-minraises from early position, with limping being an option. Then, some typical starting hands are discussed, from big pairs to wraps and connected hands with a suited ace. Some all-in match-ups are presented, against one or several opponents, which are definitely important to know — and will be vital knowledge when short stacking.

Blinds play is also briefly discussed, again with a strong bias toward short stacking. It starts with: “If all remaining players are deep, say at least 60BB…”. In my book, stacks begin to get deep at around 150BB. The recommendations are sound though, even if pretty basic.

The last ten pages of Part One are devoted to aces — an area where beginners often blunder, either overplaying their aces or running into them ignoring they have poor equity. Again, several match-ups are included. This is something all PLO players have to know, and it is well explained.

Part Two (60 pages) focuses on flop play. It warns against overplaying weak hands that could appear good to NLHE players, or playing non-nut draws. Combo-draws, nut draws, sets and flopped nuts are all examined, clearly and concisely.

This part is pretty good, and it will offer
some helpful guidelines to PLO newcomers

Some flop textures are then studied: play on paired boards, what flop are good for bluffing, or how to vary bet sizing according to the dryness/wetness of the flop. It goes on with overfulls, underfulls and trips (one or two pages per topic), playing aces on a missed flop, set vs wrap situation etc. Most common situations are covered.

This part is pretty good, and it will offer some helpful guidelines to PLO newcomers. It is not too short stack oriented, even though it is alluded to several times.

Part Three (7 pages) is about turn play. It is very short, arguing that one should either proceed with one’s flop plan, or apply the same principles to make another plan. Caution is advised when a draw gets there, and it explains that pairing turn could offer some bluffing opportunities. I think there was much more to say about turn play, for instance leading after a checked flop, when to bet-fold etc.

Part Four (18 pages) analyzes river play. The author states again that it is mainly a continuation of one’s plan from earlier streets, but naturally there is no more drawing, so bluffing becomes a strong consideration. Several type of river cards are distinguished, depending on whether they complete some draw or they are “blanks”. Blocking bets are also touched on.

Overall, I found Part Three and Four way too short, and it might have been better to organize the discussion another way if the author had not much to say about later streets play.

Part Five (40 pages) is titled Miscellaneous Concepts. It starts with a concept called the last meaningful raise. Basically, you want to be the last player to have fold equity in a raising sequence, and you should pay attention to this when sizing your bets. Blockers and naked ace bluffs are then examined, followed by some piece of advice about randomization by equity. Among more miscellaneous topics, most notable is the part about hand reading: seven hands are considered from the point of view of one side (generally bluffing, sometimes valuebetting strong), then from the opposite side, against a supposed good hand reader. This is probably the best part of the book.

Part Six (9 pages) deals with “PLO in the real world”; it contains various generalities about bankroll requirements, short stacking (again) or timing tells. Nothing new, and a bit of a filler here.

It is pure short stacking;
another disappointment

Part Seven (70 pages) offers some sample hands, with short stacks (22), medium stacks (34) and high stacks (5). Here, medium stacks means about 40BB, and high stacks is 100BB. Unfortunately, this part turned out to be quite boring to me; the hands are fairly “mundane”, and it is pure short stacking, going all-in as soon as possible or jumping in in multiway pots when the equity is good enough. I don’t like it, but some people do, and I would have put up with it if there were as many “standard” 100BB sample hands — but no. The aforementioned Rolf Slotboom’s short-handed PLO book did a much better job in this regard. Another disappointment.

Part Eight (29 pages) contains a quiz for each street. Again, some short stacking, but there also are a few 80BB and 100BB questions. I do not agree with all answers, but the author warned that his choices were not “absolute”.

Recommended? Barely

On the plus side, Pot-Limit Omaha — Understanding Winning Play covers a lot of useful concepts, and they are well explained, even if it is often a bit short. Someone new to PLO would definitely pick up some fundamental knowledge reading this book. And, as usual for 2+2 books, the content is well written and duly edited.

However, it has serious shortcomings, too. First, a lot of the basic advice (preflop play, how to play aces etc.) can already be found in other PLO books, and sometimes in greater depth (eg. starting hands in Hwang’s Pot-Limit Omaha Poker — The Big Play Strategy). Furthermore, the turn and river parts are not convincing, Granted, Part Five adds some elements that were missing to the river play, but I still find the organization somewhat awkward here.

But the main criticism is about the predominance of short stack play in this book. It is not a book about it, but it is almost everywhere. If I recall correctly, the author says it is his favorite strategy, and it sure does show. Unfortunately, I think Rolf Slotboom already did a pretty good job discussing short stacking in his two PLO books, and even if they were not perfect I found them more interesting in this area (even if it’s not my cup of tea).

The real acid test will be for new PLO players to read this book and jump into some game. It is my opinion that they will not be competitive enough, unless they join the army of short stackers — and even then, my experience is that most small stakes short stackers do it horrendously. In a 6max game with 100BB, the readers would just not be a threat; aggression is not emphasized enough, and there is almost nothing about 3betting preflop (how to abuse it and how to defend against it), or donk betting, isolating a soft spot etc. The title says “understanding winning play”, but in that respect I am afraid it does not really deliver.