You’ve probably heard pot-limit Omaha described as a “drawing game,” but what is exactly is meant by that phrase? Aren’t all poker games “drawing games,” whether we are talking about flop games like Texas hold’em or PLO, or stud games like seven card stud or razz, or, well, draw games like 5-card draw and deuce-to-seven lowball?
Sure, if we’re going to be technical about it, just about all poker games are “drawing games” in one way or another. But when we say PLO is a drawing game, we mean that players tend not to have “made” hands until after cards have been drawn from the deck. In hold’em, one can be dealt a pair of aces, and thus before the flop is assured of having the best possible hand when the first betting round occurs. One can bet confidently with one’s “made” hand, knowing that at the very worst someone else has the other two aces, although statistically speaking that is very unlikely indeed.
However, in PLO whatever four cards happen to be in that starting hand you’ve been dealt are very rarely going to be enough to carry you through to take the pot. Chances are you will need to improve your hand on the flop, turn, or river in order to win a showdown. That’s because each player is dealt four hole cards from which each will choose two to match with three community cards to form a five-card poker hand. That means each player has six possible two-card combinations from which to choose. In other words, if it is a nine-handed game, that’s kind of like playing your six hold’em hands against 48 other hands. Once those five community cards come out, do you really think your lonely, unimproved pair of aces are going to be enough?
Another reason why PLO is called a drawing game is because it is possible to flop a draw that is in fact a statistically stronger hand than a “made” hand, thus meaning it is correct to bet and raise one’s draw aggressively, even though one might not have anything more than jack-high against another player’s flopped set at the time!
Here’s an example: Let’s say you hold Jh-10h-7c-4c and the flop comes 9h-8s-2h. You’re opponent is sitting over there with Ac-Kc-9s-9d. He’s flopped top set and knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that at that very moment he has the best hand. But if you look more closely, you’ll see you actually have a whopping 21 outs to improve to a better hand: any of the 10 non-pairing hearts, the three jacks, the three tens, the three sevens, and the two other sixes.
That means you are in fact a 56% to 44% favorite in the hand, despite the fact that all you have at the moment is measly jack-high! Even if the turn is a blank like the 3c, you are still a slight favorite going to the river.
Thus is PLO often called a “drawing game,” since many times it is in fact correct to play draws aggressively, much more often than is the case in hold’em.
