Hello Everyone

I'm new to the forums and PLO but it seems many people believe the correct play with a pair of Aces in Omaha is to get all/most the money in preflop if you have that option.

Well I was at the $4 max buy in tables yesterday and the following hand was dealt:

(player 2) J 9 7 5
(player 3) K Q T 4
(me) A A 8 2

There's a raise and reraise in front of me so I have the following options:
1. Reraise again and get everyone pot committed
2. Call and try hit a flop
3. Fold (i have no money in the pot)

The only obviously -ev play in this particular situation is option 1. I have only 33.3% equity preflop against these specific hands so taking into account the rake makes me an underdog.

Option 2 seems a bit expensive as I'm not that likely to hit a flop and there's no guarantee I can get my opponents to put enough money in if I do.

which leaves me with option 3 of folding preflop being perhaps the best play.

This doesn't strike me as right, so please tell me how I am wrong!

Thanks!

It's really tough to comment on this without knowing the stacksizes. A rule of thumb* would be that if you can get in 25% of the effective stacks preflop by 4betting, then you should. This would apply to pretty much any AA hand at most 100BB scenarios.

* Rules of thumb are not recommended for poker

Stack sizes in this example are small enough that I can reraise again and get everyone pot committed. I don't want to be too specific because I'm trying to make this a general example.

So if I were to follow the 'rule of thumb' and take the opportunity to get over 25% of the effective stack sizes in preflop, I would in this example be making a negative EV play (I lose whatever percentage the rake is)

But I'm not up against another Ace or some really good hands. I'm up against mediocre hands. If the 'rule of thumb' is a losing play in this common scenario, why should I ever do it at $4 PLO?

Please help! I want to learn!

The real answer here is that getting it in with your hand would not be -EV. Against the 2 hands that you put out there, you are about 33%, and yes, you could just not worry about it and fold. I'm pretty sure that you don't play a special game where they show you their cards before you make your decision. There are so many other hands that they could have where you will be +EV to get it in.

Just take the two hands you are currently against and make them a little bit better. If you give player 3 the Kh instead of the 4c you will give him a much better hand, and make it even more likely he'd be willing to get it in. And yet your equity goes up to 36%.

In addition, change player 2's hand to have the Jd instead of 7d, and you greatly improve his perception of his hand, yet your equity against both players goes to over 43%.

So you have taken one specific situation where folding your hand is a fairly neutral event and want to use it to make a decision for all the time that you have that hand. Whenever you get all-in preflop with a marginal AA hand against multiple players you are probably going to lose. But when you win you should win enough to make up more than what you lose the other times.

Thank you so much for your answer!

Plus there is still some fold equity.

-very good point, although at $4 PLO it's rare for players to fold to a 4 bet preflop, i mean these players I was against at the time certainly weren't going to!