Omaha Poker

Omaha is played slightly different from Texas Hold'em, in the sense that players don't receive two but four Hole Cards.

Furthermore, players –have- to use two of their Hole Cards and 3 Community Cards to make a hand of five cards. This is a fundamental difference between Omaha and Texas Hold'em.

{id:5239}

The Nuts

Omaha High is a fast-action poker variation and belongs to the favourite poker variations for high stakes players. Other than in Texas Hold'em, Omaha poker requires players to only go for the absolute nuts. A hand like top pair is an easy fold when confronted with a raise, but you will soon get used to that. Something that Hold'em players might have trouble with at first is folding the second nuts, such as a King-High flush, lower straights or trips.

One example:

Hero:

Board:

You have a straight, but it's not the nut straight. There are still two other players in the pot, so the chance is big that you might be beat by the re-raiser who is likely to be holding something like .

Hero:

Board:

Although you have a set here, you can safely assume your hand is behind when confronted with a re-raise. Hands like , or are very likely, as Omaha players don't tend to raise with hands like two pair on this kind of board.

Position

Just like in Hold'em, position is an important element in Omaha. It might even be considered more important, when taking into account all the possible combination's a player can make with an Omaha hand. When sitting in position you can follow the actions of your opponents and make your decision based on the information you received. It isn't always wrong to just limp with a hand like when sitting UTG, as you don't want to start building up a big pot early with a hand that you will often have to fold. Keeping the pot small is very important in Omaha. When playing PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) you don't want to build up a big pot preflop when sitting out of position.

Example:

Hero: (UTG)

Flop:

You raised before the flop and the button re-raised the pot. The good news is you hit trip Aces, but you don't know what your opponent is going to do on this dangerous board. If you bet here, he might come over the top with a substantial pot bet. With a (Royal)flush draw on the board, you will need a very strong hand to call his re-raise with out of position. You have now invested a lot of chips into this pot but will still have to lay down your hand.

Therefore it is recommended to keep the pots small when out of position and raise when in position, especially when you are new to Omaha. Making the correct decision will become a lot easier this way – and cheaper.

Starting hands

Now that you know you should always try and go for the nuts and that you have to pay close attention to your position, it is now time to look at which hands are 'worthy' of playing.

First, there are the obvious hands like and . Although these are definitely nice hands, they can get you into a lot of trouble on coordinated boards. Therefore it is recommended to play these hands with great caution in bad position and very aggressive in good position.

What you should be looking for are hands that 'work together'. Take a hand like . On pretty much any face-card flop you can draw to a straight, plus the hand is double suited, giving you two possible flush opportunities. Bear in mind though that you might not be drawing to the nut flush with this hand, and like we said earlier, Omaha is a game of the nuts. Therefore, always be cautious with these kinds of hands, and keep the pot small when hitting your club-flush. A hand like above is best for a straight hand on a non-paired board.

In Omaha you can play looser than in Hold'em because there are so many possible combination's you can hit. Always try to stick with hands that 'work together' in one way or another. A hand like is a lot nicer to play than, for example, where you only play and not or . In the first hand you do have these different combination's to choose from and you know exactly what you are looking for. As a result, you can easily get away from a hand if you don't hit on the flop.

Other possible starting hands:

Bluffing

Because Omaha is so focused on the nuts, it seems like an easy game to bluff. If the flop shows , for example, and everybody checks towards you, your first thought might be to bet, but there are so many hands that your opponents could have that hit some sort of a draw on this board that you will be called more often than not. Bluffing can therefore become a very expensive affair if you do it too often.

Conclusion

The things you should be looking for in Omaha are nut-flush draws, nut-straight draws and top sets. These are the best circumstances under which to stay in a hand. Don't invest too much money with the second nuts or bottom set, as this will almost never be the best hand in Omaha.

When you hit the nuts, play them aggressively and hope that someone with the second nuts will pay you off. Play the second nuts as cautiously as possible and hope that it will be the best hand – or fold if your opponent wants to play a big pot.