Yes, the games are similar, but the biggest mistake most beginning players make when they are starting out is in thinking that they can start with the same starting hands and bet the way they would in hold’em. If you do, you are doing nothing more than making a donation to everyone else at the table.

The first difference in the two games is that you are going to get dealt 4 cards in the hole instead of 2. This is very important to know as if you are playing on a full table, just about every card in the deck is going to be dealt out. This means that you are going to have to play cards very carefully going into the river as many a great hand has gone on to die a slow death when that card has been turned over.

Playing Omaha before the flop is much different than no limit. While you will see the occasional raise, it is few and far between to see the game get capped or consecutive raises happen before the flop is dealt out. In most cases, the only hands that even consider raising are AAxx and KKxx, but doing so causes a major problem. Basically, everyone at the table knows what you have at that point and can play accordingly.

The reason you will see a lot of callers before the flop and not much raising is that the possibility of hands is endless. Yes, you still need to be selective in what you play, but with four cards in your hand, you just never know what kind of shape you are in until the flop hits.

Ideally, you want to start the hand off with a decent pocket pair with straight and high flush possibilities. AsAh10s5h would be a hand that would have you salivating before the flop. You are sitting with the best pocket pair that you can start with, two nut flush draws and both a high and low flush possibility.

Once the flop hits, the game changes dramatically. Great hands are turned into complete garbage and questionable hands become fortune makers. Once the flop is dealt, take your time and look it over to see every possibility. Even if you are in the lead, you have to look and see what is out there that could beat you. If there is a draw, someone is holding it in their hand.

If you are playing a straight, you need to make sure that you have the nuts. Since you have to play two cards, it is critical that you have the best two cards on the straight. When you hit a 2 gapper in the middle with no other possibilities, you are locked in. However, if you are sitting on 46 to a flop of 257 and then an 8 hits, you could be in a heap of trouble. You immediately go from the nuts to the low end of the straight. If you fire a bet and someone comes over top of you, you can be pretty sure that they are sitting on the 69. If a 9 hits the river, everyone is now looking down the barrel of a J10 that will steal it on the river.

More than any other game, it is extremely important to watch and see what kinds of hands people start out with. Omaha invites chasers and there are those that will play solid and there are those that will literally play any four cards. You better know the difference when you get into a pot with them.

Omaha Poker is an action game and even the best of hands can turn into complete rags once that flop hits the board. This is one of the primary reasons that you will only see marginal raises before the flop and you will also see a lot of callers. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to get people out of the hand unless you are in position and playing PL Omaha.

Under the Gun
This is the most brutal position to be in with a big hand, especially when you are playing Pot limit Omaha Poker. You look down and see AdAsKdQs and you want to slam the pot, but you are only going to be getting a marginal bet in and you are not going to scare anyone. In actuality, you are only going to serve the complete opposite and make them very much aware of what you are holding. You are going to have to show some restraint here and limp in hoping for someone else to at least double the blinds and give you a real chance to hammer the pot.

If everyone else just falls in line, you are going to have to see how the flop plays out. Remember, you are not playing hold’em here and AA is not as big a hand as it is in that game. The ideal situation would have a couple of callers and then someone making a small raise with all of those players in. This is when you come right over the top and make a pot limit raise. You will chase all of the other limpers and if the raiser does call you, you have a very good chance of having 2 of his outs sitting in your hand. You definitely want isolation here if it all possible and that pot limit raise should get it for you.

Middle Position
When you get a big hand here, you are going to have to play it much the same way as you did in early position unless you get a couple of limpers in front of you. One is really not enough to get enough money into the pot to scare a marginal hand, but if there are two in there, you can absolutely let the raise fly. Again, you are basically showing your hand, but you have to scare some players out and deal with the callers on the flop.

Late Position
In an un-raised pot and several limpers, you are in a strong position to take this hand down pre-flop with a nice raise here. If there are no callers, you should still fire at the pot to make the blinds at least think about it before they get to limp in for free. Your hand is also not so obvious as you could just be looking to steal and may even see someone play back at you. That is a dream circumstance because now you can really lay into the pot.

You do have one other option when there are a lot of players in the pot, but it is a dangerous one. With that many players in the hand, you can limp in and see how the flop hits. You risk losing all of those blinds, but you also could hit along with someone else and have a totally concealed hand. This is something you may do when you are ahead of the game and can afford to throw away a possible pre-flop scoop. This will also give a little variance to your game and have them guessing the next time around.

Remember, you can never play the hands identically time and time again. If you don’t change up your style, you are telegraphing your hand to everyone as the table. When you are running good, you can make a move in middle or late position with lesser cards to represent a hand that you don’t have. You may even choose to show one of those when everyone folds to you to set them on tilt. Once you get them guessing, you hold an extreme edge and can set trap after trap.