As you probably already know, when you are playing Omaha Poker, just about all the cards are going to be dealt out on a full table. This makes it very dangerous to draw to anything but the nut flush and the high end of the straight. Doing anything else is a foolish play and will land you in the poor house.

This all goes back to starting hands to make sure that you do not get trapped in a hand that you have no shot of winning. If a flush hits the board and you are sitting on a J high draw, forget about going after the flush. With the amount of cards out, it is unlikely that your suited Jack is the best flush draw at the table.

While flushed are generally pretty easy to get out of the way of, straights are an entirely different matter. This is where people make the biggest mistakes in reading the board and making sure that they have the best hand. It is also where hold’em players go to die.

A bottom end straight that you can play strong in hold’em is of little use in Omaha. If you have problems letting it go, get over it quickly. The only straights that you can play are the high end and a 2 gapper that you have plugged. If you are sitting on two cards that make the straight and one of them is also on the board, let it go unless it is an A high straight.

The reason this hand is so tricky is strictly a mental block. After years of playing hold’em, players are convinced that their straight has to be good with no boat or flush on board. It will only take you a few pots to realize how wrong this mindset is. Remember, if you are not drawing to the nuts, the hand is not worth being in, period. The amount of money that you will lose chasing down these hands will far outweigh the small percentage of times that it actually holds up. Let it go and wait for the next deal.

Many people inside the game of poker only play Texas Hold’em and many of these people do not even understand the other forms of poker that are our there. I recently hosted my weekly home poker game and decided to make it a dealer’s choice game. I selected Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, and 7 card stud as my dealer’s choice games and had to explain the rules and concepts of the games numerous times. A few of my friends, who are quite talented Texas Hold’em players, were not big fans of these new games, as they did not fully understand the strategies to excel at the new games and could not be bothered to apply themselves. A few of the other players at the game, loved the new additions. They liked the added action created in Omaha, as well as the new information and betting rounds created in Stud and Razz.

There are so many different and unique caveats of each game, that it creates new and different challenges amongst each game. I, like many, first learned how to play Texas hold’em competitively. I got into Omaha by playing online and reading books such as Super System. At the time I first got into Omaha, I was a bit burnt out on Texas hold’em. That’s what really got me interested in playing Omaha competitively. Learning the nuisances of this game type and the different strategies involved with Omaha brought back my passion for playing poker. I became a student of the game again, studying and learning everything I could about the game. In the end, I became much better at Omaha, but these strategies and new thought processes also helped me in my Texas hold’em game as well.

Some sites do not offer every form of poker or have as high as volume of games in these different games that they do in Texas hold’em. However, most of the large sites and many medium sized sites have many game types. Full Tilt, Poker Stars, and Ultimate Bet all offer games in Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha H/L, Razz, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud H/L. Just like Texas Hold’em, these sites offer micro stakes, .01/.02, low stakes, $1/2, medium stakes, $10/$20, and large stakes, $50/$100 and above. I would suggest starting at very low stakes for Omaha if you are just learning the game. It is a very fast paced game and you don’t want to blow your whole bankroll before you even understand the game.

Throughout the next few weeks, I will take you on a journey through the various forms of Omaha and the challenges with each form and game stype. I will not only give you a better understanding of Omaha Hi and Hi/Lo, but I will teach you some proven winning strategies for each form of Omaha and the various opportunities involved with each game.

Throughout the next few weeks and months, I will be spilling my thoughts and strategies about the great game of Omaha to you, as well as some of the strategies of the World’s best Omaha players. But before we begin, I want to explain the game in more detailed to some of our beginning readers.
Omaha is similar to Texas Hold’em in the fact that there will be a flop, turn and a river card visible as community cards. Just like Texas Hold’em, they are used by all players. The betting rounds are also the same as Texas Hold’em, with betting pre flop, post flop, post turn and post river. These are where the obvious similarities stop and the game of Omaha becomes a unique identity, even to players who have played hold’em their whole lives.

Before I get into the details of the game of Omaha, I should explain that there are various forms of Omaha including: Hi, Hi/Lo, 8 and Better Hi, as well as Pot Limit and No Limit for each of these games. We will focus on each of these game types in due time, but for the explanation of Omaha, I will use Pot Limit Omaha Hi, as it is the most common cash and tournament form on Omaha.

In Omaha the two players to the immediately to the left of the dealer are required to post a small and big blind. In some cash games, there may also be a straddle placed on the next to act or antes present in tournaments. Each player then receives 4 face down cards. Players are then given the option to call the blind, fold or to raise pre-flop in order. Players can only raise the size of the pot. Therefore, unless there has been multiple re-raises, you will not see players all-in pre flop, as in Hold’em. After the first round of betting is complete, the players see the flop of 3 community cards, just as in hold’em.

After the flop, there is another round of betting, starting from the dealers left. Again, players can check, bet, raise or fold, depending on the action in front of them. The bets and raises can not be greater than the size of the pot. After the completion of the betting, the turn is dealt. After the 4th community card comes out there is another round as betting with the same rules as post flop. Once again, when the betting is complete the final card is dealt, the river. Players now have their last opportunity to bet or fold. After the completion of betting, players “showdown” their hands. The best 5 card combination, using 2 and only 2 of the players 4 hole cards wins. This is a unique facet of Omaha Poker, that many beginners don’t realize or fail to remember. Players must always use 2 and only 2 of their hole cards. Therefore if the community board reads 4h 4s Ac 7d 7s and you have 4d 2c Qh 10s, you do not have a full house with 4′s full of K’s as you would in hold’em with a 4 in your hand. Your best possible combination would be 3 of a kind 4′s and a Q kicker. Therefore, if someone else held 4c and a K kicker, they would win, as the A and K plays as their kickers. The same occurs if there are 4 spades on the board and you only have 1 spade. You do not have a flush, as you need 2 spades in your hand.

We will get into recognizing these situations more accurately, but you must be aware that you have to use 2 of your cards. This is a very big mistake that many beginners use. Now that we have gotten through the rules of the game, we will delve into the strategies involved in the various forms of Omaha. Join me tomorrow in our quest for becoming betterOmaha players.

As many people know, the best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha is A-A-K-K double suited.  This is a powerful hand.  Preflop, this hand is always ahead.  Hands that have aces in them and a couple of coordinated cards are also very power hands.

Where a lot of players get into a trap with aces is when they play aces that are not coordinated or suited.   Players sometimes get into a holdem poker mentality and treat any starting hand with two aces in it like the nuts.  The problem with playing a hand with aces that does not have any backup is that you are relying on only the aces to win the hand.  Otherwise you need to be incredibly lucky.

I was playing an Omaha Poker tournament about a year ago and a player that is known to be an aggressive and loose player raised from middle position.  A player on the button reraised the pot.  The LAG player reraised all-in and was called.  The LAG player showed A-A-4-9 with no suits.  The opponent showed Qh-Jd-10h-9s.  If you run stats on this hand preflop, the aces are only 58% to win.  This is almost a coin flip situation.  The flop fell 8s-10c-2d and the aces all of a sudden went to an underdog.  The player with the wrap had a 57% chance to win at this point.  The wrapped player actually hit his straight and the aces were busted.

Granted, the above scenario required the wrap to hit, but it also demonstrated the need for a player to have backup with their aces. Any random hand with two aces in it is indeed a slight favorite before the flop, but the hand must hit in order to stay ahead.  There will be many times uncoordinated aces will not hit the flop and then fall behind.

How should a player play a hand with uncoordinated aces?  This depends on several factors including position, the type of players at the table, the limits, and of course your stack.  This type of hand is one hand that you may even want to consider limping into a pot with and seeing if you get lucky on the flop.  Limping with aces seems counterintuitive, but Omaha is a drawing game.  Players that pick up a draw on the flop actually are ahead against “naked aces”.   If you are on the button against only limpers and you know that a raise will knock some players out, you may want to put in a raise.  Keep in mind that if you do not hit the flop that you may want to tread very lightly.  Otherwise, you may end up giving your chips away.