The purpose of this article is to introduce you to Pot-Limit Omaha Hi and explain some basic and in-depth aspects of this game.

Pot-Limit Omaha is a unique game compared to other poker games, including Texas Holdem. It’s also one of few poker games, which are more popular in Europe than in the US . Besides of this, Omaha is a game that tends to have big swings, which means that even a novice player can win a lot in the long run. Another unique feature of Pot-Limit Omaha is that although it’s usually played at rather low stakes at home and in online poker rooms, the stakes are fairly high at Pot-Limit Omaha tables in land-based casinos. However, note that this article is intended for the beginners planning to learn Pot-Limit Omaha and play it at lower limits.

In fact your Texas Holdem skills don’t matter, because Pot-Limit Omaha is quite different from Texas Holdem poker. For example, in Texas Holdem players usually call down with a second best hand, since hitting the nuts in Texas Holdem is pretty rare and if a player would always fold his non-nuts hands, he would surely lose in the long run. This situation is quite different in Pot-Limit Omaha, where calling uncertain hands is a sure recipe for disaster.

Holding the nuts is pretty frequent, when playing Omaha, so the goal of an Omaha player is to sell these nuts to opponents, who will call them down with hands that have just a little chance for improvement. For example, if 5 players see the flop, which is Q of spades, 10 of spades and 9 of diamonds, then a player holding AAQJ should consider folding to a strong bet. That’s because the Aces have little-to-no chance to be the best hand and won’t remain best even if they were, since there are good chances of hitting a straight, flush or a full-house.

Generally, Pot-Limit Omaha strategy is based on two aspects: building the nut hand and position. The first point is simple: since there are many strong hands in Pot-Limit Omaha, you want to build the strongest one. In fact, most Pot-Limit Omaha games don’t end with a showdown. If they do, then it is more likely that those players, who saw the showdown, are either holding the nuts, or were drawing to the nuts. When two opponents hold strong made hands against each other, they’ll generally have the nuts or near-nuts against another near-nut hand.

For example, if the board is AQ553, while one player holds AAxx and another one has QQxx, then any other player, who would call a huge bet on this board holding 43xx will be a fool, because while this straight would be a very good hand in Texas Holdem, it would be poor for the same board in Omaha .

Such emphasis of Pot-Limit Omaha on building nut hands greatly affects selection of good starting hands, because if a player wants to hit the nuts or at least near nuts, then he needs a hand that coordinates well with itself. When the flop comes, a player needs to be able to build a very strong hand (nuts or near-nuts) in many ways, which means that his hand could draw to nut straight, nut flush, or high full-house. In this situation, even if player’s current hand (say it’s a straight), is weaker than someone’s flush, a player might still have chances for a full-house draw. At the same time, a player wouldn’t want hands vulnerable to become second best hands. That means that even if an ill-coordinated hand will hit the flop, it still can lose to hands drawn during further rounds. Here are some tips on how to evaluate your starting hands preflop:

• High pocket pairs are pretty good, since they give a chance of hitting a big full house. If you fail to hit a set with a big pair, then this pair is simply worthless.
• Most connectors are generally helpful. For example, a hand like 10,9,8 and 7 is a strong Pot-Limit Omaha hand, since it provides a lot of straight possibilities. Such hand is much better than KQ67, because 10987 offers a lot of multi-way straight opportunities.
• Most suited cards should be treated cautiously. While you can call and draw them to an A high flush, drawing to any non-nut flush is usually foolishness. Non Ace-high suited cards can be only helpful for redraws, multiple draws, or back-door flush draws. You should never draw to a flush, unless it is the Ace-high (nut) flush.
• Most low and middle pocket pairs are nearly worthless, since even if you hit a set holding something like 4499, you still can easily lose to a higher set, flush or straight.

Another dominant concept in Pot-Limit Omaha is position. In fact Pot-Limit Omaha is all about position and there are some serious reasons for this statement. Free cards are extremely dangerous. Sitting in early position, a player is almost always ought to bet, even holding the nuts. For instance, if the flop is 5, 6 and 7 and he holds something like 8, 9, 9 and an Ace, then he is definitely ought to bet, since one of his opponents can possibly draw to a flush, full-house, or a higher straight. That’s why early position players tend to fold their hands. Late position players can much easier bluff at pots, since they can be fairly sure that early position players don’t hold the nuts. Besides of this, late position players can easily earn extremely valuable free cards.


Learn more about Omaha Holdem Poker at Pokersyte.com

Also recommended:

1. Low Limit Omaha Strategy
2. Introduction to Omaha
3. Introduction to No-Limit Texas Holdem
4. Omaha High-Low Practice Poker Hands
5. Determining the Best Poker Hand in Omaha High