Those who play a lot of Omaha know that it can be a very risky game. After all, there will be plenty of times when you’re forced to put a lot of your money into the pot without knowing if you will get a made hand or not. Of course this is where the art of knowing which draws to chase and which ones to avoid comes into play. And doing this becomes a lot easier when you know what Omaha hands can fool you into chasing a bad draw.
For instance, let’s say that you have a hand like 9d-7d-Js-5h and the flop hits 5d-7c-6d. For many Omaha players, this hand would seem excellent since you’ve not only got a two-pair, but also a flush and an inside straight draw. Unfortunately, things aren’t quite as great as they would seem for you in this situation.
To start off with, you’re holding the bottom pair which is rarely worth much in Omaha. The reason being is that there is a good chance someone already has a better two-pair, and there is the likelihood that somebody will likely hit a set in the hand too. Another thing to keep in mind with this hand is that you’re drawing for a low inside straight which means anybody holding 10-8 is already drawing for a better straight.
Your flush is also going to be a low draw too since somebody holding a 10 or higher is going to have a better hand as well. In short, the main problem with this hand is that all of your outs still have you beat assuming other players are chasing the same kind of draws. Now you can definitely play hands like this at the table, but make sure you don’t put too much money in the middle when doing so.
Tags: Omaha, Poker Hands, Tips
