Starting Hands

Like any poker variation, your success in Pot-Limit Omaha will be greatly affected by what starting hands you play.  And since you are dealt four cards in PL Omaha, your decisions will be very different from the cards you would play in Texas Hold’em.  You will need drawing hands that have the potential to hit high straights and flushes because pairs and two-pairs rarely win in PL Omaha.  Some examples of great starting hands in Pot-Limit Omaha are: A-A-K-K, A-A-J-T, A-A-Q-Q, A-A-J-J, and A-A-T-T.

As you can see from this list, high pairs are still good for starting hands…..they just need to have a couple of cards that have straight potential too.  Thus A-A-J-T is a better starting hand than A-A-Q-Q.

Edges are Minimized

In Hold’em, having the best hand in pocket aces gives you a 66% edge against the second best hand in pocket kings.  Contrast this to Pot-Limit Omaha where the top hand in A-A-K-K only provides a 6% advantage over the second best hand in A-A-J-T.  With this being the case, you really need to be selective in how you play starting hands.  Since edges are so small, you absolutely must play goods hands past the flop to ensure that you’re consistently getting value.

Raise before the Flop

With the edges being so small in Pot-Limit Omaha, many people don’t think that you can benefit from raising before the flop.  However, even the smallest of edges will benefit you when exploited over the long run so raising before the flop is a must.  Raising pre-flop will allow you to push other drawing hands out of the pot, and increase the amount of money you can make on excellent hands.

Regular Outs

Everybody who is behind in a hand is looking to get a card that will put them in front.  And outs are the cards that will allow a person to do this.  For example, if you were holding a pair of 10’s, and your opponent had two kings then you would need to hit another 10 to win.  Since you already have a pair of 10’s, there are only two more 10’s in the deck so you would have two outs.

Anti-Outs

Many players make the mistake of thinking that any out is going to help them.  But the thing is that there are some outs which will help your opponent more than they help you.  To illustrate this point, let’s use the above example where you have a pair of 10’s and your opponent has two aces.  However, let’s say that your opponent also has four cards of the same suit (counting 3 on the board) and one of the 10’s you are looking for will give them a flush.  Seeing as how this card helps them more than it helps you, it is not really an out.

Real Outs

Factoring anti-outs into the equation, you now have to calculate how many real outs you have.  So in the aforementioned scenario, one of the 10’s won’t help you so you’ve only got one real out left.  Always make sure to calculate your real outs before you make any decisions at the table.

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.

Getting Quartered

Much like Hold’em, Omaha gives the full pot to the player with the best hand.  Omaha Hi-Lo, on the other hand, gives half of the pot to the best qualifying low hand if there is one.  And one thing about qualifying low hands is that players can often tie for the best one which means they’ll split a quarter of the pot (both players usually hold A-2).  For this reason, you can’t get overly excited when holding the low nut hand because you could actually lose money if you over bet and get quartered.

Starting Hands

When playing Omaha, you’ll find the best hands will be the ones that give you the best possible shot at the nut like A-A-K-K.  In Hi-Lo, you want to get both a hand that is capable of taking the high hand and one that is capable of taking the low hand.  With this being the case, you’ll be hoping to get A-A-2-3 or close to it as far as starting hands go.  So it is in your best interests not to bet too heavily with a hand like A-A-3-10 because the 10 puts you in no man’s land for a high hand.  Obviously this can still be a good hand for half the pot, but just be careful.

Bluffing

Naked bluffing in Omaha is something that can be pulled off sometimes in the later streets of a hand.  However, your luck won’t be quite the same in Omaha Hi-Lo since many players will call you if it goes down to the river.  The reason is that they’ll think they can still get the low hand and this is worth a call to them.  In short, you will almost always be called on the river if somebody thinks you’re bluffing.

But this is a big mistake since two pairs are drastically different with Omaha giving players 4 hole cards instead of one.  And anybody who does the math will find out that two pairs are literally a dime a dozen in Omaha as opposed to Texas Hold’em where they are much rarer.

Hold’em players will get a two pair on the flop around 2% of the time while Omaha players will flop two pairs about 10% of the time.  Going even further, if you’re sitting at a 9-person table then there is a 90% chance that somebody at the table will have flopped a two pair.  It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to figure out that having a two pair in Omaha is nothing special.

The amount of set, flush, and straight draws that are seen in Omaha is another thing opposing you when playing two pairs.  Omaha is a game where the consistent winners play to make their hand by the river.  So if you’re playing a flopped two pair to the river as if it’s a monster hand then you are venturing into dangerous waters.  The odds that somebody has a set, straight, or flush is too great to be calling raises and bet with only a two pair.

In the end you want to focus on playing flush and straight draws in Omaha so that you can build a strong hand by the river.  And with so many outs available to other players in Omaha, it’s essential that you do this.