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  Beginner's Guide to Omaha Hi

  Thursday, May 21, 2009, MrIvey

  Some people out there claim that Omaha is the game that would become the game of choice sometimes in the future and that it would substitute Hold'em. While I am not sure about whether this is going to happen, I can say for certain that Oma...Read more...
  
  

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  *Category		Poker Finance Miscellaneous Tournament Poker NL Hold'em Strategy NL Hold'em Shorthanded 7 Card Stud Pot Limit Omaha NL Holdem Heads Up HORSE Omaha Hi/Lo Limit Holdem Pot Limit Holdem Crew Cup Razz Rules and Strategy Poker Rooms and Deals PS Referrals PS Tournaments PS Points PS Promotions All About Pokerspace
  *Source		Paul Randall Real Poker Training CardRunners PartTime Poker Bluff Magazine PS Members
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  *Text		<p> Some people out there claim that Omaha is the game that would become the game of choice sometimes in the future and that it would substitute Hold'em. While I am not sure about whether this is going to happen, I can say for certain that Omaha is the game far more exciting than Hold'em, at last in my opinion, and at some level, although the play may seem more complicated, it is easier to play than Hold'em for several reasons. This article will cover some of the basic strategies for playing Omaha Hi tournaments.</p><p>First thing to mention, when talking about Omaha Hi here, we are talking about Omaha Hi PL (pot limit). It is also sometimes played in Limit variation, and some people also play it as NL, which I find somewhat ridiculous for this type of game.</p><p>For those who have never encountered or played Omaha before, the game is very similar to Hold'em. Game structure is almost the same. Two players to the left of the Dealer post small blind and big blind respectively, and preflop action is started by the first player to the left of the big blind (UTG). On every next round, action is started by the small blind, or to the first next player left of the small blind still in play. Players are dealt four cards, instead of two, and are required to use TWO and TWO ONLY hole cards to make the best hand. This means that, unlike in Hold'em, you cannot use just one card to make your hand, or declare yourself as 'playing the board'. Also, you cannot use three or four cards.</p><p><b>Playing Tournaments</b></p><p><b></b></p><p>This guide is mostly intended for new or novice players of Omaha. Thus, you will not find some overly advanced advice in it, but every once in a while it is not bad even for an experienced player to remember the basics.</p><p>First big flaw in the play of new Omaha players is playing far too many hands. While in the cash game this may cost you some, but depending on your bankroll does not have to be disastrous, in a tournament, playing too many hands will send you home packing real fast. The notion that, because you get four cards you should play more hands because you have more chances to make a winning hand is completely wrong. Your opponents get four cards also, and that is something many players seem to forget. If you want to fare well in tournaments, 'tight is right' tactics is probably even more implied than in Hold'em. You should stay clear of all those borderline hands that could get you in trouble. The problem in lower buy-in tournaments that there is often so much limping before the flop that you are getting great odds to limp with almost anything. In the early stages, when blinds are low, this may be fine - Omaha is mostly the flop game - but if you are doing this, you must be willing, ready and capable to lay down your hand when it is not the nuts most of the time - regardless of how big the pot is.</p><p><i>What to play</i>? Play for the nuts. Get involved in the hands that have a good potential to give you the nuts. These are hands containing suited aces, preferably with some connectivity, like As7s8h10d. This is playable hand, but not the monster. Much better hand would be something like As7s8h9h - this hand has three connected cards, A high flush potential and hearts flush potential, although not the nuts. If you hit a good flop, play your hand hard - the whole idea is to see the good flop and get your money in, because you will need to accumulate some chips at one point or another, and you have to take calculated risks, just as you would in any other tournament. So, for example, good board for this kind of hand would be something like Qs 6s 3d. You have a nut flush draw, plus some backdoor straight options. An excellent board would be something like 5s 6s Kd - barring the boards that already give you made hands. On this type of flop, you have four 4s, four 7s, four 8s and four 9s, all to make you the nuts, plus 9 outs to make your flush, which makes it in total - 16 + 9 = 25 outs, two times, which is practically half the deck. Always raise and reraise on this type of board. This is the hand you can safely put your tournament life on. And if you lose, you can actually say you were unlucky. Other hands you should be playing are higher connecting cards, like 7 8 9 10, 6 7 8 9, preferably double or single suited, because all these hands do have a potential to give you nuts or the flop on which you can safely presume to be a favorite.</p><p><i>What hands to stay clear off? </i>Hands that do not connect well are best to be avoided. Hand like AhKh3d8s, although it has some nut potential, is in fact trash hand, because there are only two cards working together and the other two do nothing for you whatsoever. Granted, with a good board, this can turn into a monster, but so can 7 2 in Hold'em when the flop comes 7 7 7. You should never play hands in which at least three cards do not work together, and preferably fourth card should also do something for your hand, at least in terms of backup. So it goes without saying that hands like 5d 3h Ks 9s or 8s 5h Qh 3d are doing their job best when they are in the muck.</p><p><i>Playing small pokcet pairs. </i>While playing small pairs in a cash game can sometimes prove to be profitable, although not all that often, I believe that the best way for a novice player to play a small pair in a tournament is - not to play it at all. Anything under pair of 8s or 9s is considered to be a small pair. It seems that this can never be over-emphasized, since most players do come from a Hold'em backgrounds, where hitting your set on the flop is almost always a monster that might grant you a huge pot. This is not so in Omaha. If we consider hand like Qh 9s 6s 6d, once it does hit a set on the board like Ks Jh 6c, you will never really know where you are. Someone might have two pair here, or already have bigger set and have you crushed, or some kind of multiway draw with a hand like Q 10 A X, and there is no real way for you to determine where you are. What is worst, you cannot even know what is a good card for you to come on the turn. Let's say you do make a full house on the turn, with Js. Is your hand good? You are still losing to someone holding K J X X, or J 6 X X, pair of kings obviously, pair of jacks, unlikely but possible, and someone holding bare J can still call you hoping to hit the river for a full house, and you will have another tough decision on the river. Perhaps very experienced players can make this kind of plays profitable, but novice players will end up losing a lot of valuable tournament chips that would not leave them, had they only folded before the flop. So, the best option with small pairs is to fold them, unless they have some other potentials, like 6 6 7 8, because then you do have a pair and three cards working together for a straight, but if you do happen to hit your set, proceed with much caution.</p><p><i>Playing big pocket pairs</i>. Big pairs are another pair of sleeves. They can be very powerful, but a common mistake for players transitioning from Hold'em is that they overvalue them. The fact is, you will never be so much ahead preflop in Omaha as you can be in Hold'em. Thus it is very important to be extremely careful with your hands containing Aces, Kings, Queens etc. Again, your hand will be much stronger if the other two cards work somehow with the pair, or with one another or, preferably, both. Thus, hand like AsAhKdJh is much better than AsAc5d10d, because the first hand gives you a lot of potential for nuts. Another important thing is, if you are going to play big pairs aggressively, then play them very aggressively, so that you isolate just one opponent. Otherwise, unless you hit your set, you are almost bound to lose against some two pair or better combination. But you can also play a safer approach, and see the flop relatively cheap, and reevaluate then. If you know that no matter how big you raise, you will get 2, 3 or more callers to the flop, then you might as well forget about pumping up the pot - although you will probably have the statistically best hand preflop, there will be so many hands out there that, unless improved, you will have no idea where you stand. Once you do hit the top set, and board is draw heavy, you have to pump it up. You will still lose much more often than in Hold'em, but you are decently ahead and, again, you need to get those chips at some point and charge for the potential draws.</p><p><i>Position and pot control. </i>All you hear about when talking Hold'em is position, position, position. Well, in Omaha, position is even more important. When playing lower limit Omaha, whether cash game or tournament, you will probably be quite capable of deducing your opponent's most likely holdings. Thus, when you do have the position, you will have an opportunity to take the pots away from missed draws, to represent the made hands you realize your opponent is afraid of etc. Power of position in Omaha is far beyond that in Hold'em, and it alone, used properly, can give you enough pots to go very deep in the tournament, even if you do not hit many great hands. Here's an example. You are playing fairly aggressive opponent, for whom you know he likes to play his draws fast. You are holding KdQdJs9s. The board comes Jc 5c 8d. Your opponent bets and you call. You do not have very big hand, but you can quite safely put him on a flush draw. On the turn, you pick up your straight draw with 10h, and he bets again. You flat him again. The river brings another 10d. Now he checks to you. Although you do not have a huge hand, you know your opponent was chasing flush and he missed. You can valuetown him, or just check behind. If you were out of position, you would be the first to act here, and would have to play guessing game if he decided to bet to you at the river.</p><p><i>Look to improve</i>. While in Hold'em, once you have flopped the absolute nuts, it rarely happens that you lose by the river (and when it does, we call it a bad beat - rightfully so), in Omaha this is not so uncommon at all. As a matter of fact, Omaha is the kind of game that will require you to let go of nuts every once in a while. For example, you are holding hand like 4 5 7 8, and the flop comes 6 9 10. You now have the nuts, but your opponent(s) are betting and raising heavily. Unless you have some kind of flush option, which you believe could be good, you should consider folding, or just trying to see the turn card cheap. If you are facing a lot raises and reraises, chances are, especially against more opponents, that someone already has the nuts as well, but also has J or J Q, and a lot of chances to improve by the river, with an 8 or a K etc. Since your hand cannot improve, you should play it very, very carefully.</p><p>Well, if you were an absolute beginner or novice when you have started reading this article, some time ago, I would dare guess that by the end you have learned something about Omaha, at least enough to get you some way through the PSOP tournament if you have not been playing Omaha before. If the article was too long, I do apologize, but as I was writing, the ideas kept coming, and I decided to cut it here, or the 'article' was threatening to turn into a smaller book. Thus, read, try to implement some of the advice into your own game, and good luck at the felt. I hope it was helpful. Cheers!</p><p> </p><p> </p>