Pot-Limit Omaha Tips

Go where the action is – go play pot-limit Omaha. More and more players are fascinated by the amount of fun and excitement this poker type has to offer. Even Pros like Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius tend to play as much pot-limit Omaha as possible.

Most of the time, players start with Hold’em and then move on to Omaha and test the new waters. Before putting on your swim suit, there are a few things you need to know to get an early edge:

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The showdown hands are a lot better

Being dealt four cards will get you further in the hand ranking. If two pair or even a set are awesome to have in Hold’em, often times you won’t pay a bet on the river with that kind of hand in Omaha. The average winning hands in pot-limit Omaha contain all sorts of straight, flushes and boats (full houses). That’s why you should take a good look at your hand and evaluate it correctly. Having the 3rd or 4th nuts in Omaha won’t let your bankroll grow. You should go for the nuts or draw to nuts. Let other players go berserk with a less than optimal holding.

Pot-limit Omaha – the game of the draws

The huge amount of hand combinations is the reason for the hefty draws there are in pot-limit Omaha. You can have 20 Outs and be a favorite over the current nuts after the flop. That’s another reason to learn to read the board texture and put your opponents on a range of hands to estimate, what you are up against. Top set might not be the favorite to win the hand and there are even times when you might consider folding a flopped straight, if you don’t have any redraws, that is.

Pot-limit vs not no-limit

You want to go all-in? Meh, not yet. Playing pot-limit Omaha requires also some skills to manipulate the size of the pot. Whenever you want to play a giant pot, raise or check-raise to get the money in. If you have a simple but decent draw just call and see if your draw hits, or use a scare card to bluff. You can’t just go all-in on a semi-bluff and force your opponent to fold. Building the pot when you have the right hand is also crucial to get paid off at the end.

Hand selection

As mentioned before, you will face opponents that play almost every hand. And there is method behind the madness: Every hand can be a potential winner – even more in Omaha. Before the flop there is hardly a situation where a hand is more than a 2:1 favorite to win. The flop decides most often who has the best hand. Playing high cards that give you draws to the nut straight or the nut flush or even top set with a redraw to best full house are money makers in the long run. Your opponents should be the ones stacking off with a Jack-high flush – you should be the one holding the nuts. Of course you can play more hands than just AAKKds oder AAJTds. “ds” stands for double-suited, meaning you have two possible flush draws. Hands like 8765 or even with gaps like T965 can be potential monsters if you imagine a flop coming 87x rainbow. Now you need to know where the raise button is…