Basic Omaha Hi-Lo Concepts
This article is not addressed to those who are good or even intermediate Omaha Hi-Lo players. My goal is not to teach someone who might even be a better Omaha player than I, how to play his game, but rather to introduce the huge mass of newbies hitting the tables each day, to a few basic ideas that will make their lives less miserable at the table.
The problem with Omaha is, that it’s the second most popular online poker game. With Texas Holdem being at the forefront of the online poker craze, Omaha has to be content with the leftovers.
Even though almost every single online poker room features the game (whole networks have it implemented in their software like iPoker), the big difference in popularity is obvious as soon as one hits the lobby and takes a look at the available tables. Funny thing is, there’s lots of money to be made in Omaha. Because of the fact that if you play it, most of the time you’ll be confronted with clueless Texas-Holdem rejects. There’s actually more money in it than in Texas Holdem. But enough of generic issues. Let’s see how you can avoid being the laughing-stock of the online Omaha community.
First thing’s first: in Omaha, you’re dealt four hole cards instead of the two most poker players are used to. It’s quite funny how beginners get confused right away. At first it seems like a great thing that here are so many hole-cards, because they figure the better the odds for them to squeeze out a reasonable hand from the flop. Not so fast though. In Omaha you can only use 2 cards from your hand. That’s right: not 3, not 4 and not 1. It has to be 2. Also, you need to use exactly three cards off the board. Again, not 4 and not 2 but exactly 3. In the end, your hand will be made up of 2 cards from your pocket and three off the board.
I know this seems elementary, but I often see people at the online Omaha table showing down a flush which is made up by three cards from their pocket and 2 off the board. Then they are absolutely puzzled that they didn’t win the high-split.
Second basic Omaha concept: this game is a game of nuts. Most of the time, he who holds the nuts, wins. If you’re going for the low, make sure you can read the board and you have a pocket hand that “cooperates” with the board.
It often happens that your pocket cards are counterfeited by the board: take 2367 in the pocket, and 23478 on the board. What do we have here? You have 237 from your pocket hand counterfeited. That means the only card you can use for the low is 6. that way you’ll make a 23467.
You have to be able to tell whether you have the nuts or not. A2345 make the best possible low hand in Omaha. Compare everything to that and you’ll see where you are. A2 makes the best low in the case of a 456JQ.
The importance of starting hands in Omaha: In Omaha, a good starting hand selection can make a huge difference. While useful in Texas Holdem too, in Omaha, starting hand selection is an integral part of good play. This is because Omaha is a game of big edges. Texas Holdem is a game where one needs to systematically exploit small edges, Omaha on the other hand, is a game where only huge edges can be properly exploited.
This big difference between two seemingly related games is another trap, scores of rookies fall into.
The same factor makes schooling a lot less threatening on Omaha than in TH. In TH, when several bad players make bad calls, they actually stand a chance to beat the good player who made all the right choices.
In Omaha, schooling works the other way: the favorite enjoys the advantage not the schooling fish.
Autor: James Jackson
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