Omaha Strategy

Tips for Winning at Omaha

In modern poker there exists a pretty common scenario among players. They get introduced to poker through the most popular form of it in Texas Hold’em. Then these people play the game so much that they begin to get a little sick of it and begin looking for something new to play for a while.

A lot of the players who need a break from Texas stumble upon the game of Omaha which seems like a good pick at the time since it’s somewhat similar to Texas Hold’em. However, new players who start putting money up in Omaha find that it’s not as similar after all and begin to lose a lot of cash.

Is Omaha harder? The truth is no, it’s not and most players merely suffer while playing it because they don’t do much research into the game before taking it up. In reality, one can do even better in Omaha if they know their stuff because a lot of other players just aren’t very good at it. Here’s some quick strategy to get started.

Omaha Tip #1: Know when to see the flop based on starting hands.

When a player first receives their four hole cards in Omaha, the options seem plentiful. But when a person really breaks down what they can actually do in terms of making a good hand, those options might quickly fade away. And pressing one’s luck hoping to get lucky on the turn or river is a recipe for disaster in the long run.

Instead, one needs to develop a sense of what are good hands to possibly see the flop with and what hands should be mucked immediately. Here’s a list of some great to solid starting hands that should be played into the flop:

A-A-K-K, A-A-Q-Q, A-A-J-J, A-A-T-T, A-A-J-T, A-A-9-9, A-A-x-x, J-T-9-8, K-K-Q-Q, K-K-J-J, K-Q-J-T, K-K-T-T, K-K-A-Q, K-K-A-J, K-K-Q-J, K-K-Q-T, K-K-J-T, Q-Q-A-K, Q-Q-J-J, Q-Q-T-T, J-J-A-K

Keep in mind that being suited always helps but starting hand requirements shouldn’t hinge on cards being suited.

Omaha Tip #2: Three or four of a kind as hole cards is a very bad hand.

In poker, people love to get three of four of a kind hands as much as possible. This is because hands such as these are almost guaranteed winners (especially four of a kind) against what other players are holding.

But getting a three or four of a kind as your hole cards for Omaha is really a pretty terrible hand. That’s partially due to the obvious fact that a player can only use two of their hole cards to make a hand and the other one or two matching cards are then rendered useless.

The other part of the situation that makes getting a three or four of a kind in the hole such a bad deal is that this means no cards are out there to improve one’s hand. With a three of a kind, only one card is out there that can do the trick while a four of a kind only gives a person a pair which can’t be improved at all.

Omaha Tip #3: When drawing for a better hand, draw for the nuts.

In poker games like Texas Hold’em, a straight or a flush is typically an automatic winner. But in Omaha, things are quite a bit different as straights and flushes are seen a lot more often with players having more possibilities because of the extra hole cards.

Unfortunately, many players don’t take this little bit of information into account when they are drawing for straights and flushes. Instead, they go for any kind of flush or straight possible – even if it’s the lowest one.

This is pretty much a two part mistake with the first part being that they aren’t taking into account that a good flush or straight possibility on the board for one person might mean the same for another person. And that possibility for another person might be a better straight or flush.

To complete the mistake, these players are only drawing for a flush in the first place and, if it’s the lower one when a possibility for a higher one exists, they’re not doing themselves any favors. If a player is going to draw for a flush or straight, they need to make sure that it will be the nuts, or best hand at the time.

Omaha Tip #4: Look for the weak Omaha players.

As discussed before, it’s preferential to avoid trying to jump into every hand just because one has plenty of hole cards. Knowing this, it will be much easier to spot the weaker players since they will tend to do things like this in addition to performing other bad Omaha habits.

Some of the other things that these fish will do include making mistakes like drawing for weak flushes or small straights, playing bad hands to the turn and river, and making terrible bluffs at the wrong time.

It’s up to you to examine your opponents and seek out these players as they will be easy to steal chips from. And remember, players usually don’t make money by playing other good players – they make their money by finding bad players and consistently beating them.