Ben "Bennyboi" Grundy - Anyone for Omaha?

The reason Omaha is such a popular game and why I like it so much is that it creates a lot of action because everyone receives four cards.

Most of the time a few players will have decent pocket cards and nobody is ever a massive favourite before the flop, unlike in Texas Hold'em where a player can have a 94% of winning the hand before the flop (KK vs K2). In Omaha even arguably the best hand you can hold preflop AdKdAcKc has just a 60% chance against 9s8sThJh before the flop. Most crucial decisions are made after the flop is dealt in Omaha. I will focus on three things in this article - Drawing hands, playing aces and passing the nuts.

Drawing hands


The most important thing in Omaha is to draw to the nuts as often as possible. If you are playing for a flush it should be nuts you are aiming for. The same applies to straights as well. Otherwise you will end up losing a lot of money to players who only ever draw to the nuts in the long term.

Winning Omaha play requires pot manipulation. You need to get more money in when you have clearly the best of it; play for cheap when you don't. Nut hands and nut draws using quality cards can "drive the betting" whereas non-nut hands cannot.

Look at the following example. If the flop is 8JA and one player is holding 79TQ and they have a good straight wrap because any 79TQ or K would give them a straight. Is this a hand to commit a lot of money too on the flop?

Many players would willingly put all their money in with this type of holding. However, this is a hand I would class as a danger hand. This is due to the fact that if your opponent 7TQK they also have a wrap in that any 9TQ or K would give them a straight. There is a huge difference in the strength of these hands though. In the first hand only the 79 or K would give you the nut straight whereas in the second hand any 9TQ or K. You may be surprised to learn that the second hand is actually approximately a 75% favourite over the first.

Playing Aces


I think that playing Aces is far more difficult in PL Omaha than in Hold'em. Many players play AAxx terribly in Pot Limit Omaha. If you are out of position in a multi way pot and do not see a favourable flop, Aces should be folded to any significant bet. Your opponent would be favourite against you with a big drawing hand even if you are currently ahead with a pair of Aces. If they have two pairs or three of a kind you would be a big underdog.

As a general rule if your chip stack is low you should be looking to get as all-in or close it before the flop with AAxx. You are a good favourite over most hands except another dominating AA hand. Your position at the table should often dictate how you should play Aces preflop. If I am under the gun or in the blinds I will often just call a raise with AAxx as it's a very difficult hand to play out of position. Plus, it has the added advantage that because you did not raise opponents would not be able to put you on that hand so you may win a massive pot if the flop is good for you. For example, if it flops AK4 and one of your opponents has KKxx then you are very likely to win a huge pot against them because they won't put you on Aces as you didn't raise pre-flop.

Passing the nuts


To most poker players this may sound alien concept but there are often times when it is the correct strategy to fold the nuts in Pot Limit Omaha. This is often the case when you are confident that your opponent has the nuts as well but also is free-rolling you because of their other cards.

To illustrate this, if you are holding AK56 and it flops 478 with two spades it is often the correct strategy to fold your hand if the action gets heavy. If you are facing a raise and a re-raise you could be in a lot of trouble if you decide to commit all your chips. The worst case scenario is that one of your opponents could be holding 569T with a spade flush draw. In this case they have a huge number of cards to win the pot with and the best you can hope for is a split pot. In this case they would have a massive 82% chance of winning the whole pot. Learning the correct situations to pass the nuts will save you a lot of money in the long term.

See you at the tables,

Ben "Bennyboi" Grundy