Omaha Strategy
October 9, 2008
Omaha Poker is a fast paced poker game where people either make a lot of money or lose a lot of money, and usually nothing in between. Online Omaha is becoming popular, but most of the players come from a Texas Holdem background. If you have played Texas Holdem in the past, but have yet to play Omaha then you need to throw out everything you learned in Holdem strategy because it will cost you a lot of money in Omaha. Get the latest Full Tilt Poker Download Omaha software package today.
The rules of Texas Holdem and Omaha are similar with the biggest difference being that players get four cards to start with instead of just two cards. This means that every player could have a possible six hands to play for pre-flop based on the quality of there starting four cards. In Texas Holdem the most options you can have is two hands pre-flop so it’s a big difference. Holdem players often play the options too strongly in Omaha and end up losing big on many hands. When you play Omaha you need to have close to the nuts or else you’re most likely going to lose the pot.
Rarely will you see two pairs or trips winning a pot in Omaha on Full Tilt and even straights are often busted unless there are no other possibilities and it’s a nut straight. A lot of the time though there will be flush options, full house options and even quads. The winning hand in Omaha is always something high on the poker hand ranking chart, whereas in Texas Holdem you can win a lot of pots with high pair and good kicker.
Good Omaha Starting Hands
* High Pockets
* Two Pairs
* Ace High Straight Draw – Ace High Flush Draw
* Any Four High Cards
* High Cards – With Straight & Flush Options
* Any Three or Four Card Straight
* Two Card Straight – With Flush Options
I’m sure I missed a couple nice starting hands as well, but as you can see there are so many possibilities of good hands its incredible. If you don’t have a strong starting hand on www.WilliamHill.com like one mentioned above then you should probably fold because there is a high chance that an opponent will have something mentioned above and you’d be dominated.
Omaha Tips
* Always make sure you’re analyzing the board and keeping an eye out for possible hands like full houses, straights, flushes, etc. You need to know what can beat you before you can determine if you should bet or call any bets.
* Generally you shouldn’t raise pre-flop because you never know what’s coming on the flop and its more cost effective to see cheap flops and see if you hit than raise blindly.
* When you have low straights or flush draws you should typically fold them because 7/8 times out of ten you’re going to lose to a higher straight or flush even if you hit.
* Just like in any other pkr poker game you need to analyze your opponent’s tendencies so that you can take advantage of them down the road.
