Omaha Poker is not Texas Hold'em (and other Omaha Tips)
There are plenty of things we could say about Omaha Hold'em and tips to becoming a good Omaha poker player, but in truth, most of them all relate back to one single topic...
Omaha Poker is NOT Texas Hold'em! If you can remember that simple fact, and how different the two games, and their related strategies, are in relation to that fact, you can be a very good Omaha Poker player. As you read on, you'll notice that our top 3 Omaha tips are directly related to this verity.
Top 3 Omaha Tips - #1: Starting Hand Selection
When choosing your starting hands - whether to play on to the flop or fold without investing - there's a lot to consider. You're looking at 4 hole cards, with the knowledge that you'll only get to use two of them. Sounds great, but also consider that you're opponents have the same advantage. Your pair of Aces looks brilliant but even if you set Aces on the flop, is it going to hold up on the river? Not likely.
The best starting hands in Omaha have matching suits and connectors. A great hand would be something like 7c-8h-10h-Qc. It may look like junk at a glance, but in reality, you have a great chance of flopping a straight or straight draw, as well as a flush/flush draw in two different suits.
Be careful not to play too many hands to the flop. This creates a terrible leak in your stack. Then again, be careful not to toss a great starting hand either. Once you learn to recognize a valuable starting hand, it will be a lot easier to make strategic decisions.
Top 3 Omaha Tips - #2: Winning Hand Strength
We kind of touched on this topic in the first Omaha tip, but we'll go further into detail here because it is extremely important to understand the strength of a typical winning Omaha poker hand. Most hands are won by a straight, flush or full house. With so many hole cards to work with, it's much easier to hit a draw hand or a full house on the flop, turn or river.
This is why so many Omaha hands make it all the way to the river. A hand can be left with a lot of outs. Just beware you don't take second best or worse to the showdown when it's obvious there are a lot of better hands than your own that could turn up.
Top 3 Omaha Tips - #3: Semi-Bluffing If Anything
You cannot bluff your way to a stolen pot pre-flop in Omaha. Texas Hold'em offers a great positional strategy of stealing blinds, but too many players like to see the flop in Omaha for this to be an effective stack-building strategy. In fact, bluffing at all is discouraged in the early stages of a hand. Semi-bluffing is acceptable if you have enough outs to make something later on.
The only time one should bluff in Omaha is on the river when a draw has missed. In this case, only make the move if you are fairly certain your opponent has missed as well, or if the nuts are better than anything he could be holding. It helps to have a good read on your opponent so you can judge whether he is likely to fold to your bluff or make the call and bust your stack.
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