If you’re sick of the grind of No Limit Hold’em and the monotony of full ring play, you’re definitely not alone. As you go up in stakes you’ll find the biggest game in
most major casinos or even at the major online poker rooms is a funny little game called Pot Limit Omaha. It’s played in Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit varieties as well as Hi/Lo which
adds another layer of strategy to an action oriented game.
If you’re completely unfamiliar with what Omaha is as a game, it’s played the same as Hold’em only players receive four cards, not two, and players are only allowed to use three
of the board cards and two of the hole cards. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! Because of all the different holdings and possible draws, Omaha is known as an action game with
bigger pots. Due to the limited amount of literature and tutorial videos on Omaha, but the widespread exposure via ESPN and the Durrrr Challenge, many players (among them fish) are gravitating
to playing Omaha.
For a great book to get you started with Pot Limit Omaha (the most widespread format of the game) I can highly suggest Jeff Hwang’s book which is available for less than $15. Although
most online poker rooms play Pot Limit Omaha in a 6-handed format, Hwang’s book is a perfect primer for starting hands and post-flop play. On top of that, WSOP bracelet winner Vanessa
Selbst’s series of videos on DeucesCracked.com is as good as it gets for learning the game.
With all that being said, let’s use our slick replayer here at PokerHandReplays.com to import Omaha hands.
If you have a good bankroll of 30-40 buy-ins (meaning about $750) then you can start out playing at PLO 25, meaning Pot Limit Omaha with blinds of $0.10-$0.25 where the players are bad and the pots
are decent enough to make the game a lot of fun. Let’s look at a no brainer hand first.
Darn Near the Best Starting Hand
The best starting hand in Omaha is A-A-K-K double suited but when you have it single suited you are still looking to stack off an opponents heads up 100% of the time. In this hand my
mission was getting someone all-in, and really not being concerned at all about the shortstacked button. The guy in the big blind really stacked off with a really dubious hand in 8-6-7-8
single suited and isn’t something strong at all, but definitely something that you’d want to see a flop with. If he stacked off with, say, 8-9-T-J double suited it’d be a
respectable stack-off, but as it is I got it in as a big favorite. At the flop I hit top set while the shortstacker was stuck with his pocket 7s, and the big blind full stacked player
didn’t see any possible draws come. On the turn I basically have the nuts with the Aces over Deuces boat, and everyone else is drawing dead. Thank you very much guys, I appreciate
the money and plan to put it to good use.
Average Starting Hand, Interesting Flop
When you are playing Pot Limit Omaha you really want to play cards that have excellent drawing potential. A lot of players new to Omaha see something like K-K-3-8 rainbow and just focus on
“Hey Wow!! Pocket Kings! Alllll in!” and then get called by 5-6-7-8 double suited and find out they’re really in bad shape.
Anyways, in this hand I find myself only three handed and I have a marginal but flop worth hand in Q-T-9-7 double suited. This hand has two flush draws and some interesting straight
possibilities, so getting to see the flop makes sense but a raise here was probably in order. The flop of 4-J-8 rainbow against two opponents, and any 7, 9, T, or Q (yes, a 12 card straight
draw) as well as backdoor flush possibilities. It’s time to bet but the small blind leads out, and given the draws I think at worse we’re a coinflip with position so a raise
wouldn’t be bad at all right here. As played, I called and the 7 of diamonds comes on the turn. Talk about hitting a gin card – at this point I have the nut straight with
7-8-J used on the board and 9-T used from my hand, as well as a nut straight and flush redraws. Holy cow! The small blind fires modestly again and now I take charge and put in a small
raise which was flatted. The bad news came when the board paired – meaning that my nut straight just got beat by 44, JJ, 88, 74, J7, and of course 77. Bleh! The small blind
leads out again and given the situation I think the call here behind was just fine. The villain shows A-9-A-2 for two pair and I take down a decent pot.
Summary
- Omaha is an awesome game. If you aren’t playing it, take a look into it, you’ll have a lot of fun.
- There’s a tremendous edge to be had in Omaha since it seems a lot of people playing it don’t have a
clue about preflop strategy.
- You want to be playing with hands that have excellent nut draw potential.
- Play appropriate stakes for your bankroll and do some research into studying materials before your first session.
If you are familiar with a HUD or have already read through the article, what we are going to do in this article is run a quiz for you by providing a hand up until a certain point and then
offer you the stats of the villain.
