Omaha Poker
Hand Selection
In Omaha, there are a lot of
different variables that go into the game. There
are many different factors that will make you
either win or lose. Unfortunately there is not
just one thing that makes a good Omaha Poker
player good. Normally, there are many different
things that make an Omaha player good. Starting
with that is being able to have the discipline
to make the right choices. One of the very first
decisions you will have to make during a hand is
whether or not you are going to stay in or fold.
Hand selection is the number one thing that will
dictate how well you will do while playing
Omaha.
First of all, do not make the
mistake that you should play more hands in Omaha
than in other poker games because you have more
cards. That is not true, because your opponents
have more cards as well. There are more
possibilities to win, but there are also more
possibilities to lose, which even it all out.
You should really only see around 20% of the
flops while you are playing. That means that you
should be folding a lot more then you stay in.
There are a lot more bad Omaha hands than good.
Good Omaha Hands
In Omaha, the hands that work
together are the best hands to have. If you play
only the best hands, you will end up doing a lot
better than a player who plays every hand. That
doesn't mean you only play the most premium
hands, it just means that you don't play the
garbage hands. The rest will all fall into place
if you can manage to do at least that.
The best starting hand in Omaha
is AAKK double suited. If you think about it you
can understand why. You have the four highest
cards that you could possibly have. The object
is to get the best five card poker hand, so that
is a good start. You also have suited cards,
which will give you the opportunity to catch the
nut flush, if the right suits fall onto the
board. Then, you also have straight
possibilities as well. There is really an
endless amount of possibilities with this hand.
Those are the kinds of starting
hands you should play. They don't have to be
AAKK double suited. In fact, you will not see
that hand very often. If you play Hold’em and
you think it is hard to get pocket aces, then
you will be in for a big wake up call when you
realize how hard it is to get a hand like this.
You just want to have cards that give you a lot
of outs and possibilities. You want to know that
if that board hits what you are looking for; you
will have the very best hand possible.
For example, 7(s)8(s)Q(h)A(h).
You see, this is not the greatest starting hand,
but it is also not the worst. It is actually a
pretty goo starting hand when you think about
it. Having suited cards are big in Omaha. If
there are flush cards on the board, you can
almost guarantee that someone has a flush.
Bad Omaha Starting Hands
Then there are the bad starting hands that you
want to stay clear of. These hands are basically
just the opposite of what was outlined above. If
it is not a good hand that works together, it is
probably a bad hand that doesn't work together
and you will need to fold it. Hands with a lot
of gap cards (like 295J) are bad hands. Those
are the hands you should fold. Never get into
your head that you should call because what if 3
Jacks come on the flop. Those are the players
that make it possible to play poker as a
profession. All in all, it is not very difficult
to understand the difference between a good hand
and a bad hand.
The hard part is not; knowing
which is which, it is actually doing something
about it. If you are not discipline enough to
fold when you have a terrible hand then you do
not belong at a poker table, especially not an
Omaha table. |
