Common Omaha Mistakes: Hand
Evaluation
There are a lot of common
mistakes that are made in Omaha by both
beginners and even experienced players. In order
to properly execute, you will need to avoid
making as many mistakes as you possibly can in
Omaha. Many players think that it is just the
same as Texas Hold'em,
which it is not. Another mistake that a lot of
players make is that they play way too many
hands, and chase too much. In the following
article, you will see a few different examples
of Omaha hands that are often misplayed.
Example 1: Hold'em
Theory Mistake
One of the biggest mistakes that
a lot of players make is that they assume that
the rules to Omaha are the same as Hold'em.
That is actually completely untrue. In Omaha,
you have to use 2 cards from your hand; no more
and no less.
Player 1 - A(h)9(d)10(d)K(s)
The Board - 10(h)J(h)Q(h)K(h)(2s)
In this example, you can see that
there is a pretty interesting board here. In
Texas Hold 'em, you
would be thinking who has that Ace of hearts? Of
course, that would be a Royal Flush and the best
possible hand. A 9 of hearts wouldn’t be bad
either with a straight flush. In Omaha however,
you cannot get away with using only one hand. If
the above example; player 1's
hand includes an Ace of hearts, which many would
assume to make a Royal Flush. The best possible
hand here in Omaha, would actually not be a
Royal Flush. It would be impossible to make a
Royal Flush, because you need two cards, and 4
of the 5 are on the board (leaving only one out
there).
Example 2: Playing too many Hands
Another huge mistake that is
often made is that a lot of people play way too
many hands in Omaha. You can see in the example
below a common type of hand that a lot of people
would want to play that really shouldn't be
played.
Player 1 - 4(s)7(s)9(h)2(h)
The Board - (Not Necessary)
As you can see above, the hand is
really not that good. It actually looks a lot
better in real life. The attractive part of this
hand is that there are two different suits. You
have a suite 47 and a suited 92. That is a big
mistake that players often make. They think that
suited cards are golden;
which in Omaha they often are. The problem with
this however, is that even if you hit your flush
you probably will not win. There will be a good
chance that with so many cards out there,
another player ill have a flush higher than
yours. It just is not worth playing a hand like
this.
Example 3: Playing Trips
This is another big mistake that
a lot of people make. It may seem good at first,
but really it is not good to play. If you get
trips in your hand, you really do not have very
many possibilities and chances of making a good
5 card poker hand out of it.
Player 1 - AAAK
This hand looks pretty good
right? Well, if you know Omaha, then you know
that it is not so good. This really goes back to
example 1. You can only play 2 cards, so you
only actually have a pair of aces. Your third
ace is basically a dead card, because even if an
ace hits the board, you will still only have
trips. The chances of that ace hitting are not
very good either. The rule that can be used is
to just fold when you see trips. It is not very
valuable at all.
There are a lot of different
mistakes that people make, but those are some of
the more common mistakes made. Just avoiding
those alone, will help your game a bit. Just
remember that it takes a long time and a lot of
experience to really become a great Omaha
player. You have to start somewhere. Learning
the rules and understanding the game is the
first thing you should learn. |
