Introduction

Pot-Limit Omaha is one of the most popular cash games played in casinos across Europe today. It has made significant headway in tournament games and, in fact, bigger tournaments host Pot-Limit Omaha events a couple of times throughout the year. Omaha is one of the fastest-growing types of poker today and is played far more in Europe than in the United States.

Pot-Limit Omaha is a very strategic game, involving a great deal of skill and discipline. It requires players to keep many concepts in mind simultaneously. This article aims to help beginner and intermediate players improve their Pot-Limit Omaha game by playing in a solid, tight-aggressive style. It advocates balancing bluffs and semi-bluffs with (mostly) solid play, and focuses on pre-flop and flop play since these are the most important betting rounds. The game rapidly becomes complex and more challenging to analyze when you reach the turn and river. However, if you play correctly pre-flop and on the flop, you will face fewer difficult situations on the turn and river.

As in all forms of poker there are exceptions to the rules; thus, the concepts laid out in this article should be understood as general guidelines. In order to be a truly successful player, it is imperative that you be able to use your judgment when determining the best possible play. It is virtually impossible to provide clear-cut advice applicable to all situations.

Key Skills to Becoming a Good Pot-Limit Omaha Player

• Strict hand selection (patience/discipline)
• Good table selection (very important in all poker games)
• Discipline (the ability to wait for a good hand and not chase with second best hands)
• Ability to read your opponents
• Courage to bet/raise (to be aggressive with draws or perceived best hands)
• Lack of vulnerability to going on tilt

A Comparison: Pot-Limit Omaha vs. Texas Hold'em

1. More players will see the flop in Omaha. The advantage of good starting hands over bad ones is not as great in Omaha. This encourages people to see more flops in Omaha than in Hold'em. It also creates bigger pots, making your decisions on the flop even more crucial.
2. You need a stronger hand to win at Omaha. The hands that typically win the pot in Hold'em, such as top pair with top kicker and overpairs, do not win it very often in Pot-Limit Omaha. In Omaha, the best hands are those that are made and hold additional value, like top set with a big draw. When the money goes into the middle in Pot-Limit Omaha someone is usually holding the nuts.
3. Omaha is a more hand-driven game. There are not as many opportunities to bluff in Omaha. This is due to the fact that there are more players seeing the flop and more combinations of hands to be made. When a pair is on the board someone is likely holding a full house, when a flush or straight is possible someone is likely to hold it, and so forth.
4. Giving free cards is generally a bad play in Omaha. First of all, because the pots are usually bigger on the flop, it makes more sense to try and win the pot right there. Second, your hands are much more likely to get action because of the greater drawing possibilities. Finally, it is very probable that a free card could beat your hand.
5. Although position is very important in all forms of poker, it is less important in Omaha. More players are in on the flop and it is hard to pick up a pot by betting when checked-to in late position. As a result, it is usually the player holding the best hand that wins the pot.
6. Tight players are less likely to be "bullied" in Omaha. In Hold'em, tight players can easily be bullied out of pots when the flop comes with low cards. However, in Omaha, because a tight player can play hands such as 8-7-6-5, J-J-5-4 or 8-8-7-7 with little difficulty, it is harder to push him around. The pondering bully can never be positive that you do not hold the nuts on a flop like 7-6-3, while, in Hold'em, he would be almost certain that you do not.

Pot-Limit

In Pot-Limit Omaha, you want to protect your hands by making pot-sized bets and raises until you are a big favorite, at which point you put all your money in the middle. You want to have the best possible hand and/or draw when all the money goes in. In Pot-Limit, the pots increase quickly and you must be able to determine the amount you can bet on the turn, if you expect to get called on the flop.

Generally, there is no reason to bet or raise less than the size of the pot when playing Pot-Limit Omaha. You might do this on specific occasions, like when betting into an opponent with the second-nut flush on the river and the pot is very big, or if you want a call on the river and you bet the amount you think your opponent will call. However, while it is entirely dependent on the player and the situation, most of the time it is best to bet and raise the size of the pot.

Key Advice and Common Mistakes

Key advice for Pot-Limit Omaha

1. Be very selective with your starting hands: nothing is more important than choosing the correct starting hand for a certain situation.
2. Table selection: only play in games where you have an edge. You want at least a couple of weak players at the table when you sit down.
3. "Play the players": be sure to quickly assess the opposition: who plays inferior hands, who folds at aggression, who bets with draws, who calls big bets with weak hands and draws, who can be bluffed, who bluffs, etc.
4. "Pump it or dump it": fold or bet/raise (if the odds are with you). You should avoid calling unless you have a good reason (such as trapping an opponent or increasing your pot odds when you are on a big draw).
5. Respect most big bets and raises: this is particularly true in Pot-Limit Omaha since most players do not bluff.
6. Do not get "married" to the nut flush draw: the difference between drawing to the nut flush in Omaha as compared to Hold'em is that in Hold'em you can usually win the pot by pairing your ace or win the pot with a flush even though the board pairs. The same is not true in Omaha.
7. Do not get "married" to an eight-way straight draw: in Omaha, it is possible to flop 13-way, 17-way and 20-way straight draws. It is best to wait until you hold one of these draws before you heavily involve yourself in the pot.
8. Do not overplay unsuited aces: when all you hold are a pair of aces and two unsuited, unconnected rags, there is little you can flop to improve your hand. If you do not flop an ace, you will usually end up with a weak holding.
9. Bet your best drawing hands: enhance the deception in your game by betting your strong draws, as you will also win more pots without a fight.
10. Always draw to the nuts in multi-way pots: when all the money goes into the middle in multi-way pots, be sure to draw to the nuts. Avoid committing all your money with draws without additional value as you can find yourself trapped between a set and the nut flush draw, which may leave you with only a nut straight draw that might end up in a split pot if you hit.

Common mistakes in Pot-Limit Omaha

1. Not releasing a decent hand when beat, thus losing the whole stack on one hand.
2. Overvaluing the hand (common mistake by Hold'em players).
3. Calling with weak holdings when facing a bet.
4. Playing too many starting hands.
5. Not raising pre-flop with premium hands (putting pressure on limpers holding drawing hands) and then going too far with them after the flop.
6. Giving free cards or underbetting the pot (risking a lot to win small/not protecting your hand).

Pre-Flop Play

General pre-flop advice

The most important skill to master when playing Pot-Limit Omaha is knowing which starting hands are profitable to play. However, there are no guides capable of covering every possible situation, so it is advised that you follow certain standard guidelines. Essentially, the hand you choose to play is dependent on the following factors:

1. Is the table tight or loose?
2. How many players are sitting at the table?
3. How many players are in the pot when it is your turn to act?
4. Has the pot been raised? If so, from what player and position?
5. What is your position?

1. If the table is tight you should strongly consider moving to a different game, though there are ways to make money at tight tables as well. In general, you have to play more aggressively than usual. This translates into much more pre-flop raising and bluffing. Your advantage at this type of table is that you will know how your opponents play but you will be playing more hands and playing them aggressively, which will make your plays harder to read.
2. Generally, you must play tighter at a full table and looser at a short-handed table.
3. If many players are in the pot when it is your turn to act, you will possess more information, which will allow you to play more hands. In addition, your drawing hands will get a better price and there is less of a likelihood that you will be able to limit the field by raising.
4. If the pot has been raised, you will have to play hands that you think are not dominated by the raiser. In these situations you should be very selective of which hands you play.
5. Your position will greatly affect the hands you play. In general, you have to play tighter from an early position and then add hands as your position improves.

Starting Hands

The starting hand is just as important in Omaha as in all other forms of poker. What you are looking for is four cards that work together, although many beginners (who are used to playing Texas Hold'em) do not realize this. They will play any four cards that contain one or two good Hold'em hands. For example, they often overrate hands like J-J-2-7, thinking that it is as good as a pair of jacks is in Hold'em. They also misinterpret hands, such as A-Q-8-8, because they include two decent Hold'em hands. However, in this type of hand there are poorly coordinated combinations, like A-8 and Q-8. For example, compare the aforementioned hands to As-K-A-K, which is the strongest starting hand in Omaha. In this hand, you hold AA, KK and two different combinations of AKs. All possible combinations are very strong hands in Texas Hold'em as well.

Other examples of hands that have four cards working together are hands like Q-J-T-9, K-K-Q-J, Q-Q-J-T, J-J-T-T, As-A-3-4, As-A-K-Q, As-A-J-T (the second-strongest starting hand), 8-7-6-5, and so forth.

Thus, you want starting hands that hold both straight, flush and set potential. For instance, imagine the power of holding the As-A-J-T on a flop of A-K-Q, giving you top set, the nut straight and the nut flush draw. Notice that the J will also give you a royal flush. Another example is if you hold the Q-Q-K-T on a flop of Q-J-7, giving you top set, a flush draw and an open-ended straight draw.