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Basic Strategy For Pot-Limit Omaha
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Our first piece of advice to a prospective pot-limit poker player, whether the poker game in question is Hold'em or Omaha, is to first become proficient at structured limit games before tackling pot-limit. This is a very complex form of poker to play well, and is extremely volatile. The swings in pot-limit are dramatic, and usually happen when one is or feels pot-committed to a hand. That means that mistakes early on in the hand must be kept to a minimum, because once you're sucked in at pot-limit, and this is specially true in pot-limit Omaha, it is impossible to extricate yourself. The results can be financially disastrous.
So, be selective with starting hands. In order to know how to be selective you need the experience of having played lots of Omaha hands, and this should be gained at a cheaper level, namely structured limit games. Once you're in a hand in pot-limit Omaha you must respect the majority of big bets and pot-sized raises. It is rare for a player to bluff, and also rare for someone with a possible second-best hand to come over the top.
Do not become infatuated with the nut-flush draw. In many Omaha hands you will be drawing to the nut-flush, and there will be numerous times when you make that nut-flush but with cards to come. The chances of the board pairing are never insignificant and when that happens you must be prepared to lose in pot-limit Omaha to a full house. If you have the best hand you must get your money in at that point, but chasing the nut-flush is not always the same thing as chasing the nut-hand.
Once you are in an Omaha hand and see a flop you will find that the flop tends to improve your hand considerably. Please remember that the same holds true for all the other callers in the hand. Flopping a set in Omaha is not the same as it would be in Hold'em. The same is true for flopping huge straight draws (8-way, 13-way, 17-way, and even 20-way draws are possible), simply because you might hit that hand and still not win. In Hold'em you know that you will make a profit by hitting these hands, at least in the long run, but in Omaha sets, straights, and flushes can all cost you a lot of money.
If you hold unsuited Aces in an Omaha hand (with two accompanying rags) you have a hand of little value, and it is not the same as holding Aces in other community poker games. Ideal hands in Omaha have multi-way potential - offering you straight, flush, and / or full house draws. When your hand has upside like this after the flop it is imperative to get as much action as possible. If you can play tighter than your opponents at pot-limit Omaha you have an excellent chance of showing a good profit. But you must understand flop texture, and commit aggressively to the hands that you do play.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Omaha Hands You Want To Avoid
> Starting Hands In Omaha
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