On those who play Omaha after playing holdem poker these four cards play a mean trick. On the one hand four cards in your hand in Omaha are better than two in holdem poker, because they allow you to form better starting combinations. Though you should take into consideration the fact that your opponents also have four cards! Pot Limit Omaha is a very dynamic game — especially compared to No Limit Hold’em. There are 1,326 possible starting hand combinations in NLH, which might sound like a lot, until you read that PLO has a mind-boggling 270,725 starting hand combinations. NLH players get to work with easy-to-view range matrices like this.

Omaha is a board game similar to hold’em in so far as there is a flop, a turn card, and a river card. Learning how to play Omaha is simple if you’re familiar with Texas hold’em. In this lesson we’ll frequently compare the differences between Omaha and Texas hold’em, so it’s assumed that you are familiar with the game.

In Omaha each player receives four starting cards versus just two in hold’em. Of these four cards two must be used with any three from the board to make your best five card poker hand. This is something that beginners often forget – and such rookie mistakes can prove expensive.

Here’s an example hand:

In this example there are four spades on the board and you are holding the . However you don’t have a flush since you must use two of your hole cards and three board cards to make your hand. This is different to hold’em, where a player is permitted to use both of their hole cards, only one, or none and just play the board.

A flush is only possible in Omaha if a player has two of that suit among his four cards. In this particular example the best Omaha hand you can make is; – which is one pair.

The fact that you must use two cards from your hand and three from the board in Omaha, means you can quickly see that being dealt four of a kind is really a very poor hand as you only have a pair and both your key outs are dead.

Omaha Strategy Tips

Receiving four cards and being forced to use two of them in your hand results in your hand having six possible variations. In a nine handed hold’em game there are nine possible hands competing for the pot. In a nine handed Omaha game there are actually fifty four possible hands lurking out there. This dynamic makes for several changes in your approach to playing winning Omaha versus hold‘em. Let’s review several of them:

Hand Values

The nut hand in Omaha is very often held by one of the players due to the aforementioned dynamic. This can be very treacherous for a newcomer to Omaha who is accustomed to playing hold’em. The nuts will be shown down much more frequently in Omaha. This means that your hand values need to go up or you are destined to become a donator. Knowing this is one thing but adhering to it is quite another. With six possible hand combinations, many players have difficulty getting away from marginal hands.

The famous American author and actor, Will Rogers, was fond of saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like”. Inexperienced Omaha players tend to say, “I never met a starting hand I didn’t like”. The best starting hands utilize all of their cards. An example would be – which is double suited. This way you would have two nut flush draws and two individual high pairs. You do not have two pair as you can only and must use two cards from your starting four with any three cards from the board.

Drawing Hands

With all players having six combinations in their starting four card hands, you can imagine that there are usually plenty of draws lurking about. As a rule of thumb you should usually abandon straight and flush draws that are not to the nuts. Drawing to the second nut draw in Omaha can be a very costly endeavour. While you may play somewhat looser pre flop based upon the multiple combinations of draws, once you are able to confirm that your draw is not to the nuts it should make you tighten up considerably. While discipline is a vital characteristic for playing all forms of poker well, Omaha demands restraint in order to be successful. Many players are unable to summon this level of dedication to purpose so Omaha can be profitable for the stronger willed among us.

Backdoor Draws

Again, due to the multiple variations in a four card starting hand you gain the benefit of additional outs. While multiple draws occur in hold’em they become almost common place in Omaha. This again is the reason that the best Omaha starting hands utilize all four cards. If half of your starting hand is useless, you are spotting your opponents too much edge.

Implied Odds

While implied odds are an important consideration in all forms of poker, the importance they hold in no-limit hold’em is far and away more critical than in Omaha. This is because the other players are aware that the nuts get hit more often and therefore become reluctant to pay them off. If you’ve become accustomed to using implied odds to bolster your drawing rationale in other forms of poker, temper their use in Omaha.

Hand Reading

Reading opponents’ hands becomes a real challenge in Omaha due to the multiple combinations of each four card starting hand. My advice is to give your opponents more credit for hand values than you might in other forms of poker. This is true because there is less bluffing in Omaha since most players realize the nut hand is often out. Always being aware of what the current nut hand is will serve you well in Omaha.

These elements highlight the major differences between Omaha and hold’em and prepare you for understanding some key Omaha strategy concepts which will be outlined in our other lessons on Pokerology.com.

Related Lessons

By Tom 'TIME' Leonard

Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.

Related Lessons

Here are some important probabilities in Omaha that returns in different situations. Knowledge about probabilities will help you to better evaluate situations in poker. You will , for example, know when you should call and when you shouldn't, and, vice versa, know when to fold and when the odds are in your favor.

Table 1. **Playing situations**
Drawing hands probabilities	Odds	Percent
Double wraparound straight draw (e.g. hand: 9-8-5-4, flop: 7-6-x)	0.48-1	68%
Wraparound straight draw (e.g. hand: 8-5-4-x, flop: 7-6-x)	0.67-1	60%
Straight flush draw	0.84-1	54%
Hitting a full house with three pairs	3-1	24%
Hitting a full house with two pairs	5.1-1	16.5%
Hitting quads with a set	21.5-1	4.5%

Starting hands

There are many starting hands in Omaha (16.432 if not all suit combinations are counted), which makes it difficult to get an overview. Table 2 will hopefully increase that overview a bit.

Table 2. **Starting hand versus average hand**
Situation	Percent
A-A-K-K double suited to win against average hand	73%
A-A-K-K rainbow to win against average hand	68%
A-A-7-7 double suited to win against average hand	72%
A-A-7-7 rainbow to win against average hand	67%
A-A-J-T double suited to win against average hand	76%
A-A-J-T rainbow to win against average hand	71%
J-T-9-8 double suited to win against average hand	56%
J-T-9-8 rainbow to win against average hand	49%

Comments

Exemple of a double suited hand: Q♥ A♥ 2♦ K♦
Exemple of a rainbow hand: Q♥ A♣ 2♠ K♦
The best Omaha hands are less bigger favorites against an average hand compared to Texas Hold'em.
In Texas Hold'em, common knowledge is that A-A is very big favorite against all other hands. In Omaha, A-A as a part of a hand is far from that strong. In general, an A-A-x-x hand versus a random four-card hand is a 70-30 favorite in average (if all the starting hands that are normally folded are excluded, the A-A-x-x hands will be even less favorites).

Omaha Poker Card Combinations

Made hands versus draws

A typical feature in an Omaha Hi game is a set against a hand with several drawing possibilities. The made hand will no

Omaha Poker Combinations