At a time when you are just getting started on the road to Pot-Limit Omaha, some accurate, and most importantly, timely advice can save you a big chunk of your bankroll in the real world. Here are ten recommendations that should become your commonplace truth.
Pick the Right Starting Hands
In every situation, the most important one is the correct starting hand.
Choose your game table carefully
Sit down to play only games in which you will have an advantage over your opponents. Make sure that there are several players at the table who are weaker than you.
Play from your opponents, but not from the cards
As soon as you sit down at the table, immediately begin to study the behavior of your opponents. Pay attention to which of them prefer to play marginal hands or trash, who bets with draws, who doesn’t like aggression, who calls big bets with draws and weak hands, who doesn’t recognize bluffs and who bluffs himself, and a whole bunch of other details.
Choose aggression or nothing
In other words, choose between betting/raising or folding (if you have the odds). Without a good reason, the need to call should be minimal.
Respect most of your big raises and bets
This is very important, especially for Pot-Limit Omaha, since almost all players here don’t bluff.
Nats flush draw is not nats
Taking Hold’em and Omaha for comparison, a nats flush draw in the former can most often win with a flush as well as an ace, especially if it came in the late streets.
Beyond that, in Hold’em, you don’t need to worry if a pair appears on the board. As for Omaha, the first factor almost doesn’t work here; the second, in turn, will be dangerous for both you and your flush.
You don’t need to draw a two-way straight draw
- If you play Omaha, you may already have a straight draw with 13, 17, or even 20 outs on the flop.
- It’s best to wait for one of these draws before you go big.
Don’t overestimate the power of aces in different suits
If you’re holding a pair of aces along with two unconnected diamonds, your chances of improving on the flop are relatively slim. If you don’t have an ace on the flop with these cards, you’ll just be left with a weak hand at the end of the hand.
Bet with high-powered draws
Make sure your game is varied with bets with strong draws, which will help you take your pots unhindered.
In multipots, always draw draw draws before nats
- In case your money is completely in a multipot in the middle of the table, in this case you will definitely need a draw to nats.
- Don’t lay out all of your chips with such a draw that additionally doesn’t have a valley.
- Otherwise, you might end up with, for example, a nasso flush draw and a set, while you personally will be left with a straight draw, and can only split the pot, and that’s if you catch it.
