Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 04 June 2009 / Leave a comment

Being able to fold small full houses is one of the hall marks of great Omaha players.

When you play hold'em, you should basically never even be considering folding full houses unless the board is very tricky (say you have a three on an AcAs3h3cJd board), or you have an incredibly specific read on an opponent.

In Omaha this is very different, and there are many situations where folding quite high strength full houses is completely appropriate.

This is simply because there are vastly more hand combinations in pot limit Omaha, and as a result many more hands are out there than there would be in hold'em, making the likely hood of bigger full houses being out there extremely big.

As an example of this, say you are playing against a solid opponent and you flop the nuts with six three on a 6c6s3h board. Your opponent checks, you bet and your opponent calls. The turn is the Kh, and again you bet and are called. The river comes out a the 10h and your opponent bets pot into you - what should you do?

Against a solid opponent your hand is basically never good here. Although it is probably worth calling against a complete fish or a very spewy bluffing player, most of the time here your hand is clearly beaten. There are many hand combinations that you lose to here. Your opponent may have called on the flop with a pair of kings to see if you would continue and turned a monster, although most likely they probably have a hand with a six in it that also contains a king or a ten or pair of tens, and have turned or rivered a bigger full house.

A good player basically never leads pot into anyone without at least a full house on the river in this situation, and from the way the action went it is pretty obvious they now have a bigger one than you.

Remember that Omaha is a game where most of the time the hands are out there, and the spots you call and bluff in have to be adjusted accordingly. Although it really stings to fold hands like this - especially if your background is in hold'em - in Omaha you have to be able to make lay downs like this on a regular basis to stay afloat, no matter how much it hurts.

Related Entries

Folding the Ace Flush in Omaha
Bluffing the Nut Flush in Omaha
How To Play Omaha
Pre Flop Raising in Omaha
Omaha Postition
Folding The Nuts in PLO

Get 40% Rakeback at Betfair Poker