Folding Full Houses in Omaha
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 Valueback at Betfair Poker
Read More Poker
The Floating Explosion
One of the key changes that has affected all games in the last twelve months or so has been the massive increase in the number of players refusing to believe flop bets. It used to be the case that weak...
Flatting with aces in PLO
This is one of the hardest things to drill into good Hold'em players when they start playing Pot Limit Omaha - learning to flat with aces in many situations. Although there is certainly a time and a place to flat...
How to play a good or bad card on the turn or river
Most players are aware of how 'good' or 'bad' a card can be on the turn or river in Hold'em or Omaha. Good cards can throw up great bluffing opportunities, make your hand much safer to proceed with, or make...
The Three Poker Sites Who May Have Messed It Up For Everyone
For anyone who talked about how softened the internet generation were to gambling compared to the old Texan road players, the events of the last few weeks in poker have certainly hardened everyone who may have not seen the darker...
