Beginners Tips: How and why to play Pot Limit Omaha

Pot Limit Omaha / Dave Allan / 28 January 2010 / Leave a Comment

Pot limit Omaha is arguably the most action packed and exciting poker game out there. Due to being similar to hold'em, except played with four cards and a pot limit structure, it creates many more hand combinations and extremely wild swings. It is one of the most popular games available at the moment, and is a great first addition to learning more games if you were brought up on hold'em.

The fundamental difference between hold'em and pot limit Omaha is that Omaha revolves much more around the flop, turn and river. Frequently in hold'em, pots are won pre flop or by a simple continuation bet on the flop - this is pretty rare in Omaha. Because many more hand combinations are possible in Omaha, people tend to hit the flop much more often, and this makes it much harder to push people off of hands.

As a result of this, you are looking to play hands that have numerous options to flop well. Hands that include a nut flush draw possibility, as well as two connected cards are always useful, as are 'wrap' hands that have four cards in a row and can flop many very strong hands. Single pairs - even if very high - are much weaker in Omaha, as unlike hold'em (where an over pair frequently wins), big pairs rarely hold up post flop in Omaha. Look to play hands that flop well, and get involved in one of the most action packed games ever invented.

Further Reading

Beginners Tips: How and why to play freerolls
Beginners Tips: How and why to play rebuy tournaments

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