Explanation of Omaha

It has been drawn to my attention that many people who may be reading this blog have no idea of what omaha is and how it works, therefore I'm going to attempt to explain the game in simple terms so that future blog posts make more sense to some of my friends.

For the purposes of this I will be assuming that everyone understands how to play texas holdem and compare the two games to try to create understanding.

The principle difference between holdem and omaha is that in omaha you begin with 4 cards in your hand compared to 2 in holdem. The rest of the hand is the same as the flop is dealt (3 cards) then the turn and then the river and players have to make the best 5 card hand.

However, whereas in holdem you can play the board or use only one of the cards in your hand to make the best hand in omaha you HAVE to use two of your own cards, not one, not three, always two. This is something which takes some time to get used to and rookies at the game do make errors like seeing 4 hearts on the board and the Ace of hearts in their hand and make big bets based on their supposed hand. I know people do this as when I first played I made exactly this mistake and was extremely confused when the hand went to someone with 2 pair.

Whereas holdem is mainly played as a no limit game where you can bet as much or as little as you like at any time, omaha is a pot limit game so you can only bet as much as is already in the pot. This does change the complexion of the game and means that building large pots with good drawing hands is important to ensure you get paid off.

Good hands in omaha are similar to those in holdem but as you have four cards it is important that those which you choose to play with are interconnected so JT98 is good especially if it is double suited as it gives flush and straight draws. However hands such as AK88 is a donkey of a hand as it is very hard to hit the best hand as you have very few draws.

Other common mistakes are to play low-mid pairs in an attempt to hit a set, whereas in holdem this would almost always win, in omaha it is extrmely dangerous as the chances of your 77 being ahead on a 7TQ board are very remote if you bet and are then reraised as your opponent either has a big draw or one of the higher sets. Good advice is to only commit strongly to a set if it is the top one eg QQ on a QT7 board is good.

Because of the number of potential draws (cards needed to improve a hand) you see a lot of all in pots with things such as top set against someone with straight and flush draws as both feel like they are ahead. This makes omaha an extremely swingy (up and down) game as even when you get your money in ahead it is rare that you are ever more than a 70% favourite.

Preflop even hands like AAKQ are rarely better than a 65% favourite against one opponent and are often a lot lower than that. It is therefore correct to raise with AA preflop but if you have the chance to reraise against 3-4 opponents and it will only commit a small portion of your stack it is probably advisable not to as it gives away your strength and if the first one calls they will all call and then unless you hit an A you are most likely behind to any random flop.

I hope this helps to explain the game and will make future posts somewhat clearer but please leave comments if you feel that I've missed something or need to explain an area further

Steve