Poker Journal

Recently I have found myself drifting away from solely playing Holdem online, I have tried other variations of poker such as 5 Card Stud, Razz and 7 Card Studd. However the easiest game I found converting to has to be Pot Limit Omaha.

How to Play Omaha.
This is played in pretty much they same way as hold’em but with several diferences, the main and most obvious diference being that the player is dealt 4 hole cards with which to make the best hand,. You can use any of your 2 hole cards and any 3 of the boards 5 cards to make the best hand. Hands are ranked in the same way as Hold’em (Royal Flush being best down to High Card being worse)

Omaha is not Hold’em
This is the most important thing to remember when converting from Hold’em. Being dealt 4 cards doesn’t give you 2 extra hands it gives you 6. Omaha is much more variant and bad beats can be a very common occurance, Just because you are ahead on the flop and you know it there will still be many outs for your opponents. Also being Dealt AAKK doesn’t necessarily mean you are powering ahead of your opponents preflop. Imagine you have Ac Ad Ks Kd and you hit the flop of 3c 4d 7c you may think you have the nuts, but really there are so many potential hands out their such as flush and straight drawns, 3oak and 2 pair even hitting an A on the river will only give you 30ak against so many more powerful hands. Also an important thing to remember is if a pair appear on the board their is a very high chance of someone hitting a fullhouse or 4oak. Straight flushes are also a very high possibility in Omaha games.

Other Versions of Omaha
Hi/Lo - Two separate pots are available to win . The lo pot is where you have the five lowest cards made from 2 of your cards and 3 on the board (the best hand being A2345) flushes, straights, pairs etc don’t count for the lo pot. Assuming the other player can beat the lo pot winner with his 5 best cards he will win the high pot.

I recommend playing at 32red poker for Omaha games, especially High/Lo variations as it attracts a lot of new players who have yet to understand the lo pot concept. Just play around on the low chip games to get a feel for it.

Otherwise checkout my list of poker rooms

Filed under: Quick Newbie Guides