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Omaha Hints & Tips for COMPLETE BEGINNERS
Many of you will never have played Omaha before, so this Thread is for those who want to learn the very basics.
Any Members who know the game well, please Post your tips & hints, but remember, this thread is for COMPLETE BEGINNERS, we can move on to more advanced stuff later.
It looks like Omaha wll be here sooner than you think, so let's get started.
Comments
First up, Sky Community will need to EXPAND Area 51.
The suckouts you see, & players get upset about, in Texas Hold 'em are nothing compared to Omaha suckouts. It's a brutal game.
What price the first Area 51 Thread on an Omaha beat within 12 hours of Omaha starting?
1) If you play Omaha, you will get the weirdest & most unexpected beats imaginable. Get used to it.
2) The Pots get VERY big VERY quickly in Omaha. ALL the Chips or cash you have in front of you will get in the middle sooner than in Hold Em. You MUST protect your hands, & to do that, you need to bet strongly. Hence the Pots soon get huge.
It is THE greatest game you can imagine, but it's deeper - MUCH deeper - than NLH, it needs thinking about carefully.
1) bigger hands are more likely so top pair top kicker is nigh on worthless. Alot more straights, flushes and houses will be out there.
2) 2 i repeat 2 cards and only 2 cards are used from the hand.
3) from point 2 getting dealt quads is an instant fold
4)If there are multiple straight and flush draws on the board then your opponent could be on ALL of them
5) The nuts are only temporary in omaha due to the large number of drawing hands
6) Most pots will be multiway to the flop because of the high number of playable starting hands
To begin with, the Omaha Sky Poker will offer will be.....
1) 4 card.
In Live Poker, 4,5,6 & even 7 card Omaha is played. Online, it's almost always 4 card.
2) High Only
Hi-Lo will be introduced quite soon, but it makes no sense to introduce it right now, until most of our players get used to Omaha. Split Pot games - such as Hi-Lo - take some getting used to, & it would be too much all in one go imo.
3) Pot Limit.
Almost all Omaha is Pot-Limit, folowed by Limit, &, occasionally, No Limit. I believe - & certainly hope - that Sky Poker will offer Pot Limit only initially. A No-Limit Omaha Tourney would barely last a single Level.
Top pair in this game is NO GOOD without a big draw to accompany it. I personally chuck a hand if I don't have 2 pair or a big draw.
AAxx is worse than hands like J1098ds. Do NOT overvalue your Aces preflop. Quite often, they are behind, unlike hold'em.
Double suited connectors (ds) are very very good in this game. I would much rather have 10-9-8-7 (2 spades, 2 clubs) than A-A-2-7.
I would read all tikay's posts in this thread before this particular post as this is basic, but not very basic stuff.
Oh, and tikay, I'd take that bet as I reckon it'll be within 12 minutes!!
Great Post there by Talon.
Also I'll be waiting for the
"How did I not win when I got dealt 4 aces "
post
Aski
Lol Aski, not wrong.
Unless you are in the SB or BB in an UNRAISED Pot, A-A-A-A would be an insta-muck, as it can't improve much.
It cannot hit a straight, or a flush, or a set, or trips.
It can make two pair, (A-A-x-x) but unlike Texas, 2 pair is not much to go to war with in Omaha. It can also make an underhouse if the Board comes three of a kind. Thats about it really.
Yes, it takes a skill set thats much more difficult to obtain to recognize good bluffing spots, but much more hands play themselves than in NLH imo.
You MUST use TWO CARDS from your 4 card starting hand. In Texas, you can use 2, 1, or even Nil. In Omaha, you MUST use two.
Here is THE biggest single mistakes by Omaha newbies.
Let's say you have three black cards, & the A of hearts. The Board comes 4 hearts.
You do NOT have a Flush!
Oddly, having the "Bare Ace" as it's known is the best bluffing hand in Omaha. But it won't work at lower levels, against players who are used to Texas, & will thus call with any Flush. The "Bare Ace Bluff" means repping the flush. You KNOW your opponents CANNOT have the Nut flush, so you can rep it. Except at the higher Cash Level's, DON'T TRY IT.
Good starting hands?
Easy. You want cards that work together.
So, 9-T-J-Q is pretty good. Because it has so many straighting possibilities.
But 9-T-J-3 is not so good, as the 3 is known as a "dangler". The dangler does not work with your hand, it does not "fit".
Try to find 4 cards that work together. Double Suited, for example, or straighteners.
A-A-9-3 not DS (DS = Double-Suited) is not much good, UNLESS you can get Heads-Up pre-flop.
And if you let players see flops multi-way - say 5 players - then you can GUARANTEE that someone will hit something, or pick up a big draw. So if you have a starting hand like A-A-K-K, you MUST drive out the other hands pre-flop, & if you end up with one oppo, then you are favourite - but only a SMALL favourite.
But when players raise very strongly pre-flop, everyone else KNOWS their hand. And so they call with hands like 6-7-8-9, for example.
OK, your first Test - try this for starters.
Let's say you have A-A-7-3. (Ignore flushes here). The Board comes 9-10-J-Q-K.
You do NOT have a straight! You have ONE PAIR. How many hands are beating that? Try counting them!
So, what 4 card starting hands are beating you here?
PS - Best not try to answer it - there are dozens of them. Your A-A is as dead as a dead thing.
By the River, A-A which has not improved is pretty hopeless, & will almost never win in a multi-way Pot. It might be good Heads-Up, but even that's unlikely.
Worth bearing in mind......
It is IMPOSSIBLE to make a straight in any form of poker unless a 10 or a 5 is involved.
What's that got to do with Omaha?
Straights are commonplace in Omaha - FAR more than in Texas - so hands that contain, say, 10-10 are worth considering, because......
It INCREASES your chance of hitting a high straight.
They are in effect "blockers" for other players trying to make straights. "Blockers" are something we can discuss later, but are very important in Omaha.
ODD FACT.
I've seen the (rare) starting hand 10-10-10-10 win big pots. How? If the board comes non flushing non-pairing all paint, or something like 8-9-J-Q-K, then you KNOW nobody has the HIGH straight. It's not possible. So if you think you can get them off their Trips, Set, or 2 pair, bluff away........
Practice at home, you don't need an opponent, just a deck of cards.
Deal out eight hands - FACE UP.
Pick the one you think will win.
Now deal the Flop.
NOW pick the one you think will win.
Now deal the Turn. Ditto.
Now deal the River.
You will get your first guess - pre-flop - right, about 2 times in 8.
Try it.
And from that, you should be able to learn a thousand lessons about starting hand selection, & protecting your hand.
It sounds like an intersting game, and would definitly provide some variety. Will have to swat up on the rules a bit before ever trying it out lol.
Simon "Aces" Trumper, who those of you who have been to DTD will have met &/or seen, & who has been on 865 several times, is the greatest Omaha teacher I've ever met, & he's a very fine Omaha player, too - check the Databases.
The "Kidz" all mock him, but my money would be on him any day.
When he teaches complete novices, he suggests they split their Omaha starting hands into Hold Em Hands, suggesting they need a minimum of THREE Hold-Em Starting Hands before entering a Pot.
Let's say you are dealt.....
A-A-9-4 SS. (SS = Single-Suited). How many Hold-Em starting hands can you make there? Two at best? (A-A & A-9 as a marginal).
What about J-T-T-9, DS?
Well, we have....
T-T
J-T
T-9
PLUS two flushing hands.
So worth a look if the price is right.
Remember, there are SIX two-card combos in 4 card Omaha, IGNORING Flushers.
If you imagine your 4 cards to be A-B-C-D, then the combos are.....
A-B
A-C
A-D
B-C
B-D
C-D
So, A-A bit bit & K-K bit bit are not beating much multi-way.
I think the jist is that anyone can play NLH after a little learning - you dont need to know the maths to play, in PLO you need to know the maths. You need to think about the best hand your oponent could have and where you are in relation ship to that. You also need to watch the pot and how it builds... Players are all in on the flop with straight flush draws, trips and two pairs. They aren't bluffing. In NLH bluffing is an art, In PLO you can only bet the pot. You will be called if your opponent A. has the nutz at that point or B. is drawing to the Nuts and other hands. You will also be called if your opponent had the nutz and may have been outdrawn, but the value is there for them to call you. So two and three barrell bluffs are out, where as two barrell bets into draws are plentyful.
Great NHL doesnt automatically mean great PLO and the swings in PLO can be huge!
My tip - start out on PLO SNG's (or even better LIMIT OH - if they are available) before you even look at cash, you can learn the theory, but until you feel the drawing nature of the game you wont appreciate it!
I fear that an awful lot of people are going to lose an awful lot of money in the early days.
Will there be free play games available so us newbies can get to grips with it all without losing any cold hard cash?
I tried it out once and got my fingers well and truely burnt so I really need to learn the game properly. And I think that there will be many others, like me, who want to try it without putting any of their bankroll on the line!
Also remember, when Hi-Lo is introduced that the starting hands tikay suggests will differ., although im sure the maestro will explasin all that at a later date. The only tip I'd give is never ever draw to a str8 or a flush on a paired board. Boats are very common in Omaha