Getting Started:
Playing Pre-Flop in Omaha

Jacob Ingalls - 2007

One of the major obstacles for many people when making the jump to Omaha is knowing what is actually a good hand pre-flop. It is so tempting to see the two aces in your hand and ignore the 6, 3 that is also there. While in Hold’em AA pre-flop is usually an 80% favorite hand to win, there is almost never a point in Omaha where you are an 80% favorite to win pre-flop, this means you need to change your thinking a little bit. Here are a few tips to help you pre-flop when playing Omaha.

Maximize the draws
When you look at your hand in Omaha, there a few things you should ask yourself. First, how many suits do I have? 2 suited aces is a decent starting hand because it gives you the nut flush draw on 2 separate suits. Also, having 4 of one suit is sometimes a good thing especially if they are connected. Let’s say you have 4 hearts in your hand and the board has flopped 2 hearts and you drawing to a straight. This means that for someone to be on a flush draw there must be at least 8 hearts in play, leaving only 6 for your opponent to draw to. This is a good defensive position to be in because it greatly reducing the amount of draws your opponent will have against you. Second, how many connectors do I have? If you look down and see 5,6,7,8 you will have a lot of drawing outs. Lets say the flop comes 4,5,9. A 3,6,7 or 8 (16 drawing outs) will make a straight with 8 of those outs giving you the nut straight.

Play Double Pairs
Double pairs for example would be AAKK. This is an advantageous hand to play because your odds of flopping a set are 1 in 4. While a set must be played much more carefully post-flop in Omaha than in Hold’em a set is still a very strong hand.

Don’t play just 2 of your cards
It is incredibly easy in Omaha to want to overlook a hand such as AK74 rainbow because of the AK, it is so tempting to play this hand but you shouldn’t unless you can limp. One of the keys to Omaha is making all 4 of your cards to work together. You should not count on your rags in your hand to help you get lucky, sometimes they will but to best maximize your Omaha play you should make your hand work as a whole and not in parts.

Be Prepared to Let it Go
Unless you hit a big hand or big draw on the flop you’re going to have to let your hand go. Before that flop comes be prepared to let that awesome starting hand go; AAKK shrinks when the flop comes 567 over pairs are just not very good in Omaha, so don’t get too attached.

-Jacob Ingalls

http://www.myspace.com/jacobingalls

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