Omaha short handed strategy

[pinnie]

This analysis is contributed by Oskari L.

Lately I have been playing lots of short handed Omaha trying to follow few basic principles my friend told me. His advices have worked out pretty good, but there is still lot to learn (as always). Learning the game is important, so any advises from other players are more than welcome

As we all know Omaha short is normally a very hectic game with lots of action and lots of near 50:50 situations. This is why the most aggressive player normally ends upas the winner (as it is in almost any poker game).

The most important thing is position. I really cant emphasize that too much. The hands you play and how you play them depends on your position. Raising from button with medicore hands is better than raising from early position with good hands.

Position is everything.

After figuring out your position, you might want to think about your starting hands. As we know, in Omaha, differences between starting hands are nothing like diffenrences between best and worse hands in texas hold'em. Big pairs are always good (flopping top trips). Hole cards close to each other are good (e.g. QJT9, T986), making lots of straight draws on a good flop. Keep in mind that you want every card to support other hole cards in some way (e.g. A6s78). Two pairs in your hole cards are good too (e.g. 7799), propability of flopping a set is 1:4.

Pre-flop you want to limp in from early position with everything but the really good hands and raise from button (or co if button is tight) with almost anything. Don't overvalue AAxx; only exception is if you get to raise all in or almost all in with it. Make raises and reraises with other hands than AAxx too to keep your game unpredictable. Remember to keep the pot manageable pre-flop, the game starts at the flop.

On the flop first thing you do is to evaluate your hand vs flop and your opponents possible holdings vs flop. Depending on strength of your hand(made hand, drawing hand), number of opponents, your position, stack sizes and actions of opponents you must decide your action.
You should bet your good hands and rarely slowplay them, especially against multiple opponents. You should play good made hands (top 2 pair, trips, str, flush) and good drawing hands strongly to be unpredictable.

If you make a preflop raise from a good position, and everyone checks to you, its often a good move to bet, at least against weaker players. Problem is, if you do it too often, they will start to checkraise you, so try to find a good frequence. If you bet the flop often, you will also get paid when you actually make a hand.

Those are the basic principles I am following. Next time I will get more closely to turn play and making moves.

All comments and critisism are more than welcome.

[ester11]

Its always hard for me to know how close I am. So I really never figure out my position in a helpful manner. I do like to play the texas holdem but I am no where close to mastering it but I m looking for a free resources everyday. Thanks for the article.

[winningedge]

My brother had mentioned to me that he was making a killing playing omaha online because the number of experienced omaha players is far less than the number of experienced holdem players.. He usually plays at low pot limit tables, and plays extremely conservatively.. if he doesnt hit the nuts, a draw to the nuts, or beleives he has his opponents beat with a freeroll to the nuts on the flop, he drops the hand. Otherwise, he bets very agressively.

[pinnie]

That is certainly a profitable way of playing low limit omaha online. People are generally too loose and passive, drawing to 2nd nuts etc. When you get to higher levels you need to be more aggressive and value bet other than nut hands.