Good Ole Ace Two – Omaha Hi Lo
One of the biggest downfalls of many new Omaha Hi/Lo players is not willing to fold Ace / Two. Players tend to think it is invincible and as long as you have it, you are guaranteed to win low. Several time you will see 3 people all in on a PL Omaha games and two people split the low with A 2 as their pocket cards and one person will win high.
First thing to remember is the several people can have Ace/Two in a hand and they are guaranteed to call it if they are dealt it. You always have to be cautious with a low flop if several people are in the flop. You can tell if several people are calling and trying to hit one more low card to have the nut low. Also realize that not every hand will have a qualifying low.
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Check out the Full Tilt Review or Play Now. Chasing can become an epidemic while holding Ace/Two and flopping two low cards. Do not bet if you did not hit any high and are just chasing the low. Do not get sucked into to chasing if the other player bets big on the flop or turn and all you are doing is chasing one more low card. This will sometimes result in you getting quartered or losing the whole pot.
So do not fall in love with your Ace/Two like they are Aces in Holdem, don’t’ be afraid to fold them!
Trapping 101, How To Quarter Your Opponent
Quartering your opponent usually involves winning the high and splitting the low. A good hand for this involves you starting with ace/two with 2 other various cards.
The setup begins with you hitting a pair or better on the flop with a nut low draw. The player that is in the hand with you might also have ace two at this point and is chasing the one more low card. In this situation you do not want to bet big and scare the opponent. Bet a small amount just to raise the pot and get the player committed to the pot more. The turn card may or may not be a low card, but you still want to bet a small amount anyway. Most likely if you think the other player is just chasing low, they are not going to bet but will call for a small amount.
The final card is then dealt, giving you nut low and a possible high. At this point, the pot is fairly large. You now want to bet the pot. Your opponent also hit nut low but without the high. He is pot committed and calls. You have now quartered him, both splitting the low and you winning high. Remember there are several different scenarios to do this but the easiest is if you know that your opponent is chasing that low with you.
If you had bet big on the flop, the other player would have just folded because it was not worth it to chase (this sometimes does not apply to new players).
NL Omaha Hi Lo Poker Cash Games
Beware of NL Omaha Hi/Lo cash games. These games can get very juicy and going all in is very common for players. Be sure you have the bankroll to enter these. I would suggest at least 25 times the amount you buy into the game with. This will allow a couple rebuys if you need to without draining your bankroll. Do not plan on entering these games if you are afraid to put all your chips on the line in one bet.
NL Omaha Hi/Lo
NL Omaha Hi/Lo is more of a “gambling†game compared to PL Omaha Hi/Lo. Play is fast and the pots build up quick. Most of the players there are just trying to double up real quick and leave. You really never know with some plays if the player actually has something or is just trying to buy the pot with the big all in bet.
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Check out the Full Tilt Review or Play Now. NL Omaha Hi Lo Tips
Limit your time at these tables. If you get up to over double your stack, I would suggest you leave. It will become to tempting to call some of the all-in bets since you have made some more cash. In the end you have no idea what will flop, so even a really good hand like AA23 could lose to 9 10 J Q. Trying avoiding calling an all-in pre-flop unless someone pushes into you and your holding AA23 doubled suited or similar. The big pots in NL Omaha Hi/Lo come from quartering an opponent. A good all-in bet would be if you have not low and good high as well. You are hoping that the other player calls with the low as well and you winning the high, winning ¾ of the pot.
I recently encountered a very juicy game of $5-$10 NL Omaha Hi/Lo at Full Tilt. This table was completely out of control. Several players were pushing all-in pre-flop with $200-$500. Over 50% of the people all-in had Ace /Two. Most hands were not great by any means. I ended up doubled up real quick when I had AKK3 and just winning the high. Players coming and going as they lost their stack or just doubled up and left.
Remember to wait for your hands because most of the players are just looking for a quick double up and usually push with a mediocre hand.
General Omaha Strategy Points
If you are early on in your study of the game of Omaha and are coming from a background with another poker variant, here are three general strategy points for you to keep in mind as you play the game.
The importance of position. If you have played any kind of poker game at all, then you already know how important position is. Position allows you to get information on the possible strength of the hands against you before you act and therefore it is a very valuable tool indeed.
In Omaha, the importance of position is exaggerated because of the number of cards in play. While there are more hands that can be formed from the extra amount of cards, there are also some hands that do not work together well with all four cards. You can figure out whether your opponent has four good cards that work well with each other or whether they have a halfway hand by how they bet and thus position has a greater importance in Omaha.
The 3 and 2 rule. This is a point that has been mentioned in other articles, but it is a point that is worth hammering home simply because it is the single largest pitfall that people tend to make when they first venture into Omaha territory. You can not make a legitimate hand in Omaha unless that hand consists of exactly three cards from the board and two cards from your hand. Repeat that sentence over and over to yourself until it becomes ingrained in your mind, because if you don’t remember that then at some point you are going to end up losing a lot of money in a hand.
Read your hand multiple times after the flop. If you are still early on in your Omaha education, this is something that you should definitely be doing. When considering all of the different combinations of three from the board and two from your hand, it is easy to miss one if you don’t have a trained eye. Therefore, read your hand twice as soon as the flop comes out, watch what all the other players to act before you do and then read your hand once more before you react. It is easy to miss draws to straights, full houses and straight flushes in your hand and it is also easy to add a false flush draw (three cards of the same suit on the board and one more in your hand) if you aren’t paying close attention to what is going on.
Game Points that Make Omaha Unique
While Texas Hold ‘Em is the most popular poker variant in North America at the moment, there are a number of regions in Europe and other parts of the world where Omaha is a game enjoyed by a larger number of people than Hold ‘Em. Many people say this is because of the many elements in the game that make Omaha unique while others say it just illustrates preferential differences between people living in Europe and people living in the United States.
Well, while it would be difficult to answer that specific question in the time allotted, let us take a look at some of the points that make the game of Omaha unique and let you draw your own judgement as to who is correct.
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Check out the Full Tilt Review or Play Now. The first thing that makes omaha poker unique is the number of cards that are in play. At a 10-player Omaha table, no matter what else happens, 48 of the 52 cards in the deck will be used. Forty cards will be used to make the hands of the players, five cards will be used to make the community card board and three cards will be used as burn cards in the construction of the board.
There is no other common poker variant in which so much of the deck is used on such a regular basis. The closest would be seven card stud and even in that game all of the players need to go all the way to Seventh Street before that kind of usage is seen. The free flow of cards in Omaha means that a lot more hands get made in Omaha and therefore unless you are familiar with a player’s maniac tendencies, you need to give strong bets a little more respect than you might otherwise be tempted to in Texas Hold ‘Em.
Another major point to consider in the uniqueness of Omaha, as you might already know, is the requirement of two cards from your hand and three cards from the board making up your five card poker hand. This is something that makes the game unique and far more strategic in nature; something that a lot of Hold ‘Em players fail to grasp initially. It is a conceptual leap to make and if you do nothing else in terms of getting yourself adjusted to Omaha, make sure that you drill this point into your head. It is the quintessential point of uniqueness about the game and the thing that makes it different from everything else.
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Content
Featured Topics
- NL Omaha Hi Lo Poker Cash Games
- Trapping 101, How To Quarter Your Opponent
- Omaha High Low Strategy
- Omaha Sit N Go Betting Considerations
- Playing in the Early and Middle Stages of an Omaha Tournament