Omaha Cash Game Considerations

May 18, 2009 - by admin · Filed Under Omaha Strategy Leave a Comment 

Omaha cash games are quite a bit different from the cash games you are probably already used to with Texas Hold ‘Em and there are several considerations that need to be made when you are playing in them. While what is written below is by no means an exhaustive list, it is at the same time a list of the most important considerations that need to be made.

The level and the limit are quite important. This is true for all poker variants, but it is especially true for Omaha because of the great variance the game can display at times. However, the variance is different in Omaha because while variance can work your way in Hold ‘Em even if you have no clue what you are doing, in Omaha it is quite easier to derail yourself with a lack of knowledge. Therefore, when you are just beginning try to play at micro limits and if possible avoid pot limit games altogether. This is sometimes difficult to do (even online) because pot limit Omaha is more popular than all other Omaha forms put together, but if you are signed up at multiple online poker sites it should not be a big problem.

Try not to steal as much in late position. One of the things that you are told to do without fail in a Hold ‘Em cash game is to make real estate raises. These are raises that you make either in the cut-off or the button in an attempt to steal the blinds. They are emphasized more in tournament play, but many cash game Hold ‘Em specialists are happy to do them as well. In Omaha however, you are more likely to be called. This is not only because of the relative inexperience of many Omaha players, but it is also because an Omaha player has a greater chance to luck into an excellent hand on the flop because of the four cards they already hold and therefore the blinds are always going to be more inclined to call a late position raise.

These two considerations are perhaps the biggest things for you to think about when it specifically comes to the Omaha cash game. If you can keep to low limit games early on and try not to steal as much from late position as you would in a Hold ‘Em game, then you will be ready for more advanced techniques.

Playing Late in Omaha Tournaments

May 18, 2009 - by admin · Filed Under Omaha Strategy Leave a Comment 

The last strategy article concerning playing in the early and middle parts of an Omaha tournament ended with commentary about how you should increase your aggression when it is getting close to the money. This is a strategy that you likely already know from Hold ‘Em, but it is a strategy that actually works better in Omaha than it does in Hold ‘Em. The primary reason for this is the fact that there are twice as many cards involved in Omaha, so naturally one would be more suspicious of the hand a person is raising with because there are more possibilities that it could be at least partially strong.

For example, what would you do if you knew your opponent had two rag cards and then A-K? Very likely, if your hand was not great, you would lay it down. This is not just because of the fact that they have A-K, but it is also because of the fact that you are close to getting into the money and you might even be able to fold your way there. These psychological considerations are amplified in Omaha, so as a good player you want to take advantage of them by being aggressive and stealing as many blinds as possible.

For the rest of the late stages of a tournament, you want to alternate between playing conservatively and playing aggressively depending on the situation as well as the archetypes of the players at your table. One situation where you want to ratchet up the aggression is when the prize money is close to increasing. In larger tournaments, usually more than one person will win the same amount of money when you are still very early on into the money. As this prize level comes close to increasing, an effect that is similar but not as pronounced as the bubble effect will take place. When this happens, you want to be aggressive and add all that dead money out in the middle of the table to your stack. Playing the opposite way of how the table is playing is the best way to win any poker tournament and with the Omaha variant it is a particularly poignant way of doing things.

Now, many people will tell you that you need a completely different strategy for playing at the final table. I would disagree here, simply because what leads many players to their downfall is getting away from their strong fundamental strategies because they perceive the final table as somehow being different from the others. The only difference between a Sit N’ Go and a final table is that players start with uneven chip stacks; that is all. Play a final table the way you would play a Sit N’ Go with strategy adjusted for your chip stack size and you will have the best chance possible at getting through and winning the Omaha tournament.

Omaha Sit N Go Short-Handed Play

May 18, 2009 - by admin · Filed Under Omaha Strategy Leave a Comment 

For the most part, the transition from Hold ‘Em to Omaha in the early and middle stages is pretty easy simply because many players will employ the same general strategy in the Hold ‘Em Sit N’ Goes that they play. However, the late strategy is going to be quite a bit different simply because of the fact that each player starts with four cards instead of two, so while the general strategy might be the same, the particulars are going to be different.

When you are playing short-handed, as you should already know from Hold ‘Em, drawing hands lose their importance and are replaced by high-card hands as being the hands that you want to enter pots with. This means that any A-K-X-X hand is usually a great hand in short-handed Omaha play and depending on the situation and how tight your opponents are playing any A-X-X-X might be good as well. Of course, the higher the complimentary cards in the hand the better because if you have A-Q-10-9 and the flop comes Q-X-X, then you are still in business pretty big time.

More important than the hand combinations however is the way in which you bet. You want your opponents to fear your raises, because if you take the initiative and make them make decisions about whether to fold or call, you are going to have the advantage over the long run. How many times have you longingly looked at you’re A-2 off-suit only to throw it away to a raise three-handed because you wanted a better place to get your chips in during a Hold ‘Em Sit N’ Go? Well, the same psychology applies to Omaha, so raise big and raise often. Make your opponent constantly make decisions that involve large portions of their chip stacks and you will find that your own path to victory will become easier than theirs.

While being aggressive is always good, it is important not to be reckless. Don’t make four or five raises in a row with total crap, because eventually somebody is going to pick a hand that they fancy racing with and you could find your tournament ending pretty quickly if that happens. Selective raises that bunch together when the rest of the table is playing tight and sitting back and waiting for hands but raising with them when you get them is the way to win Omaha Sit N’ Goes from a short-handed position.

Playing in the Early and Middle Stages of an Omaha Tournament

May 18, 2009 - by admin · Filed Under Omaha Strategy Leave a Comment 

If you have played in any kind of a poker tournament before, then you basically already know what strategy you are going to use. Many of the experts will tell you that you are most successful in any form of poker when you play to your personality. This means that if you are generally a cautious person, then you should spend most of the tournament playing more conservatively than the table. Likewise, if you are a less cautious person, then you should be looser and more aggressive. While people have to shift their styles during the tournament if they hope to win, at the same time most players usually have a style that predominates in the way they play.

For pot limit Omaha (the most popular form of Omaha in the world), what you are going to find is that a lot of people will get eliminated very early. The learning curve is steeper in Omaha than in Hold ‘Em and therefore the end result is that most tournaments will have a lot of new players that will get themselves knocked out early. This means that very early in the tournament, you should not be worried about stealing blinds that much and focus on getting good hands that you can use to milk the chip stacks of those newbie players. Of course, if you find that your tables are mostly knowledgeable players rather than new players, you might have to shift strategies and try to steal pots every now and then.

Your goal against primarily green tables in terms of player experience should be to milk pots with good hands; in other words, win fewer, but larger pots. Against experienced people, the opposite applies; win more, but smaller pots.

When you get to the middle stages of the tournament, much of what you do in Omaha will be dictated by what the table conditions and your chip stack are like. If your chip stack dawdles below 10 times the big blind, then you need to make a move very quickly. If you are pretty healthy on the other hand, you can try and push some of the smaller stacks around. Big stack and small stack poker are both ideas universal to many different poker variants and Omaha happens to be one of those variants. Try to put your smaller stack opponents to decisions for all of their chips whenever possible and put pressure on them to cause them to make mistakes. As you get towards the later parts of tournaments and players start to worry about making it to the money, you want to play extremely aggressive and take advantage of the new weak way in which many people play around that time.

Omaha Sit N Go Betting Considerations

May 18, 2009 - by admin · Filed Under Omaha Strategy Leave a Comment 

The two previous articles on sit n’ go strategy covered not only the general strategy that has been outlined for the game of Omaha, but also the hand selection that you should be considering at each stage of that strategy. In that same spirit, this article will cover the types of bets you should be considering at the different tournament stages.

Early (7 or more players left): If you remember from the previous article, when you are early on in an Omaha Sit N’ Go your object is to start and maintain a super-tight reputation so that the other players at the table think that you are an extremely tight rocky player. Therefore, whenever you do bet, you need to bet big. If you are in a pot limit Omaha Sit N’ Go, then you almost certainly want to enter the pot with a pot-sized raise. If you are in limit, make sure that you never call pre-flop; only raise. You want people to consider you extremely tight and extremely aggressive so that they stay out of your way when you do decide to get involved in a pot.

Mid (4-6 players left): You want to continue this strategy into the mid stages of the tournament, although you can feel free to call with some of the more speculative hands that you might enter a pot with. However, the majority of your pre-flop work should still be raising, because you want people to think that you only bet when you have the nuts or something close to it and when you do then you bet big. If you make people believe that, then they will give your raises respect and you are going to need that respect later on down the road.

Late (3 players left): The late strategy is different from the early and mid strategy, although not in the actions that you take. You still want to raise big to force other people out of pots; take the initiative and make the other person make the decision whenever possible. The difference is that in the late game you want to do it with a wide range of hands. That tight-aggressive reputation you built up earlier is going to come in handy when you switch to a loose-aggressive playing style. The blinds represent significant portions of stacks at this stage of the competition and therefore every pot that you steal represents you getting one step closer to total victory.

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