Pot Limit Omaha

POT LIMIT OMAHA (Hi): is dealt exactly
like hold'em, except for the fact that
players receive 4 hole cards to start with
instead of two.

Two and ONLY 2 of those hole cards
are used to combine with three and
ONLY 3 of the five board cards to form
a player's best five card poker hand,
with the best high hand taking the pot.

All bets and raises are capped at the
size of the current pot. Pot sizes in
PLO tend to be larger than in NLHE.
Most players make their bets and
raises the size of the pot in PLO,
the number of chips in the middle
can grow very quickly.

Some Omaha Basics:

-Fold pre-flop unless you have a strong starting hand: Omaha is a waiting game

-After the flop, fold a hand that doesn’t include the top2 pair or a draw to the best possible hand

-Bet strongly at the turn if you hit a flush/straight. Don’t give free cards to potential winning draws

-Bet hard at the river if you have the nuts and bet as strongly as are comfortable with if you think you’re ahead. Otherwise, check.

The #1 rule of PLO pre-flop hand selection
is Always make sure your four cards
are working together.

Omaha is a game of drawing to the nuts.
In hold'em you have exactly 1 two-card
combination your hole cards can make.

In PLO, you have 6. Always keep in mind
that Omaha is played with nine cards
per player, which can throw up a huge
range of possible hands. This dramatically
increases the possibility that the nuts
are out there, so when considering
whether or not to play a starting hand,
it is crucial to examine what "nut potential"
it has.

The two best starting hands in PLO
are A-A-K-K double-suited or A-A-J-T
double-suited. Both hands have the potential to
(a) flop high sets that can develop into full houses
(b) make the nut flush and
(c) make the nut straight;
all things you want to do in PLO
where hand values are much higher
than in hold'em. So, be on the lookout
for big pairs, big suited aces,
suited/connected broadway straight cards,
and suited aces with three connecting straight cards.

Having said that...the reason that action
junkies love omaha, is that no four-card
hand is a significant favorite over another
before the flop.

Even the mighty A-A-J-T double-suited
is only a 2-1 favorite pre-flop over a
junk hand like the 2-4-6-8 offsuit.

Take two playable hands and stack them
against each other and the edges are
even slimmer. Take the Kh-Qd-Jh-Th
against the As-9s-8h-7d and the K-Q-J-T
is actually a 53% favorite over the ace high.

Therefore, when it comes to pre-flop raising,
well, there isn't a whole lot of it in PLO.
When dealt premium hands, players
should certainly raise, if only to thin
the field, but otherwise it's fine to limp in
with your playable hands.

Whatever edge you have or do not have
in the hand will develop almost entirely
on the flop. If you get a chance to watch it
on tv, you'll see 2 or 3 players battling
to the river, the favourite changing on
every street, and nothing decided until
that river card is dealt.

On the flop, you're looking to hit it hard,
or be prepared to dump your hand.
The best flops will give you both a made
hand with one or two re-draws to the nuts.

For example, if I'm holding the Ad-Kh-Qd-Th
and the flop is Td-8d-Ks , I've flopped
top two pair, a gutshot to the nut straight,
and the nut flush draw. A monster indeed,
and it's those re-draws that make it so.

In Omaha, vulnerable made hands,
like bottom two pair are frequently
underdogs to strong drawing hands
on the flop. If I have a hand like the
Ac-9c-8h-7s on a flop of 8s-9h-Qh,
the two pair has very little hope of
holding up to the bigger drawing hands
that will be out there.

So, play for the nuts, get ready to jam
with your monster draws and get ready
for a wild ride and lots of variance
in pot-limit Omaha.