Poker Insider - Switching to Omaha

Over the past few months, the number of players who have either switched to playing Pot Limit Omaha or are trying the game out has increased significantly. In fact many professionals are switching to PLO as much of the value is drying up in hold ‘em. Texas Hold ‘em is the game that is advertised the most, and so attracts the most players. This then has the knock on effect that more players end up wanting to educate themselves at this form of poker.

So it has led to the average player at hold ‘em being stronger at this time than your average player at Omaha but that gap is closing fast. But one of the primary changes that often leads to novice Omaha players struggling, is the increased number of hand combinations. Suddenly instead of the usual one combination that you have in hold ‘em, there are now six times as many combinations in PLO.

This means that every time you play a hand out of position that you are now out of position to six times the number of hand combinations. So in a six max PLO game, there are a total of 36 possible hand combinations before the flop (6x6) compared to the 6 in hold ‘em. It makes Omaha more of a nuts game than hold ‘em and this is especially the case when the game is played full ring.

Position is crucial in all forms of poker of course but the value of position is never more highlighted than at PLO. This is simply to do mainly with the average winning hand and the number of hand combinations that are out against you. Another big difference between hold ‘em and Omaha is in how various hands match up against each other!

In hold ‘em it is possible for one hand to have huge equity pre-flop against a weaker hand like with KK vs 7-2 or AA vs KK for example. This is clearly not the case in PLO as many hands are only a 3-2 favourite over another at best.

The power of having aces is nowhere near as pronounced in Omaha than it is in hold ‘em. In hold ‘em if you have a hand like AA heads up then you have a big advantage and you are still not a favourite to be overtaken on the flop and your hand may still be good even against several players. This is not the case at Omaha, say that you raised with A-A-7-5 and got three callers……unless you flop an ace or some other fair holding like on a flop of 7-7-2 then you have no further business being in the pot.

You cannot play bare aces in Omaha anywhere near as strongly post flop as you can in hold ‘em and this is especially the case when you are deep stacked. You can maybe use aces as a way to either get all-in pre-flop or on the flop if you are playing a short stack strategy but most of the time in Omaha, caution with hands like dry aces is advised when the money is deep.

As with all forms of poker then there are clear differences between full-ring and six max strategy. But full-ring PLO really is a game of either having the nuts or drawing to the nuts or both. Often you will look to avoid trouble spots by folding hands that can get you into a world of hurt.