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In a full ring Omaha game it usually takes a very strong hand to win. Two pair and trips don't win very often in this game. You need to shoot for the nut straight, nut flush, or nut full house most of the time. You have 4 pocket cards in Omaha which gives everyone 6 Texas Holdem starting hands. You can use card 1+2 1+3 1+4 2+3 2+4 3+4. If you are in a pot with five other players after the flop, it is almost comparable to a Texas Holdem game against thirty other players, because each of your five competitors is holding six Holdem hands instead of one.
As in most forms of poker your starting hand strategy is extremely important if you want to be a winner at Omaha. There seems to be a universal tendency to call pre flop with weak hands. A lot of Omaha hands looks good to the inexperienced player.
A good Omaha starting hand is not a hand including one or two good Texas hands all four hole cards need to work well together.
As in Texas Holdem, your position is very important and you can loosen up your starting hand requirements slightly in late position if nobody has shown strength.
Some good starting hands
Ad, Ac, Kd, Kc – The best Omaha starting hand with two top flush draws and excellent full house possibilities.
Kh, Qd, Jd, 10h – A very good hand. Draws to two flushes and sixteen straight draws. And that’s not to mention a range of powerful high cards for pairing up, trips and full houses.
10d, 9d, 8c, 7h – Plenty of straight options with a possible straight flush.
Ah, Qd, Qc, 8h – Top flush, top straight as well as full house chances.
And some poor...
Qc, 7c, 6c, 2c – Four suited cards giving few outs.
5h, 5c, 5d, Qd – Any hand containing trips is unlikely to improve. Even the flush draw from this hand is only third best.
2c, 2d, 3s, 3h – Looks good at first glance, but you’re only looking at making trips or a second rate full house at best. Play with caution.
To evaluate the strength of a Omaha starting hand you can use a point count system. One of the best systems is the Cappelletti Omaha Point-Count System.
Omaha strategy for drawing hands
The most important thing for Omaha strategy is to draw to the nuts as often as possible. If you are playing for a flush it should be nuts you are aiming for. The same applies to straights as well. Otherwise you will end up losing a lot of money to players who only ever draw to the nuts in the long term.
The strategy for winning in Omaha requires pot manipulation. You need to get more money in when you have clearly the best of it; play for cheap when you don't. Nut hands and nut draws using quality cards can "drive the betting" whereas non-nut hands cannot.
Bluffing
Bluffing should be done very rarely in Omaha. With everyone getting four cards there is a big chance that someone has the key card in question, especially in a long-handed game. Omaha also tends to be a far looser game than Texas holdem so you will find that most of your bluffs are called.
You can try Omaha Poker for free or for real money in the best European pokerrooms for Omaha Poker Bodog, Party Poker or 888Poker
Read about Omaha Point Count
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