Pot Limit Omaha Basics

Pot Limit Omaha has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past 12 months. What is the reason for this, I think a lot of it has to do with all the big online games are now almost all in PLO. If you log into Full Tilt you will find the big names (Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan “Durrr”) all playing PLO and of course that drives people to want to play that game, plus once you take some time to learn the game and play it, it’s a fun game. So I felt it was time to bring out a article series on PLO to help those new to the game get somewhat of an understanding of it

Pot limit Omaha is a lot like Texas Hold’em but in this poker game the player has to deal with 4 hole cards instead of dealing with just 2 cards. The same procedure of the rotating dealer button with the same blind structure is followed. In this game, players can bet or raise up to the amount of pot, but can’t raise it beyond the pot size. The only difference between Omaha and Hold’em is in the definition of the best hand. Every player must use and can only use 2 cards from his 4 hole cards. He can make any combination of a hand while using 3 cards from the board to make the best 5-card poker hand.

Knowing about the hand selection

When a person is dealing with a hand in Omaha, you must look at the 6 different 2 card combinations of your hand pre flop. If you are playing a nine-handed game then you are going to be up against the 48 different starting hands. This is the reason; hand selection plays a vital role in the pre flop play for the Omaha player. The main thing a player must take in to account, is whether the 4 cards you are holding interact with each other or not.

In the game of Hold’em AA or KK is considered to be a very strong starting hand, but in the game of Omaha, AAKK is considered to be very weak when compared to the starting hand of 6789. The main thing is that Omaha is not considered to be a game of big pairs. Instead it is the fame of full houses, flushes and straights. You can win the pot with the help of big pairs in some cases, but you should still not be very confident until you have at least 2 big pairs.

It is always preferred to go with connected cards or cards having some gaps (J9, T8,ect..). Always avoid playing with 4 unsuited cards. It is good to keep 2 sets of the suited cards also known as a 2 suited hand (example: 4s5sJh8h). The main reason behind this is that if you are going for a flush or a straight. There are many other situations which will be discussed in future articles.

In Omaha a hand really starts after the flop, because your hand is now starting to be defined. A hand like AA46 is always considered to be a good playing hand before the flop. But in this case if you do not hit an ace on the flop then depending on the board there is a good chance as you go though you hand there are not a lot of other options to draw to. The best way is to either hit your hand in such a way that you have several outs to draw to, or hit your hand for the making of a big made hand. This is why, suited and connected cards are considered to be a vital part of this game you will have many more outs after the flop verses what you would have from playing a hand like AAKK.

Be sure to watch for our future articles on Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up with site updates and new articles.

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