Poker Tropical

I have to say that recently, I have found myself becoming an Omaha convert. I enjoy playing Holdem as much as the next player, but recently, I have been playing Omaha far more often, and seeing better results too.

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Having spent my early days playing Five Card Draw and then moving on to Holdem, I know that you always maintain that affection for games which have captured your imagination in the past. I know that for that reason, I will always be more than happy to play Holdem, or Five Card Draw. I cannot deny though, that when I look at the tournament schedule online now, the first thing I look for are Omaha tournaments.

The reasoning for this is firstly that I seem to make more profit from it, but there are other reasons to love Omaha too.
Once you understand how to play the game, you will see that it is a far more action packed game than Holdem, with stronger hands being made. The fact that everyone is making stronger hands means that you are required to be far more skillful in your folds too.
In essence, your reading of situations, board cards, and potential dangers too your hand which is very important in Holdem, becomes part and parcel of every hand in Omaha.

For those that love to get involved in hands and play poker rather than be patient, Omaha is a much better game, as at the lower stakes you will see far more flops and excitement.

In a game of Omaha hi/lo you find yourself with a very strong hand of (As,Ac,2s,3c). As anyone who knows about hi/lo Omaha can tell you, this is a dream starting hand, but if a player in early position raises the pot, how should you respond?

Some people might feel that the most obvious response is to reraise. This would have the effect of narrowing the pot down from potentially four or five players, to perhaps two or three. In many pocker variants you would say that this is favourable to prevent you being outdrawn quite so often, but in omaha hi/lo, I would offer a different opinion.

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Consider the fact that many combinations of three low cards hitting the board will give you the nut low hand. In this situation, would you rather be splitting two players chips? Or four players chips? If you flat call preflop, you allow more players into the pot, but with a hand where you have a very strong chance of taking at least half the pot, and so it is worth allowing extra players in. If you reraise and push players out, you end up splitting a pot to get only your own investment back and you make no progress. Although there is extra risk involved, I think the extra chips you will probably be stacking up make it worthwhile.

Also remember that three clubs or spades arriving on an unpaired board will almost certainly win you the high half of the pot outright too, and in that case again, the more players in the pot, the better.