Omaha Poker Online Strategy

Omaha is commonly believed to be the most complex version of the Poker for new players because of seven cards and additional opportunities for adding stakes due to extra rounds. So, the main strategy in Omaha Poker is based on selecting the hand to play and playing these depending on the opponent’s positions.

Top hands to play in Omaha Poker

First thing to remember about Omaha Poker is that the normal skills for analysis of the Texas Hold’em hand cannot be applied to Omaha Poker. This occurs because of several factors. First of all, the player is getting twice as many cards in pre-flop: four instead of two. Thus, the number of different starting combinations for cards is much higher. Secondly, draw-hands (unfinished combination, such as flash without a single card or draw-flash) are incredibly important in this type of Poker.

As draw-hands are especially popular in Omaha Poker, and extra bet rounds are present in this game (and so the stakes go up a lot faster, making the game flow a lot more aggressive than Texas Hold’em), the strategy of picking an initial hand for further play is recommended as follows:

Top 30 starting hands for Omaha Poker

Where A = ace, K = king, Q = queen, J = jack, T = ten, and the numbers correspond to junior cards. X = any card.

All 30 of top starting hands in Omaha Poker have to be composed of cards from a maximum of two different suits. If more are present, then you should drop the cards, don’t even hesitate to do so.

Strategy for new players: selecting a hand

It is, of course, quite difficult to remember all thirty starting combinations for the starting player in Omaha Poker, and for those that are just starting out, it’s better to use a substitute instead, a simple strategy to select a hand.

If you are not sure of your skills, the best hands to focus on are:

1. Three senior of the same rank – set of aces, queens, kings and jacks
2. One or two pairs of senior cards, such as a pair of aces or kings, jacks and queens. In Omaha Poker, it matters whether the pair is closed or open. If cards, which compose the pair, are open, the advantage is less than in cases when the pair is closed: this way, other players can’t figure out that you have it. Plus, in addition to the pair itself, the rank of the kicker also matters.
3. Draw-hand of a same suit is the basis of a future flash. This starting hand should only be played, when the draw is composed of senior cards – ace, king, queen, and jack. The smaller the rank of the cards that compose the draw, the riskier it is to use this hand for further play.
4. A pair of medium rank cards – tens, nines, eights.
5. Draw-hands which are composed of cards of medium-rank (jacks, tens, nines, eights): it’s theoretically possible to play such hands, but still is quite risky.

Playing from the opposites in Omaha Poker

Another rule, which is good to remember if you want to win in Omaha Poker, is to remember your position: you need to base your strategy on the position you have relative to the dealer in each round as well as the positions of other players.

The position becomes even more important in Omaha Poker, compared to Texas Hold’em, which gives a large advantage to the person in the last position because they posess maximum information about other players and hands than anybody at the table. In Omaha Poker, the player doesn’t just get the information, but also more options for further actions. For instance, if a player in the early position is raising, the player in the late position can call without risking a lot of chips. Playing from the late position in Omaha Poker is very profitable as you can re-raise (raise the bets again), and this is quite difficult for the others in the starting position. So it’s much easier to fold the players in the early positions using this tactics.

Omaha Poker has a lot more potentially strong combinations than Texas Hold’em due to double the cards on the pre-flop, and there’re more rounds of the game. Thus, a larger number of initial hands is availbale for play, but it’s up to everyone to decide, taking into account other factors, such as position, during early position the number of profitable starting hands is quite small, and weak combinations / marginal hands should not be played in any case.

Flop, turn and river: three most important stages in Omaha Poker

In Texas Hold’em the eventuality of a win depends on the strategy that was selected at pre-flop, right after analysis of an initial hand. In Omaha Poker, the situation is exactly the opposite: strategy during flop, turn and river are all very important.

Pre-flop in Omaha Poker could be viewed as a preparation: the game gets a lot more intensive and aggressive on flop. If one player had a strong combination on flop, it’s quite possible that two or three players would have potentially even stronger draw-combinations, which could be finished during the later part of the game. So it’s very common to view a hand before river as an unfinished hand.