How to Move on from Texas Hold’Em to Omaha
Many online poker players are making the big move to Pot limit Omaha and if you want to follow in their steps, you need to understand the key differences between these two games. People play online poker for a myriad of reasons but with the main two being to make money and to learn and hone their skills.
The differences between Omaha Poker and Texas Hold’em.
If you are making the transition from Hold’em to Omaha, you of course need to know what the differences are. Just like with hold’em it is not hard to learn Omaha, the rules are very similar, but mastering it takes time.
The difference: You play with four hole cards in your hand. The board will be the same, getting a flop, turn and river. However to make your final hand you must use two cards from your hand plus three community cards.
As we can see there is only one difference, which make the game very similar in rules. However, in game-play there are much bigger differences.
How to play Omaha poker?
The biggest issue you need to comprehend when playing Omaha with any competency, is the shift in relative hand value. A great online poker player understands that a full house is more valuable and might even know the odds of making either hand but very few players can tell you how to calculate these odds and what they mean.
If you don’t have a proper understanding of probability and odds, you’re likely to approach Omaha using your collection of online poker knowledge and experience, applying and adapting what you know to the new game. However this method has its disadvantages and the biggest one is understanding the differences in relative hand value between Omaha and Texas Hold’em.
If you’ve played a lot of Hold’em, the understanding of your top-two hand value is as big as learning the basic understanding of poker. When you sit in an Omaha game and flop the same thing, chances are you’re going to feel almost the same about it.
If you want to succeed at Pot Limit Omaha, you need to stop assuming that you can use your Hold’em experience and strategy and then you’ll end up winning.
Omaha a game full of draws
With four cards in your hands draws and thus straights and flushes are much more likely to happen. Keep this in mind, is your set still good after a dangerous river that could complete a straight or a flush? Or is it better to fold a hand like this.
When you make a Queen high flush, should you go for it or should you take it easy and possibly fold? There are more cards in the game and everyone having four cards instead of two drastically, increases the chances of someone playing the nut flush or the king high flush.
Just like with Hold’em the board and the action during the hand is of course very important.
If you want to learn how to play Omaha poker go in with a clean headset. Just take the time to think though each hand as if you’ve never played online poker before and evaluate each situation as best as you can.