Tips to Follow for Omaha Poker
If you do a survey with people who have played at least one game of poker in their life, Texas Hold’em will most likely get the vote for the most popular poker game. However, there is another poker game variant which has picked up quite a bit in popularity over the recent years and that is Omaha Poker. In fact, you can easily term it as the second most popular poker game after Texas Hold’em (till first half of 2020) – only time will tell if it goes on to become the most popular one! You would probably have already started thinking about how to get hold of Omaha poker tips in order to win more games. Don’t worry, we have you covered over here.
Omaha Poker Vs Texas Hold’em
Before we move on to the tips for winning consistently with Omaha Poker, you would do well to know that there are a lot of similarities between Texas Hold’em and Omaha Poker. However, Omaha Poker involves more complexities and the tips that might work for Texas Poker, may not help you win at Omaha Poker. So, it is necessary that you consider Omaha Poker game in isolation and keep the Omaha poker tips in mind while you are playing the real game.
Remember the below differences between Omaha Poker and Texas Hold’em:
- Pocket pairs are not so much of a great deal in Omaha, as the best starting hands here will often comprise of a mix of pairs as well as draws.
- There are many situations in Omaha when players will fold hands with two aces in their set. This isn’t the thing most people would do in Texas Hold’em.You will understand why it happens while going through the corresponding tip later in this article.
- With Omaha Poker, you have to deal with four-hole cards before the flop and there are more cards in your hand, which means much more possibility of making a hand.
Useful Omaha Poker Tips to Win an Omaha Poker Game
Being More Aggressive
There is an old adage that goes like this – ‘Slow and Steady Wins the Race’. While it holds true for many things in life, even for Texas Hold’em, you often hear people asking you to take it slow especially with your starting hands. But, it is a completely different scenario with Omaha Poker. Why is it so?
As compared to Texas Hold’em, every player on the table in Omaha Poker has two extra cards which can be used to create a higher combination if you go slow with your tactics just so that more money gets accumulated in the pot. So, if you happen to act smart and postpone using your hand instantly by checking or exactly matching the earlier player’s bet, you may create a difficult situation for yourself where the other players get more time (and an opportunity) to finish creating the combination that they were aiming for. Thus, you could unintentionally dig your own grave by not using your hand aggressively at the start in your greed for having more money in the pot.
So, if you wish to win more Omaha Poker games, you have to learn to go aggressive with your starting hands as well.
- Don’t Get Complacent with Aces
Are you someone who tends to get a smile on their face as soon as they see an ace card in their set during a game of poker? Well, this is how many poker players behave and start feeling more confident – as soon as they get an ace card, or may be two ace cards. There is nothing wrong in feeling good about aces. But, you should avoid the risk of getting complacent and playing carelessly after that. Remember, your goal is to win the game and you have to extremely cautious till you actually win it. You do not want to overestimate the value of your starting hands and end up losing the game.
While in Texas Hold’em, pocket aces are perhaps the best cards with which you can start with, and easily beat any other hand. This is possible even in case of Omaha Poker, but the probability reduces considerably because big hands are made quite often here and so there is a wider range of other possibilities.
One of the best starting hands in Omaha Poker game will be two aces and two kings. But, the next best could be two aces with a jack as well as a ten suited. This is mainly because you are likely to see more straights and flushes when you have four-hole cards. So, when you have aces in your set, it would classify as a good starting hand if you have other suited or connected cards. This is one of the most critical Omaha Poker tips to remember!
- Importance of Folding Hands
While we have spoken about being aggressive in Omaha Poker, it is vital that you understand the overall scene for a game of Omaha Poker. You can remain profitable at the end of a session of Omaha Poker by:
- Putting less money in losing hands
- Playing smart according to the position (less hands from early position, slightly more from middle position, and most hands from late position)
Winning couple of big pots (by saving chips for those big hands)
In order to do so, you need to master the art of folding your hands quickly in rounds where you are at an early position or middle position and unsure about your chances of winning. In such cases, aim to preserve as many chips as you can and focus more on winning big when the right combination of cards is formed. This is easier said than done because many times you are likely to get complacent on seeing some cards that you believe are excellent, but this may not help you win.
For example, many beginners of Omaha Poker game tend to get excited on getting four cards which are of the same suit or may be a three of a kind. While these kinds of cards might be great for some other poker variants, in case of Omaha, these are useless because you can only utilize three community cards and two hole cards, to form a winning hand. You need to have that presence of mind to fold such cards while playing Omaha Poker. For this, you need to develop the skill of differentiating between worthless hands as well as valuable starting hands.
- Bluffing in Your Bets
This is one of the important Omaha Poker tips that can help you win games you would least expect otherwise. This is because if you are new to Omaha Poker, you are more likely to underestimate your draw possibilities. And a good strategy to leverage good draw possibilities is to bet and raise – which you may consider as a bluff, but it necessarily isn’t a bluff! For instance, there is a great probability that the cards in your hand could possibly form a flush draw as well as multiple cards for completing a straight. Please remember that in Omaha Poker, you have more cards in hand to form combinations with the community cards. And this is the same reason because of which your opponents might raise the stakes as well!
So, you may win the game by bluffing your opponent off the hand, or there is a chance for you to catch your draw to win. Be alert as even other pro players might use the same tactic!
- Play it Tight
Well, this is a tip that is relevant for most poker games and not just for Omaha Poker. But, it is also one of the most ignored strategies in poker. At the end of the day, poker is a game played by human beings who have different emotions and different levels of excitement.
Unless you have experienced consistent success with Omaha Poker games, you would do well to stick to this tip strictly. Even if you play too tight, you will not lose as much as you would lose if you start playing loosely. Just keep your game tight – especially if you are a beginner to Omaha Poker and haven’t yet understood the odds involved!
This is necessary because you don’t want to end up playing too many hands and have less chips in hand when your real big combination is ready. Also, you should avoid underestimating the hand value of your opponents and overestimating your own hand value!
By playing a tight game for a longer period of time, you will get a lot of understanding of how things work out in Omaha Poker and how different players on the table are using different strategies to succeed.
The Verdict
Like any other poker game variant, you can get better at Omaha Poker by playing more of it at Spartan Poker online. Get few games under your belt and practise implementing most of the Omaha Poker tips discussed in this article. The good part is that you get to play a different game of poker with Omaha, as compared to the Texas Hold’em. So, try it out by download Spartan Poker app and maybe you would start loving it the same way as you love Texas!
