How To Beat Small Stakes Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Games

With A Disciplined Approach, Beating Small Stakes Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Games Is Easy – Especially If You Know Where To Look For The Softest Games!

Pot-Limit Omaha Poker is becoming more and more popular online. With opportunities to make strong poker hands more often, this ‘action’ game is an entertaining diversion from Texas Holdem. This article outlines some of the basics for players who are already familiar with Texas Holdem and would like to give Pot-Limit Omaha a try.

There are two keys to understanding how to beat small stakes Pot-Limit Omaha games online. Firstly each player gets 4 hole-cards, two of which must be used at showdown together with 3 of the 5 community cards. Secondly, pot-limit betting means you may only bet up to the size of the current pot, this means many hands are ‘priced in’, especially during the early betting rounds.

With 4 hole cards and the mandatory use of 2 of these at showdown, each player can be thought of as holding 6 separate combinations of 2. If you are new to Omaha Poker and considering bluffing 3 opponents on the flop you should often consider that you are up against the equivalent of 18 Texas Holdem hands!

Strong Pot-Limit Omaha hands are ones which work well together, for example 9-10-J-Q of two suits gives you many working combinations which can hit the flop, while widely separated and unsuited cards are not going to hit the board anything like as often. The strongest hands in Omaha are also the most costly for new players. Hands which contain a pair of aces still need to flop well in this game, if you get your money into the middle with A-A-4-8 unsuited against an opponent who is playing aggressively you are almost certainly behind with your over-pair to the board.

Drawing hands in Omaha poker are often favorites on the flop. For example a hand such as 10-J-Q-K of two suits can be 2-to-1 favorite against those aces on a flop of 7-8-9 including 2 of your suit.

Many opponents in small stakes Omaha games make a fundamental betting error, they only ever bet with aces (or maybe Kings) and call or limp before the flop with any other hands. By giving you information about their hands while the bets are very small, these players leave themselves open to losing a big pot when someone out-flops them. For example calling with a smaller pair and stacking the ‘aces only raise’ those times you hit trips is very common in this game.

Pot-Limit Betting means it often difficult to push opponents out of the hand with a single bet. This, in turn, makes knowing the tendencies of your opponents and their position relative to you in the hand more important. For example if you have an aggressive player to your left you can often trap the remaining players between you by waiting for everyone to call before you re-raise. Remember that novice players in small stakes games will often bet very predictably. Making notes of how they bet with a strong draw or a complete bluff can help you win many pots over the course of a session.

Finally, if you are looking for a profitable edge right from the start at the Omaha tables there is a software tool which is approved for use by all of the major poker sites which can really help. Omaha Indicator is a real-time odds calculator which also keeps track of the tendencies of your opponents, it is like having an expert player sat at your shoulder during the game. Check out Omaha Indicator now and take the free trial.