Winning Online Poker

Pot-Limit Omaha Strategy

If you've mastered the strategies laid out here, check out the Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Strategy page.

For the disciplined and studious player, pot-limit Omaha high (PLO) is both a very profitable and enjoyable game. It is not an especially difficult game to play well, and I believe you can make a lot of money without having to spend as much time reading and learning. However, the reason that the game is profitable is that uneducated beginners play it very poorly, so make sure you are going into battle with a loaded gun.

Because there are many situations in this game where the outcome rides heavily on whether or not a draw makes for big money, you should be prepared to accept some bigger swings than in most games. However, the good PLO player will almost always grind out a consistent profit.

Recommended Reading

Two books will help you out massively in this game. First on your reading list is Omaha Holdem Poker by Bob Ciaffone. Next comes Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker by Ciaffone and Stewart Reuben, which contains an excellent pot-limit Omaha section. These books should teach you all you need to know to beat the game at the small limits you will find online. As a bonus, the Ciaffone/Reuben book can get you to an excellent start towards playing no-limit hold ‘em well.

Picking a Site

Quite a few sites have pot-limit Omaha games running frequently. Here they are, in general order of the easiest games to beat:

Party Poker / Empire Poker – As usual, Party leads the way in profitability. As is true with all their games, there are a lot of people on this server who just don’t mind losing money very much. Also, the WPT newbies think Omaha is a cool-looking game, but play it incredibly badly. PLO is a good game to play when clearing deposit bonuses, as long as you are willing to take a chance that one of your all-in hands loses and sets you back a little bit. One caution: their 50 big blind max buy-in takes a lot of play out of the game. If you are more interested in playing 'real' PLO than making money, find another site.

UltimateBet – UB consistently has a few tables of PLO running, but the games have tightened up considerably. The server still has some fish, but it's not the aquarium it once was. However, it is probably the best site that allows you to buy in for 100 big blinds.

Paradise Poker – Paradise PLO games are somewhat annoying. The waiting list for a full table is usually at least five players deep, and meanwhile there are typically at least two players sitting out at each “full” table. Also, the games are generally tighter than at other sites. The tables offer a mix of solid players and a few poor-playing opponents who are easy to read.

Poker Stars – Stars has more PLO tables available than UB or Paradise, but there aren't too many fish. Most of your profit on this server will come from learning to beat good players.

Getting Started - From Hold 'em to Omaha

Visit Omaha Strategy for the basics on how to play Omaha.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Omaha, the betting and blind structure is the same as in hold ‘em, but each player is dealt four cards and must play two from his hand and three from the board. Also, this game is played pot-limit, meaning that at any point, a player may bet or raise any amount up to the size of the pot.

The biggest difference between this game and hold ‘em is that the “nuts” (the best possible hand) is out in someone’s hand with much more frequency in Omaha. Thus, it is extremely dangerous and almost always incorrect to draw to any hand that is not likely to be the nuts if you hit it, because the same card may give a different player the nuts and allow him to take all your chips. More on this in the 'Draw to the Nuts' section below. But remember this basic concept: your goal in pot-limit Omaha is to build the nut hand. In fact, a more accurate statement is that your goal is to build the nut hand with a redraw to a better hand. (Examples of redraws include a nut straight with a draw to a higher straight, such as K-Q-J-T on a flop of T-9-8, or a straight with a draw to a flush or full house. In other words, you want to flop both a made hand and a draw.) Nut hands with redraws are hugely profitable in this game; nut hands by themselves are only somewhat profitable.

Because players hear the rule about only being able to play two cards from their hand, they often incorrectly assume that this means any hand with a good two-card combination is worth playing. This is a horrible misconception. The best Omaha hands all involve four cards that are highly coordinated with one another, so that you are able to flop either a made hand plus a draw, or a combination of two big draws. For example, if your hand is Q-9-5-2 and the flop is Q-9-6, you have top two pair, but are very vulnerable to draws. If you instead hold Q-J-T-9 on this flop, you have the same two pair, but also eight outs to the nut straight. This is exactly the kind of hand you want to hit in this game. (There will be more discussion of this in the Starting Hands section.)

One important distinction between Omaha and hold ‘em is that because several four-card hands against you can afford so many drawing possibilities against you, it is much more dangerous to check a good hand and give a free card in Omaha, especially in pot-limit. This means two things: 1) You should bet out with almost all of your good hands, unless you have good reason to believe you can get a pot-sized check-raise, and 2) Since fewer big hands will be checked, position is more important in pot-limit Omaha than just about any other game.

Note that it is easy to misinterpret “your good hands” as any hand that you would be thrilled to have in hold ‘em. This is far from true. Virtually all of the money lost by bad players in this game comes from good hold ‘em hands such as top-and-bottom pair, bottom two pair, and non-nut straights and flushes. Make sure you re-read the Draw to the Nuts section until you have trained yourself to remember that you are not playing PLO to play king-high flush draws and non-nut straight draws.

A corollary to this is that in a multi-way pot, if the board looks dangerous, a big hand is almost certainly out in someone’s hand. If the board is paired, don’t get involved without a big full house or trips that can hit a big full house. With three to a suit on board, you want the nut flush, and when any straight is possible, it is fairly likely to be in someone’s hand.

Draw to the Nuts

To show why you should be avoiding non-nut draws to straights and flushes, let’s look at how the good player makes his money in this game. Although there are some big confrontations between made hands and big drawing hands, most of the money lost by bad players (and won by good players) comes from one of these four confrontations in a big pot:

- Full house over full house

- Set over set

- Flush over flush

- Straight over straight

Notice that in all of these situations, if you are drawing to a non-nut hand, you are leaving yourself very vulnerable to being on the losing end of these confrontations. As I said, these are where the big money is made or lost in this game. Why not make sure you’re almost never on the wrong end? Draw only to the nuts and you can be sure.

(Note: in a tight game, you will need to occasionally play and bet with weaker hands, simply because you will get robbed too often if you do not. When you are starting out, avoid these games like the plague. You are better off playing the lottery if you want to gamble.)

The easiest way to curb the full house over full house and set over set debacles is simply not to play small and medium pairs. Players used to hold ‘em will see the flop with any pair in their hand. This is fine at hold ‘em, because a set rarely loses in that game. In Omaha, if you have bottom set and another player is willingly raising you all in, you are usually in big trouble. Either he has you beat now or has a bunch of outs to beat you. On the other hand, in a loose Omaha game, the possibility of set over set adds considerably to the profitability of big pairs in unraised pots. Not only do you get a cheaper chance to hit your set, but the lack of raise means that other small pairs will be coming in to possibly hit a second-best hand.

To further avoid losing a pot to a bigger full house, never bet or call a bet with any two pair other than top two. Even top two pair is not nearly as good a hand as it appears in this game. It is a lot better to be betting with this hand rather than calling, since you have the added chance of winning the pot without a fight. What you really want with top two, however, is to make the big full house and get someone who flopped two smaller pair to go all in with his lower full. Thus, you should not be betting this hand to get two worse pair out; you should bet it to give a drawing hand a bad price on his draw, if anything.

To avoid being on the wrong end of flush over flush, simply do not draw to a non-nut flush in the first place, unless you a) got to draw for free or b) are in the hand primarily to play another holding, such as accidentally making a flush when drawing to a straight, or having a set and unwittingly hitting a flush draw on the side. If you drew for free, use your best poker judgment when you hit your hand. Do not call a pot-size raise with a non-nut flush, but a smaller bet may be a bluff or smaller flush that you can snap off. With the kinds of ‘multi-way’ hands like in example b (such as a 17-out straight draw combined with a non-nut flush draw), you should usually try to get a lot of chips in heads-up on the flop, since you certainly have a lot of outs but do not know exactly which cards they are. This situation can be hard to judge on the later streets, so it is easier to simply get all in immediately.

Even a nut flush draw, however, is not getting very good odds if someone has bet the size of the pot. Do not call in this situation unless at least one other person, and preferably two, has called already. Then you can call because there is a good possibility that a lower flush draw will pay you off handsomely if you both hit your hand. Of course, if you also have a hand like a straight draw or top two pair with your flush draw, this is a different situation. (Again, we come back to playing hands that can hit a multi-way flop. This is a concept that cannot be overemphasized in PLO.)

Omaha Straight Draws

As for straight over straight, straight draws are of a decidedly different caliber in Omaha than in hold ‘em. In hold ‘em, your maximum drawing potential is eight outs if you have an open-ended draw or double gutshot draw. In Omaha, you can have as many as twenty outs. Don’t believe me? Look at the following hand: Q-J-8-7 on a flop of T-9-3. Any 6, 7, 8, J, Q, or K makes your straight. This is 24 cards, minus the four outs you have in your own hand, making 20 in all. (Notice, however, that only 14 of these outs make you the nut straight, as a J or Q does not. The ultimate nut straight drawing hand is K-Q-J-8 on a T-9-3 rainbow flop, for 16 nut outs.)

Other possible big straight draws include a Q-J-8-2 or J-8-7-2 on the same board, each of which has 17 outs, or K-Q-J-2 or 8-7-6-2 which each have 13 outs. However, it is important to note that when most of your straight draw cards are lower than the board cards, you are NOT hitting to the nuts. Thus, hands like the 8-7-6-2 and J-8-7-2 should often be folded on this flop.

On a board of T-8-3, you can have 17 outs with a J-9-7-2, or 13 with a Q-J-9-2 or 9-7-6-2. A hand like this with a lot of straight outs is commonly known as a “wrap-around” straight draw among Omaha players. However, as I said earlier, non-nut straights can be dangerous once you’ve made them. With a big straight draw like these (especially in conjunction with a flush draw), it is often best to try to get all-in on the flop. With a wrap-around straight draw and a flush draw, you are actually the favorite over top set on the flop.

Redraws

Redraws have two connotations in PLO. The first is another important concept in the “will my hand be good if I hit it?” discussion. For example, say you are presented with the following hand: K-Q-5-4 (no flush draw) on a flop of J-3-2 with two diamonds. Three players have gone all in and the action is on you. Do you go all in also?

If this were a hold ‘em problem, and your hand was 5-4, you would probably go all-in here. You are about 32% to hit the straight, and when you do hit it, it will be good more often than not. In Omaha, however, this call is horrible. You can say with virtual certainty that among the players all-in, one has a flush draw and another a set. Thus, not only are the 6 and A of diamonds not outs for your hand, if you do hit your hand on either of the remaining cards, but the other card creates a board pair or is a diamond, your straight is worthless. If you hit your straight but get beaten by a flush or full house, the opponent is said to have hit his redraw on you. This will leave you with the nut straight on the river less than 15% of the time, which is not nearly good enough to go all-in with, even against three opponents.

(Yet another thing this hand has going against it is that it may not be a unique drawing hand. By that I mean that it is entirely possible, even likely, that one of the all-in players holds a hand like A-4-5-x or 4-5-6-x. This means that even if you do hit the straight and it is good, you will only win half the pot with it. It isn’t at all uncommon to see two PLO players drawing to the same straight. I will even consider mucking a good 13-out straight draw if several players have called a big bet, because my straight cards are probably dead and I may split the pot if I hit one anyway. This concept is only considered by a few very good PLO players in these loose online games.)

The other importance for redraws in PLO is that it is not that uncommon to see two players have the same nut hand (especially if it is a straight), but one of the hands can redraw to a higher straight, flush, or full house, and the other cannot. If you have the hand with the redraws in this situation, you are said to have a freeroll on your opponent, which is an excellent spot to be in. You are guaranteed half the pot, but have a substantial chance to win more than half, which your opponent does not have. This is one of the huge advantages for the good player in PLO: he does not get trapped on the wrong end of these situations, because he plays starting hands that create freerolls. (Thankfully, bad players chalk this loss up to bad luck rather than unskilled play, so they keep coming back.) In order to have a freeroll like this, you need to hit a multi-way flop.

Multi-Way Flops

Hitting a multi-way flop is the most profitable situation in Omaha. By multi-way, I mean hitting either a made hand plus a draw, or two big draws in conjunction, such as a 13-way straight draw and nut flush draw together. As an example, you have Q-Q-J-T and the flop is Q-9-8 of three different suits. Now, you have the nut straight and top set, so any pair on board will almost certainly win you the pot with an even bigger hand. Here, even if an opponent has a J-T in his hand for the same straight, you do not mind going all-in against him, because you have a big “freeroll” – if any board pair comes up, you will take the whole pot. This is the kind of hand you will want to play very aggressively, in the hopes that a hand like J-T or Q-9 (or a smaller set) will give you action.

Notice that the only way you can hit a multi-way flop is to start with cards that are highly coordinated. This is a big consideration when deciding what starting hands you will play. If you are not careful, you can dig a deep hole for yourself. Take this hand: You have 9-8-3-2 of four different suits (let’s be nice and assume you were forced in with the big blind), and the flop comes J-T-7 with the jack and ten being diamonds. If this were a hold ‘em hand and you had 9-8, you would be quite justified in going all-in on this flop, as only the same straight with flush potential, or K-Q with a flush draw, can possibly be ahead of you, and those hands are remote. However, this is an Omaha problem. In this case, you might try to win the pot with a bet on the flop, but if you are raised (or someone else bets), your best play here is definitely to FOLD.

You read that correctly. To see why this is so, imagine that two players in your game go all in with you on this flop. Many online Omaha players are dumb, but they will not push the betting on a flop like this without having the same straight as you. Say you get into a three-way all-in. One of your opponents holds J-J-9-8, and other holds A-K-Q-9 with a nut diamond flush draw and a wrap-around straight draw. If you’ve never played Omaha before, I want you to estimate how much of this pot you will be getting back, on average, if the turn and river cards were dealt out a million different times. (Remember, you put 33% of the pot in yourself if you went all-in.)

Have you guessed? The correct figure is somewhere between 5 and 6 percent, depending on whether your opponents hold any “backdoor” flush draws. While it is unlikely that you will be up against hands that are quite this powerful, if you are up against two players in an all-in here, you are certainly presently tied and very vulnerable to being outdrawn. In this situation, you will be getting probably between 10 and 15 percent back on your 33% investment. Why the hell would you want to get yourself into that situation? The best way to avoid this is to never play hands that will flop the nut straight with no redraws. This is done by playing coordinated hands, as we see in the next section. If you are forced to play a bad hand because you were in the blind, play it very cautiously. Notice that it is no coincidence that hands like J-J-9-8 and A-K-Q-9 with a nut flush draw are the exact type you want to be playing in this game; if you catch your opponent with a crap hand like 9-8-3-2, it is a great money-making situation.

Oh, and in case it wasn’t obvious, don’t play 9-8-3-2, or other hands like it. As we see, even if you flop the nuts, you don’t like it that much. So what does the hand have going for it?

Starting Hands - What are you building?

In Omaha, before introducing the starting hands you should be playing, it is a good idea to show you what you are trying to make. Your goal in PLO is to make one of three hands:

- A big full house

- The nut flush

- The nut straight

The first category is best served by a hand with a high pair or a collection of high cards. Because a big full house is so profitable against a smaller one, I would play any pair queens or higher (regardless of my sidecards) in a loose game where I can “limp in” (just call the big blind). If the pot is raised, you should fold queens and perhaps kings unless they have coordinated sidecards. For example, call a raise with Q-Q-T-9, but not with Q-Q-7-3 (unless three or more players have called the raise already). Aces are worth playing in most situations even for a pot raise. In fact, if you or your opponent is short-stacked enough that a reraise will put one of you all-in and you don’t mind gambling, this may be a good play. Other hands that can flop big full houses are a collection of four big cards like A-Q-J-9, which also has some good straight potential and can make a nut flush if the ace is suited with another card.

Caution: if you are playing against idiots who will only raise with a pair of aces or kings, you will want to be wary of playing your high hands like A-K-J-8 that would ordinarily be good hands, because you can get out-flopped with them. If an ace or king comes, your opponent may have top set against you here. It is better to be holding a hand like 9-8-7-6 or 9-9-8-7 against this type of raise, so that your cards will not help the enemy. The other premium situation to be in on the flop is to hit top set against a weaker made hand such as top two pair or a smaller set, which goes all-in against you. This is obviously best accomplished by playing high pairs and getting lucky.

(I hope I don’t have to warn you against playing a hand with a three of a kind in it. This not only halves your chances of making a set, but it completely cripples your ability to use sidecards, since you only have one left to work with. Even if your hand is A-A-A-x, it belongs in the muck. Don’t get married to aces like a hold ‘em player would.)

The second category, of course, comes from suited aces. Because you are not all that likely to actually hit the flush, I would not play any suited ace, but this trait adds nicely to the value of hands that might be played anyway. For example, A-9-8-7 where the ace is suited with another card is a good holding, as you can hit quite a few straights or the nut flush, and top two pair is a possibility. Any four cards 9 or bigger that include a suited ace are almost always a playable hand, unless someone has made a big raise, in which case you should proceed with caution.

The third category is best served by having a hand where all the cards are close in rank. This allows you to have six card combinations capable of making multiple nut straights. J-T-9-8 is the best straight-drawing hand in the game. Other examples of good hand types to draw at straights are J-T-9-7 and J-T-9-6. Here, you are looking for the card in the “gap” to come on board, which will often give you a draw at a lot of nut outs for a straight. However, beware of a hand like J-9-8-7. This may be playable, but if a ten hits on the board, you are much less likely to make the nut straight than if an 8 hit to your J-T-9-7, because your cards are now lower than the board cards.

When the nut hand on board is a straight (especially a high straight), it is often held by more than one player at the same time. Having a redraw means that you can get it all-in with another player who has the nut straight and no redraw, and have a “freeroll” on him: if your draw hits, you win the whole pot; if not, you get half of it. An example of an excellent freeroll: you hold Q-Q-J-T with two diamonds on a Q-9-8 two-diamond flop. Your opponent holds J-T-3-2 with no diamonds. About 66% of the time you will win the whole pot, and the other 34% you will split it, so you are getting an 83% share of the pot while only putting 50% of the money in. Having a freeroll on an opponent is a great place to be in, so you want to play coordinated hands that will create freeroll situations. On the other hand, you definitely do not want an opponent to have a freeroll on you. The best way to avoid this is simple: toss away your poor starting hands. Even when you hit the nuts, like the J-T-3-2 above, you can be in a terrible spot.

A-A-x-x in PLO

Aces are easily the most misplayed hand in PLO. This is for two reasons: 1) players used to hold ‘em are trained to think that a pair of aces is indestructible, even if it’s A-A-9-4 offsuit, and 2) A-A-x-x is, with few exceptions, a favorite over any other hand if it gets all-in heads-up. However, many players assume that this means they are an 80-20 favorite like in hold ‘em. In Omaha, the hands most likely to be calling you will have a greater than 35% chance of beating your aces heads-up. This edge is so much smaller that it’s not really worth pushing the betting with aces pre-flop unless you can get at least a third or more of your stack in before the flop comes down.

If you are one of the better players in your PLO game, you should be buying in for the maximum allowed amount, so there will be virtually no situations where you are capable of getting all-in pre-flop with aces, unless you are playing against maniacs at Party Poker. The exceptions are if you are facing someone on tilt, or an aggressive player with kings. A-A-x-x in a loose Omaha game is virtually always playable because a set of aces is so rewarding. However, it becomes a MUCH better hand if you have coordinated sidecards.

The best coordination you can get is by having the sidecards be double-suited to the aces, giving you the potential for two nut flushes in addition to your high pair and potential for a set or big full house. Having a second pair or cards ten or higher, making several straights possible, are also good sidecards, especially if these are also single or double-suited. Depending on who you ask, A-A-K-K double suited or A-A-J-T double suited is the best Omaha hand pre-flop.

Double suited aces are a very peculiar hand. Although you would prefer to be all-in preflop with them if you could, since you are getting great odds on your money, the hand actually plays similar to a pair of jacks in hold ‘em. You would prefer to either face one player heads-up intending to win without improvement, or face a large field to try to hit your set or a nut flush. What you do not want to do is face exactly three opponents. Unfortunately, raising the pot in a loose PLO game generally serves to cut the field down to three opponents. Therefore, it is often correct to limp with double-suited aces in this game even though it is the best hand you will likely see in a given session. Of course, if you are in a game where a pre-flop raise will tend to build the pot, go ahead and raise, because you want to get a good amount of money in if you hit a good flop. You can also try making a small raise for the same purpose.

Starting Hand Summary:

(Similar hands fit into the same category, although do not go too far. For example, J-J-T-T is a borderline premium hand like K-K-J-J, but 8-8-7-7 is only fair.)

Premium pot-limit Omaha hands:

A-A-8-7

A-A-8-8

K-K-J-J

Q-J-T-9

Q-Q-J-T

A-K-J-T

Good hands:

A-A-9-5

9-8-7-6

T-T-9-8

J-J-6-6

K-J-T-9

A-9-8-7

Fair hands (consider folding against a raise):

7-7-6-6

7-6-5-4

7-7-6-5

A-7-6-5

Danger hands - Do not play:

J-J-5-2

T-T-6-5

Q-J-8-6

A-K-7-3

Pre-Flop Raises

Pre-flop raising is peculiar in low-limit PLO games. The usual primary reason for raising pre-flop-getting more money in with the best hand-does not entirely apply when the hand values change as much on the flop as they do in this game. I believe that the primary reason for raising pre-flop in a small-stakes PLO game is to get the other players to play looser after the flop. For some reason, there is something about a pot that has been raised pre-flop that entices players to put a lot of money in on worse hands than they would play in an unraised pot. I cannot truly explain this phenomenon, but anyone else who plays well in these games will agree that I am correct.

However, there is another side to the coin. If you hold a hand like K-K-J-J, you have a premium PLO hand, but your goal is to flop top set against a smaller set. This is a potential double-up situation. If you make a big pre-flop raise, you may knock out smaller pairs and prevent them from paying you off if you hit. So you may wish to make your pre-flop raises less than the size of the pot to avoid knocking these kinds of hands out, and make sure you’re not costing yourself a potentially huge payoff.

How Much to Bet?

In hold ‘em, there are often strategic reasons for betting significantly less than the size of the pot. In Omaha, this is rarely the case. There are two main reasons. First of all, many drawing hands run so big in Omaha that they will get proper odds to call even if you bet the full size of the pot, but you want to give them the worst odds possible to chase. Second, if a bad player is willing to call half the size of the pot on a four-out draw, he will probably call the full pot for it too. The main exception to this rule is when you have a full house. Now you are not as worried about being outdrawn; however, you should still bet a substantial amount, perhaps half or two-thirds the size of the pot. This prevents a big pair from getting correct odds to call hoping to catch his two-outer to a bigger full, and charges an opponent with trips, who may or may not be drawing to a bigger full.

Bluffing should be done rarely in loose micro-limit games, but when you do bluff, bet the same amount you normally would. If you can’t do that, bet at least half the pot. Your bet should convince the potential caller that if he guesses wrong, his entire stack could be on the line. A min-bet or a bet of ten percent of the pot does not do this, unless you are testing the waters to set up a bigger bet on the next street in order to steal the pot then. Even so, this is a dangerous strategy, as the cheap card you give may allow him to make a hand.

Play on the Flop

On the flop, you should not stay in the hand unless:

- You have the current nuts or close to it (preferably with a redraw)

- You have a significant number of nut outs to call someone else’s bets

- You are bluffing (only in shorthanded pots) or no one has bet

Here is what I mean by “close to” the nuts: I would bet out with top two pair (with no significant redraws), top set, or middle set, but fold to a pot-size bet with top two pair if the pot was unraised pre-flop. If the pot was raised pre-flop, limiting the field to a few players, top two pair often becomes a big hand worth pushing, unless the action has been pretty heavy before it gets to you. Against a field of five or more other players, however, it is much too easy to be up against a set or a huge drawing hand that is favored over your two pair. I will bet the hand, but not call a big bet or raise with it. And pay attention to the betting. If the opponent likely have you beaten based on their betting, you are better off mucking top two.

The above assumes that you have top two pair without any big draws on the side. However, your starting hand strategies are designed to give you redraws if you flop top two pair. For example, if I flopped top two pair on a board of QT5, I would feel a hell of a lot better holding KQJT or AKQT with a nut flush draw than with QT76, the type of hand you will see many neophytes play. With a strong redraw such as these, your hand becomes a lot more powerful, and you should stand a lot of action with it, perhaps even going all-in. Against bottom set you have 12 outs twice, and your opponent may have a worse made hand than yours.

If I’m raised with middle set, it becomes a question of who I am facing, and what the board looks like. If I do not believe the raiser to be an aggressive player, and the board is something like K-7-4 rainbow that makes a drawing hand unlikely, I will strongly favor folding the hand, as it is too easy to go broke to a bigger set. If I have seen this player do a decent amount of betting, I will push in with middle set to give any possible drawing hands a much worse price. This assumes, of course, that we are talking about a board with no possible straight or flush showing. If more than one hand can currently beat your middle set, you should not be betting at all, and probably should fold to any bet. With top set, you can probably call because any board pair is likely to give you a winner. If there is a lot of action in front of you (say a pot-size bet, pot-size raise and a call), I think you would do well to fold middle set in the long run. Even if you are not against top set, your hand is very vulnerable to straights and flushes, and opponents are likely to be negating your full house outs with hands like two pair.

With the current nuts, it is generally correct to get a lot of money in the pot. The primary exception is when you have a medium-size nut straight on a board with two to a suit, or if the betting indicates that someone else has the same straight and two to a suit have flopped. Here I would proceed slowly until I saw a safe turn card, then push the turn betting. If it was a bet and raise before my turn to act, I think I would fold, as someone certainly has the same straight as me, and my hand is vulnerable to flushes and full houses. If the flush card comes on the turn, or the board pairs, just get out whenever someone bets, and be glad you didn’t go broke on the hand. Don't get married to hands in Omaha. Your hand will often turn into garbage, so get used to folding in this situation.

Even with the nut flush, it is important to charge hands like sets and two pair for the privilege to try to draw out on you. Many players will (incorrectly) call a pot-size bet with two pair even if you obviously have a flush, so why not collect from them? Remember, your hand is still vulnerable here, so bet to protect it. Your dream is to catch someone with a lower flush (especially second-nut) that will be happy to get in a big pot with you. (Remember this when you are thinking about playing a non-nut flush or flush draw. Save your money and get out in these situations.)

With the current nut full house, it is important to chase out hands like overpairs (which can hit a bigger full house on the next card), and to collect bets from someone who has trips or a lower full house. There are some important distinctions here, however. With A-K-x-x on a board of A-A-K, you are not worried about getting outdrawn, so your goal is either to slowplay and hope someone sets a small pocket pair for a lower full, or collect bets if anyone has K-K-x-x or A-x-x-x. If someone has already bet a large amount, however, go ahead and raise (unless this player is likely to continue bluffing if you just call). You will not fool anyone into thinking you are calling the bet without a hand (so they will not continue to bluff), and it is important to win a lot of money from A-x-x-x before the river, as he is hoping to hit a full house (which will lose), but may fold on the river if he is not full. However, if you have 9-8-7-6 on a 9-9-8 flop, it is important to bet enough to get a hand like a pair of queens out so that a Q turn does not bankrupt you. Even in first position, bet at least half the size of the pot here, and hope someone raises you. With quads, however, you should slowplay and hope someone catches up, unless the players in your game are the type who will draw to straights or flushes on a paired board. If so, bet a low amount and hope that they complete their draws, or that someone hits a losing full house.

Dismissing the slight possibility that you are facing quads, it is usually nicer to have 9-9-x-x on a flop of 9-8-8 than 9-8-x-x on a flop of 9-9-8. With the former you are not vulnerable to trips hitting a big kicker to beat you. Still, you must bet heavily to get overpairs to fold. With the under-full house (such as 8-8-x-x on the 9-9-8 flop), play is tricky. Though you are a significant favorite against most hands with a 9, the opponent may already have 9-8, leaving you dead in the water. I would play this hand very cautiously if someone wants to initiate big action with me. The under-full is not a fun hand to play, so do not play small pairs trying to build one. Finally, if you are lucky enough to have quads, there are many ways to play it. My preferred method is to make a small bet (unless the other players know you well enough that this is a signal of a big hand), and hope that I get callers who will build the pot, and perhaps draw to straights and flushes. This is one of the few situations in PLO where betting small is correct; since you know your opponent is drawing dead, give him a chance to get there.

Play on the Turn

In virtually all other forms of community card poker, the flop is the most critical betting round. In pot-limit Omaha, it is definitely the turn. Generally the confrontation on the turn, assuming there has been action on the flop, is a made hand betting into one or two draws. Unfortunately for the made hand, a lot of turn cards usually look as though they have completed a possible draw, and the made hand usually does not know what the drawing hand consists of. (This is especially true when the made hand is a set. Do not go thinking a set is the holy grail of this game.)

If the board has counterfeited your hand and you have no chance to redraw on a better hand (the third suited card has hit the board when you have a straight, or the board pairs when you have a flush), I recommend checking and folding to any substantial bet. In my experience, most weak players will gladly take the free card if they are not drawing to the hand you give them credit for, and do not have the guts to make a big bet without a hand. (If you have cultivated a table image as someone who can be bluffed easily, you may have to adjust this strategy.)

If, however, you have a hand with a substantial number of redraw outs (for example, a set when a possible straight or flush card arrives), the play is trickier. If a flush card has hit, it is quite likely that it has hit your opponent. However, a possible straight card is not always good for the enemy, especially if the flop contained a two-flush. Being in position in these situations is very nice, which is why you want to play tighter in the front and looser in the back positions. If you haven’t yet appreciated the enormous value of position in PLO, you will after playing the turn. If the opponent has checked to you and you have a hand that may be winning and has redraws if it isn’t, I generally like to bet out, unless I know the opponent is so timid that he will never bluff me on the river if I show weakness. (And yes, there are lots of these guys out there!) If I’m raised, I only have ten outs to improve a set. If you are positive you are behind and do not anticipate winning any future bets if you make your hand, you need 13 outs to call a pot-size bet on the turn. This means that calling a pot-size bet with just the nut flush draw, as any beginner will do, is a definite no-no. With a set, your decision comes down to how likely the opponent is to call a river bet should the board pair.

Note that when you have a multi-way hand, your first hand may be counterfeited by the same card that hits your draw. This avoids all guesswork and allows you to keep betting strongly, which is exactly why multiway hands are so prized in PLO. Of course, you won’t see them nearly as often as you’d like.

If you still have the nuts on the turn, bet like it. Charge the draws a lot, because they will beat you a substantial amount of the time and you need to make them pay for the privilege.

Play on the River

By the river, you either have a nut hand or a hand that you would like to show down cheaply. (You might also have missed a draw, or been forced in with a crappy hand because there has been no betting, but these situations are not worth discussing.) Do not make the beginner’s mistake of trying to squeeze the last drop out of a non-nut hand by betting a very small amount in last position with it on the river. This is not limit texas hold ‘em, where you want to get a crying call on your hand. I see this kind of bet made all the time, and the player usually gets hit with a big check-raise which he either calls, losing the showdown, or is forced to fold to, not knowing if the opponent might be bluffing. Naturally, against the right opponent I will try this bluff. You do not want to make this small bet. The slight extra profit you can make is not worth the risk of a costly check-raise.

If you have made a full house against an opponent’s flush or straight, it may be in your best interests to make a “teaser” bet on the river of $5 into a $20 pot, which almost always gets called. This improves your implied odds on your turn call. This is another situation where I deviate from the pot-size bet principle, because this is a situation you should never be bluffing in, so you should bet the most you can that will get called regularly. Against the right player, that might be $20 (representing a big bluff), but against some it is $5. Try to learn the tendencies of the other players in your game, so you can know how much to squeeze from him. Do not try to check-raise in this situation. The vast majority of players will just show their hand down.

Here is one hard and fast rule I believe all beginners should follow: Never talk yourself into a call. If you have to work to convince yourself that a hand is worth a call, it almost certainly is not. I know, because I used to do this all the time at PLO, and none of these calling hands ever won a pot. Somehow, the next time I tried to talk myself into a call, all the past times when I had lost the pot after calling were blocked out of my head. If you are sitting with a non-nut straight and think “well, he may be bluffing, so I have to call this pot-size bet”, you are thinking exactly like the losing players in your game do, and it is these losing players that provide you with your profits. Avoid these losing strategies like the plague.

If you have the nuts and you know an opponent is sitting with a weaker hand, the amount that you bet is up to you, and it depends primarily on the opponent. Some players will always call a small bet here, but never a big one, so why not just bet a little and let them in? A river call by your opponent with a losing hand is pure profit for you. If, however, your opponent tends to talk himself into calling bets pretty often, go ahead and make a big bet. This is also the best strategy if you suspect your opponent has a weaker hand than yours, such as a lower full house, but is too timid to bet or raise himself if you play your hand meekly. Just make a big bet and hope he calls it.

Sitting Down for the First Time

UltimateBet offers a .01/.02 blinds pot-limit Omaha game. This game is extremely loose, so the strategy of just waiting for a big hand and then betting is always correct. I recommend this game only if you are on a small bankroll or just learning PLO. Once you can afford the moderate swings that come with the .10/.25 PLO tables (or the $25 tables, as they are called on many servers), these are a great place to learn, and even play regularly. Most of the bad PLO players on the server gravitate towards these limits, so you can just sit back, play solid poker, and rake in the money.

If you’re getting good enough to “play with the big boys”, go ahead and step up to the $50 and $100 buy-in tables. These tables feature fewer bad players than the $25 ones, but since they are played for four times the stakes, you can win more quickly. At levels above the $100 buy-in tables, the games will probably be getting too tight-aggressive for you to win with just “book smarts”. These games require a lot of experience and practice to beat, so definitely avoid them until you demonstrate that you can win regularly at a tight-aggressive PLO table.

Whatever limit you play, if you are playing well, always buy in for the maximum allowed amount. Since you will be playing the winning hand in a confrontation more often than the losing one, you want to maximize the profit on your good hands by having a lot of chips in front of you. (To minimize the loss on your bad hands, rather than buying in for only a few chips and going all-in, just learn to fold bad hands.) Note that on Party/Empire, the maximum buy-in is 50 big blinds instead of 100. This is annoying, as you get less value for your big hands relative to the size of the blinds. However, the players there are so bad that it more than makes up for the decrease in implied odds.

Improving Your Game

As you advance in PLO, you will realize that there are many situations in the game that cannot be telegraphed by an instructional web page. Too many unique situations come up to possibly cover them all. However, if you are a winning player already, you should be able to use your judgment to make the correct play in these sorts of cases. Remember, there is no substitute for experience. Re-reading this page and the two books I recommended will help keep your game sharp and fix leaks in your strategy.

Good luck!!!