So what have i learned about Omaha poker?!?

After a couple days of playing, I already have a fair amount of knowledge at my disposal but there is plenty still to learn. Let's just say I still am missing the finer subtleties of hand selection, but I seem to be able to hold my own at low stakes pot limit Omaha High so far. I can tell you what hands are great and should almost always be played (AAJT double suited and stuff like KQJT). With some restrictions some other hands to play are medium pairs with other working cards, medium connectors without too many gaps like 9875 with some suitedness, and suited aces with connectors like A678. Try not to play too many hands where one card is almost useless (called a dangler, example KQJ3 has the 3 useless in battle unless it's suited to another card). Two holdem hands does not equal one good Omaha hand (crap like KQs with 67s is not really playable although it looks decent, you cant flop very many big draws).

When you are thinking about playing a hand, you usually want to build hands like:

1) BIG sets/full houses -- you should rarely play bottom/middle set for your stack like you would in Texas holdem. This doesnt mean you shouldnt play low and middle pairs ever but try to at least have a semi good position to get the info you need on the flop as to whether a higher set may be out against you. If it goes bet then raise before the action even reaches you and you have bottom set, you should strongly consider folding. Also, with even top set unless the board pairs you need to be wary of straights especially if a lot of players are out against you.

2)NUT flushes -- alot of the hands you will be building will contain suited cards which do not contain the ace of that suit. You shouldn't be looking to get your stack in the middle here either without the nut flush. You can generally bet if it has been passed to you, but if the stakes get big or there is alot of action, you may need to dump a small/medium or even King high flush.

3) BIG straights -- small/medium straights can definitely win your fair share of pots, but they won't be the nuts very often when all is said and done. Big straights like broadway however cant be counterfeited as the nuts simply because a higher card came (they need a 3 flush or the board to pair to lose the nuts).

Never slow play! Well almost never. I slow played once with quads but that is about it. People with draws need to pay to try to beat you and believe me, they can have some pretty big draws. Regular straight draws like QJxx in your hand on a T92 board (a Texas holem like draw) suck in this game. They have at most 8 outs. Now look at something like QJ87 on that same board. With no 2 flush, you now have out of 4 Kings, 3 Queens, 3 Jacks, 3 eights, 3 sevens and 4 sixes. That is 20 outs although only 14 are nut outs.

Don't get in huge raising wars on the flop just because you have the current nuts. You can usually be easily outdrawn and even if you weren't on the next card sometimes you can't tell. Also, someone else could have the nuts with you AND have a huge draw to better hands.

Note, position is HUGE in this game. If you play Texas holdem with proficiency, you should already realize that drawing type hands play much better with late position. You get to see the action in front of you and get on average cheaper draws. Also you a better shot to get paid off more with your bets and raises increasing implied odds. Since Omaha is such a drawing game with usually more outs than Texas holdem, these factors become even more important.

More later on this crazy action game of Omaha!