Omaha Poker Strategy

p181 out of pp283. The editing is the same: there is no conceptual confusion as found in NL&PLHE (where infamously a pair of eights was both a big pair and a small pair and we were told to play it one way as a big pair and another way as a small pair). Being in the conversation style of McEvoy and Cloutier, it most certainly does not read like a textbook but do not be fooled: it is jam-packed with information.

The book is comprehensive in that it covers Omaha high-low, pot limit Omaha and limit Omaha. The book has sections on each of these games but also has a section on various hands and how they would be played - or not played as the case may be - in the several Omaha games. I am conversant with Caffione's Omaha Poker: The Action Game, Supersystem II (Bobby Baldwin's PLO chapter), Mike Cappelletti's How To Win At Omaha High-Low Poker and The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide Guide (which has chapters on tournament Omaha8 and tournament PLO). This book certainly is not embarrassed by anything written in those texts. If this was your first Omaha book, then you would have done well for yourself. Though, that is not to say it is a beginner's book as it is clearly not. No explanation of how the various Omaha games are played is given though there is a glossary for those of us not familiar with Clouterian English).

This book coupled with your ability to learn from your poker playing experience is enough to turn you into a winner at Omaha8, PLO and limit Omaha.

Thanks for the review, I personally really enjoyed the book. The only thing I sort of disliked was the lack of organization from time to time - if for example the authors are talking (specifically) about PLO, they will throw in comments about an O/8 hand, and vice-versa. That's probably due to the conversational nature of the book's style, but at times it was annoying because you had to mentally switch gears and remember the nuances of the other games. And I personally really didn't see the need to have the "Tales from T.J." section at the end - it just felt like filler.

But I totally agree with your observations, a lot of sound advice is present in this book, and it has made a big difference in the way I play PLO and Omaha/8. I think anyone that has played a bit of Omaha (and other poker variations), and certainly anyone acquainted with the in-depth level of the 2+2 books, would find this a pretty reasonable read, comprehension wise.

Omaha Poker shares many characteristics with the better known Texas Holdem. However, there is a major difference with 4 'hole cards' being dealt to each player instead of just 2. This in turn means that the hands shown down are, on average, far stronger - and requires some adjustment to the way that poker players think about their starting hand selection.

This article looks at how players new to this form of the game should approach the decision as to which hands to play and which to fold.

The key hand selection strategy for Omaha poker is to choose hands which contain cards that work well together. At showdown each player must use exactly 2 cards of their own and 3 from the 'community cards' board to make a winning hand. This means that the number of 2-card combinations is an important factor.

For example, you are dealt 4 cards before the flop A-B-C-D. There are 6 potential 2 card pairings here:

A-B, A-C, A-D, B-C, B-D and C-D

With 4 cards close in rank, having 2 suits or all being ranked 10 or higher you have the possibility of all 6 combinations working for you. On the other hand if 'D' is an off-suit 2 then the potential showdown pairings are immediately reduced to 3 - now only A-B, A-C and B-C work in your favor.

Reduce this to a single pair and 2 'rags' and you will see that you only have a single combination working for you. Omaha Poker hands are usually won by nut straights, flushes or a full house - making sure that your hand contains cards which work well together will ensure that you maximize your potential to make a hand strong enough to win at showdown!

High pairs are playable before the flop in this form of the game, however caution is advised with holdings such as an over-pair - particularly if the flop shows possible straights or flushes. Holdings such as A-A-x-x (where the 'x' indicates an unrelated small card) are powerful but not a huge favorite against many coordinated hands that your opponents might play.

For example A-A-2-7 of 4 different suits is actually a small underdog to 5-6-7-8 of 2 suits - the latter holding is known as a 'rundown' and is a potentially strong hand in Omaha due to multiple possibilities to make straights and flushes.

There is considerable debate concerning which is the strongest starting hand in Omaha. Some people believe that A-A-J-10 double suited (that is or 2 suits with the potential to make 2 ace-high flushes) is the best. Others argue that A-A-K-K double suited is even better - since a 2-pair holding will flop trips approximately 1 time in 4.

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