Switching from hold’em to Omaha

January 8th, 2011

One of the key factors in switching from Texas Hold’em poker to PLO is in the number of hand combinations that there are in Omaha compared to hold’em. In hold’em you have juts the one hand combination and so if you get A-J then you can only use A-J and nothing else apart from what is on the board but these are community cards for everyone to use. But in Omaha then you have four cards but this makes six times the number of hand combinations and not four.

You have AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD unlike the simple AB that you have in hold’em. I have often heard it said that this makes the game far more complex. I tend to disagree with this as I think that it can often make it simpler. With hold’em having only two cards then you can often allow this very simple fact of the game to get yourself into trouble. Because the game only has two cards then this means that both players are going to find it difficult to hit the flop with unpaired hands. Also even if a player hits the flop like with K-J then how much action are they going to be able to stand hitting only one pair in a deep stacked situation?

But with Omaha then the nuts will be out there far more often. Also position is more critical as well in Omaha and let us look at a ten handed ring game to highlight what I mean. If you are UTG then seven other players will have position on you and that is a staggering 42 hand combinations. But there will be a total of 9 players to act after you and that makes it an even higher 54 hand combinations.

To voluntarily put yourself out of position to this many hand combinations is not good poker. It is for this exact reason why many players simply do not raise from early position with any hand however strong it is even aces. There are huge differences between the two games but similarities too of course. Both are flop games and both have community cards that can be played by all.

In Omaha though you are only allowed to use two cards from your hand and two from the middle of the board unlike in hold’em where you can play the board. In multi-way pots then the nuts is out there far more often than it is in hold’em and look at a four way flop with board cards of Js-10s-7c. In hold’em this flop would indicate that someone somewhere possibly had a decent hand. In Omaha then someone surely has a strong hand and 9-8 for a made straight is a definite possibility. But even a made straight cannot get too excited here as there are sets that can hit redraws and also higher straights and flushes that could be possible on the next card.

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