Omaha is the new in thing in the online poker world, as the Holdem games fill up with players who know what they’re doing the top players are migrating to Omaha to find the fish! Moving from Holdem to Omaha has proved pretty difficult for a lot of Holdem players but if you can manage to transfer your skills then you will reap the rewards of fishy players who lack knowledge of the fundamental aspects of the game. The simple matter of fact is that there is much less information out there about Omaha and even the top players all adopt widely varying styles. This article is intended to make your transition from Holdem to Omaha much easier!
If you are a winning Holdem players then there are some transferable skills which you want to hold on to. Aggression is most certainly one of them, as is isolating players who limp and getting into pots against weaker players in position.
Preflop seems to cause Holdem players who move over to playing Omaha a lot of problems. In Holdem if your playing too many hands preflop then tight aggressive players will punish you. Omaha is slightly different because the range of hands you can play profitably preflop is much much wider. Winning omaha players can have as high a VPIP as 45%. There is always going to be a bigger gap between your PFR and your VPIP when playing Omaha but playing a tight aggressive style would still be considered around a 30% VPIP and a 23% PFR. Playing your first few thousand hands with an overly tight style is never a bad thing.
When it comes to preflop hand selection in Omaha you must remember that two good Holdem hands does not make a good Omaha hand. So J-J-3-3 has no where near the same value in Omaha as KK or 22 would in Holdem. Good hands are hands that connect with each other across all four cards. Hands that are double suited obviously hold more value because they have potential to make two different flushes. So an example of a hand that works really well together would be 9c-10d-Jc-Qd.
Phil Hellmuth rates the following as the top ten hands in Omaha:
1) A-A-K-K double suited
2) A-A-J-T double suited
3) A-A-Q-Q double suited
4) A-A-J-J double suited
5) A-A-T-T double suited
6) A-A-9-9 double suited
7) A-A-x-x double suited
8-9-T-J double suited
9) K-K-Q-Q double suited
10) K-K-J-J double suited
Like in Holdem it still pays to take the betting lead preflop and then continuation bet on the flop. However you do need to be much more selective on which boards you continuation bet and which boards you don’t. Your opponents will call your continuation bets more therefore you need to select dry boards and tight players when continuation betting. Firing the turn is still a valuable play and given you hold four cards your opportunities to semi bluff will be increased dramatically. Multi way pots are a bit different and especially in the lower stakes games you should be continuation betting a lot less.
Many Holdem players struggle with river play when playing Omaha. There are two extremes; I don’t have the nuts so I can’t bet or I have top pair so I call. River play is very opponent dependant, if you’re playing weak opponents that call down light then obviously your value betting range can increase on the river. Playing against tight players you will need a strong holding to value bet the river. Now, that might seem pretty obvious but adapting to your opponents when value betting is even more important when playing Omaha than it is when playing Holdem.
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There is one final adjustment you need to make when moving from Holdem to Omaha and that is your mental approach to the game. Unfortunately Omaha is a game of variance, much more so than Holdem. If you can’t deal with getting sucked out on then there really is no point in even trying to transfer yourself into and Omaha player. Equity margins are much smaller which leads to bigger swings.
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