Omaha Post Flop Tips
Written February 6, 2008 by Jack Jones
By reading out Omaha post flop tips you are going to have a better chance of winning money at the tables. The toughest thing to do in Omaha is folding after betting the flop, even if you know you have a losing hand. Read this article to quit wasting money by adding this move to your strategy.
If you have played often at the Omaha/8 table then you know that when the betting is capped on the turn then both players are pretty excited about the upcoming river. There is a monster pile of chips in the middle of the table that both players feel entitled too.
It’s one monster pot like this that will make the difference between winning and losing. Playing these hands the right way will go a long ways to determining a player’s success at Omaha.
The whole goal of this game is to get out as cheaply as possible when you are beat and winning as much money as possible when holding the nuts.
The first and most important thing when you are playing Omaha is to know just where you stand on every street. There are too many players out there who will not throw a hand away even when they’re sure they’re beat in a big pot. They will keep calling only to find out if they were right earlier in the hand.
A typical hand where you can get into trouble is flopping two pair with a hand like A-3-6-K. The flop comes A-3-J, with a flush draw you don’t hold. You’re first to act and fire a bet into the pot. It then gets raised, called, called and three-bet by the time it gets back to you. You very well could be drawing extremely thin at this point. If an Ace comes, it’s likely you hold the second-best full house. If you catch a King on the turn, your two pair might be beat by the 10-Q-K wrap who called all those bets on the flop. If a 6 comes, you’re still likely beat by Aces and Jacks, and all the made lows and flush draws are Freerolling on you.
Even with all of those odds stacked against you, many inexperienced players will still call almost every time. It’s rare for an unseasoned player to make a bet and then fold on the same round of betting. To be a winning player though you have to be willing to do just that.
On the other hand, say that same A-3-J flop comes down and you hold A-2-4-5 with the nut flush draw. Yes, you have a monster. You’re first to act and bet, and again it gets raised and three bet. This time you cap it. The turn comes a deuce. Now it’s time to make extra bets.
With all the action that came behind you on the flop, you can be almost certain someone will bet if you check. You check, which puts the thought into the other player’s mind that you may have been counterfeited, or at best are holding a set. After a bet and a few calls, now you are in position to make that check raise — and you might not even lose some of the people drawing dead! Excuse No. 1 why a losing player calls when drawing dead? The pot is too big to pass up on.
If you had bet out on the turn when the deuce hit after capping it on the flop, any above-average player would most likely put you on your hand and you won’t get any action. That same player may still call your check-raise, perhaps hoping to fill up on the end, but at least he will have to pay to get there.
There are a lot of large multi-way pots in O/8. It’s easy to be tempted by the amount of money in the center of the table. But, like in most forms of poker, a hand that is usually strong heads-up or three handed simply doesn’t carry the same weight in a multi-way pot against multiple draws. And in O/8, you might have to fend off five or six players, each holding four cards in their hand. It’s just flat tough to make two pair on the flop hold up in that case.
Omaha-Eight-or-Better is all about holding the nuts or at least drawing to them. Its one reason why A-2 with two blanks — like say 8-10 — is such a dangerous hand. It gets played pre-flop almost every time, yet it rarely gets more than half the pot, and costs too much when the low that doesn’t get there.
Hands that work together for both high and low, like A-2-Q-K or A-2-4-K (I’ll take mine double suited, thanks) are key. “Nut-Nut” is a beautiful thing, especially at the end of a monster pot where the dealer has to do nothing with all those chips in front of everybody but push them to you.