To win at Omaha, you need to make smart decisions on the flop. If you’ve used good judgment before the flop and chosen a strong starting hand, most decisions you have to make on the flop will be fairly easy. There will be times, however, when you’ll be faced with a serious dilemma, and it is your response in these situations that will determine if you’re going to be a winner or a loser in the long run.
At this point in the hand you have seen seven of the nine cards you’ll see if you choose to play all the way to the river. You must now decide if you want to fold or continue on in the hand. If you decide to keep playing, you should either have a made hand or a strong draw to the nuts. Straightforward play, betting or raising with the nuts or calling with a draw, is usually the best play.
If you’re sitting in early position and you flop top set, you should generally lead out with a bet. You shouldn’t check, trying to set a trap. Sets in Omaha aren’t nearly as strong as they are in hold’em so you need to bet in order to protect your hand. The worst thing you can do is check and give your opponents a free card that allows one of them to draw out on you. Sets can be very vulnerable hands unless you end up making a full house. Until then, you’d be wise to think of them as being no better than a draw.
Here’s an example of how risky sets can be. You have a pair of kings in your hand and the flop comes K-7-5. You have top set, the best possible hand, and you cap the betting on the flop. A 6 falls on the turn. You are now losing to 9-8, as well as 8-4 and 4-3, and odds are that if you’re against more than one player one of them has made a straight. If all of your opponents check, you should check as well. If one of them bets, you should call. If the board doesn’t pair on the river and one of them bets again, you have to muck your hand.
Now let’s say you’re in early position with 7-7-x-x and the flop comes K-7-2. Your hand is a bit more secure because there isn’t a straight draw on the board, but you still have to bet it. You can’t be tricky and check because any card that falls on the turn will give one of your opponents, and possibly more, some sort of draw. Let’s say the 8 of diamonds comes on the turn, putting two diamonds on the board. That card could give one opponent a flush draw and another a wrap, and your middle set, a hand that looked so secure on the flop, is suddenly in great danger.
Now let’s say you call a raise before the flop with that same hand, 7-7-x-x, and once again the flop comes K-7-2. If you lead out with a bet on the flop and the pre-flop raiser comes over the top of you, he almost certainly has aces or kings. To find out which, you should reraise him to see where he’s at. If he caps the betting, he has undoubtedly flopped a set of kings. While you shouldn’t muck your hand—middle set is simply too strong—you can’t play it too aggressively either. You should check and call all the way. In pot-limit I would consider mucking middle set, but not in limit. You can call all the way because it’s not going to break you. If your opponent shows you aces, you’re going to win a nice pot. If he shows you kings, you’re going to pay him off. But by only calling on the turn and the river you’re going to minimize your losses in the hand, and that’s very important because when you lose your chips in limit poker it’s very hard to get them back. If you dig a huge hole for yourself, you’re not going to be able to win it all back in a single hand. That just doesn’t happen.
As tricky as middle sets can be, bottom sets can be even trickier. If you have a pair of deuces in your hand and the flop comes K-7-2, you should play the hand similar to the way you did the set of 7s but with a little more caution. Lead out with a bet, and if you get raised you should reraise to see where you’re at. If a Rock caps it, you have to put him on a bigger set and you have to consider mucking your hand. How you play this hand really depends on what kind of player you’re up against. If you’re playing against Sammy, you should be more inclined to call him all the way. Because he’s so aggressive he might only have a hand like K-7. If that’s what you put him on and a king or a 7 falls on the turn, you should lead out with a bet. If you get raised, you should muck your hand because when you think about how he played his hand on the flop, he likely has a bigger full house than yours. He either has K-K or K-7, and your deuces are no longer any good.
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Like sets, two pair is a hand that needs to be played with equal amounts of caution and aggression. When you flop two pair and the board isn’t very well coordinated, you will often have the best hand. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you only have four outs to improve your hand, and you could already be losing to a set. If you bet on the flop and get raised, you shouldn’t fold, but you shouldn’t reraise either. You can play the hand, but you should play it conservatively, as if you were in a tournament and every chip in front of you is precious. When you get raised holding two pair, it’s hard to know exactly what your opponent has—if he’s on a draw or has a set—but either way you have to figure you’re getting the worst of it. If your opponent’s got a monster draw, just about any card that doesn’t help you is going to help him.
If you flop top two pair in early position—you’ve got Q-9 and the flop comes Q-9-7 offsuit—you should lead out with a bet in order to protect your hand because there are so many possible straight draws. You shouldn’t check because if it gets checked all the way around someone could make a long-shot draw on the turn like an inside straight, a hand they would have folded if you’d bet. So the best move is to bet. If you get raised, you should just call. There’s no point in reraising because it’s limit poker and your opponents aren’t going to lay their hands down to a single raise. If you bet and two players call behind you and the button raises, then you should reraise because it might convince the two callers to fold their hands.
Now let’s say you’re on the button and you flop the same top two pair, but this time there are two hearts on board. What was a dangerous flop has now become a very dangerous flop. One player could have a wrap. Another could have a flush draw. Another could have both. If the player in first position bets and gets three callers, you should just call. As you should know by now, if you raise none of your opponents is going to fold. They’re all going to call, and just about any card that comes on the turn is going to hurt you. Your best move would be to call, and if you happen to catch a blank on the turn, consider yourself fortunate. If the turn is a queen or a 9, all your opponents are going to check to you, and when you bet they’re going to call. Nobody’s going to put you on a full house because you didn’t raise on the flop. By just calling, you confused them, and confused players are always more likely to give you their money.
Another reason you don’t want to raise in this situation is that someone with a monster draw might reraise you. The player who started the betting from first position might have J-10-8-6 with two hearts, a hand that’s favored to beat yours. So the best move is to call and take a card off and see what happens. By playing it this way, you can minimize your losses if someone makes a straight or a flush, and you can maximize your profits if you make a full house or the board finishes with two blanks.
After top two pair, the value of the so-called made hands on the flop drops precipitously. Top and bottom pair needs to be played with extreme caution, if at all, and bottom two pair might be the worst hand on earth. You can play bottom two pair if you’re heads-up and believe your opponent has aces or kings; otherwise you’d be better off mucking the hand.
In a ring game a single pair is worthless unless you have some sort of draw to go with it. Players making the transition from hold’em tend to overvalue top pair because in hold’em it’s often the best hand. Pocket aces that fail to improve on the flop can be lumped into this same category as they are about as strong—or in this case weak—as top pair. The only time aces are strong is if you’ve managed to get heads-up before the flop. If you bet and get raised on the flop, you should call and take a card off. Your opponent may only have two pair, in which case you have outs, or he may only have top pair, in which case you’re a big favorite.
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When you flop the nut straight, how you should play the hand depends in large part upon where you’re sitting at the table. If you’re in early position and you’ve got J-10-x-x, and the flop comes K-Q-9, you should, of course, bet. However, if there are a lot of players involved in the hand and there’s not much money in the pot, you would be better off checking with the intention of check-raising. Under these circumstances if you lead out with a bet, everyone’s going to call, and you’re going to get lost on the turn. Yes, you’re taking a chance that everyone might check behind you, but that’s poker. You have to take your chances sometimes. It’s more likely that someone will bet with a hand like two pair. By check-raising that player, you’ll be able to protect your hand by reducing the size of the field. Instead of going against three or four callers on the turn, you’ll be playing heads-up against one, which will give you a much better chance of winning the hand.
From middle position you should be more inclined to bet your nut straight if several players check in front of you, but if one of them bets, go ahead and raise him for the same reason as before, to protect your hand. The players sitting behind you will now have to call two bets instead of one, and they’ll be much less likely to do that.
If you’re in late position and flop the nut straight, and a player in early position bets, and there are three callers, you should just call. By doing this you will maximize your profits (if your hand holds up) and minimize your losses (if you get outdrawn). Calling also disguises the strength of your hand. If the turn is a blank and the action proceeds as before—bet, call, call, call—then you can raise and make a lot more money because the bets have now doubled. If you raise on the flop, everyone will know exactly what you have, and your raise isn’t going to succeed in knocking any of them out. Then, if the turn is a blank, they’re all going to check to you, and you will only be able to get one bet out of them if they decide to call and none if they fold.
These two instances—trying to check-raise from early position and merely calling from late position with the nut straight—are rare exceptions to the rule that you should never slowplay your hand in Omaha. Flopping quads or a straight flush are two more. In these cases all you can do is check and hope someone else takes an interest in the hand. Every other time you think you have the best hand you have to bet, especially when there’s a lot of money in the pot. One of the worst mistakes you can make in Omaha is checking when you should have bet and giving your opponents a free card. Anytime you give a free card in Omaha, it will come back to haunt you.
One time I was playing one of the best players in the world heads-up at the Golden Nugget. He flopped a set and checked. I was sitting on the button, and I had no piece of the flop. All I had was an inside straight draw so I checked behind him. The first card off gave me a straight. He was trying to trap me, but he ended up trapping himself. I raked in a huge pot, and I didn’t even belong in the hand.
While you should never give a free card if you’re in early position with a great hand, you should always take a free card if you’re in late position and you have any kind of draw. Free cards are so revered in Omaha that many players will cap the betting on the flop with a strong draw hoping to get a free card on the turn (they’re also trying to build a pot in case they do make their draw). If you flop a wrap and the nut flush draw, and you’re in late position, and a player in early position bets, you should raise. If he comes back over the top of you, go ahead and cap it. He’ll undoubtedly check to you on the turn. If you make your draw, bet. If you miss, take the free card. If he leads out with a bet on the turn, just call. If you miss again on the river, muck your hand.
This is one of the more common scenarios you’ll see in limit Omaha. Players will cap the betting on the flop, especially when they’re heads-up, and then they’ll shut down on the turn. Whenever they do that, you know they’re on a draw. If you’ve got a made hand, and you’re in early position, and you suspect your opponent capped the betting on the flop with a draw, bet into him on the turn if a blank falls. Don’t give him the free card he so desperately wants.
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In Omaha, many draws are so strong they’re actually favored to beat made hands, even ones as strong as top set. Many hold’em players have a hard time believing this, but it’s true. If you and four other players call before the flop and the flop comes J-10-5 with two clubs, and you have a set of jacks, your hand is extremely vulnerable. Someone’s going to have a flush draw and someone’s going to have a wrap and someone else might even have both a flush draw and a wrap. In this example you will only win the hand 45 percent of the time.
In a game of draws, a wrap is the strongest one you can have as it gives you even more outs than a flush draw. A lot of players making the transition from hold’em don’t seem to understand what a wrap is and just how powerful it can be. Some hold’em players equate wraps with open-ended straight draws, but an open-ended straight draw only gives you eight outs while most wraps in Omaha will give you at least 13 outs and as many as 20.
A wrap’s strength varies according to the way it matches up with the flop. Let’s say the flop comes 7-6-2. If you have 10-9-8-5, then you’ve got a three-card wrap and 16 outs to make a straight (four 4s, three 5s, three 8s, three 9s, and three 10s). If you have 9-8-5-4, then you’ve got a four-card wrap, also known as a full wrap, which gives you 20 outs (four 3s, three 4s, three 5s, three 8s, three 9s, and four 10s). When all four of your cards are involved as they are in the latter example, that’s the biggest wrap you can have.
As nice as it is to have a full wrap, you can make your straight and still lose to a flush or a full house. If you flop a full wrap but there are two cards of the same suit on the board, you should just call and take a card off. You can’t play that hand very aggressively because if the flush hits, you’re going to have to muck your hand. If you do make your straight on the turn, then you can play your hand aggressively because with only one card to come you’re favored to win the hand.
If you happen to flop a wrap and a flush draw, you can have as many as 28 outs to improve your hand. That’s over half the deck! You can play this hand very aggressively on the flop, especially if you’re in late position. By doing this, you’re building a pot so that if you do make your hand you’ll get the most out of it. If you don’t make your draw on the turn, then you can slow down and take a free card. If you do make your straight on the turn, but the board pairs on the river, giving your opponent a full house, well, that’s Omaha.
Players who are unfamiliar with wraps make a lot of the same mistakes. Some of them think that an inside wrap is a big wrap. It’s not. Let’s say A-10-3 comes on the flop, and you have K-Q-J-x. This looks like a huge wrap because your hole cards are so well integrated with the board that it feels like you’ve already made the straight, but if you take the time to figure out how many outs you have—or in this case don’t have—you’ll see that this hand is barely stronger than an open-ended straight draw. In fact, you only have nine outs, one more than an open-ended straight draw gives you. Now let’s say you have K-K-Q-J. This hand appears just as strong, if not stronger, than the previous example, and yet it gives you even fewer outs, eight, the same as an open-ender. As weak as these draws are, I see players raising and reraising with them all the time.
An equally costly situation can occur when you have a wrap and there are five or six other players involved in the hand. Anytime a lot of players show interest in the same hand you have to suspect that a few of them are holding some of the cards you’re counting as outs. You can still play the hand. You just need to play it less aggressively, knowing that a lot of the cards you’re looking to catch are probably in your opponents’ hands. Weak players don’t think this way, and it ends up costing them money.
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Occasionally in Omaha you will have the good fortune to flop both a made hand and a draw. This is a very strong hand and should be played accordingly. Let’s say you flop top two pair and the nut flush draw. If two players check and the next player bets, you should raise. If it gets reraised, you should cap it. You’re trying to build a pot so if you do improve your hand you’ll make more money. If you don’t make a flush or full house on the turn, then you should just call. Using the same example, if the first player to act bets and the next two players call, you shouldn’t raise because you have to think that at least one, if not both, of the callers is trying to make a flush, which means you have two, and possibly even four, less outs. Instead of nine outs to make your flush, you might only have seven or even five. These killer cards make it much more difficult for you to make your hand. All you can do is call and hope you make your flush on the turn.
Killer cards should not be confused with “blockers.” Killer cards are cards that eliminate several of an opponent’s outs while blockers are cards that make it unlikely for an opponent to have a certain hand, typically the nuts. Let’s say the board is 8-7-6-5, and you have two 9s in your hand. Because you have two of the four cards needed to make the nut straight, you can assume your opponent probably doesn’t have one of those cards in his hand. Although you don’t have the nut straight yourself, having the blockers allows you to represent that you do. This play will generally work nine out of ten times, but when it does fail it will fail spectacularly. I remember one particularly painful hand where I had three 10s and a 6 in my hand—I was in the big blind—and the flop came 9-8-7. We were playing limit, and my opponent and I capped it on every street. He, of course, had the case 10 along with a jack, which gave him the nut straight and a monster pot.
“I had the blockers,” I said, throwing my cards into the muck. “Three lousy 10s.”
One of the most advantageous positions to be in on the flop is to have made a big hand like the nut straight and have a “jelly roll,” a free roll, to make an even bigger hand like a flush. That’s why it’s important to play suited cards before the flop. They can give you redraws later in the hand. If you flop the same straight as your opponent, and you have a flush draw as well, you should play the hand as aggressively as possible knowing that your hand can only get better. By the same token, if you flop a straight and you don’t have any redraws, you need to be conscious of the fact that your opponent might have the same straight and a jelly roll along with it.
Suited cards also allow you to make backdoor hands. For example, if the flop comes J-9-5 with two clubs and a heart, you would probably call on the flop with A-K-Q-10 with two hearts. If the board finishes with two running hearts, you’re going to make a flush when you were only intending to make a straight. As nice as it is to make backdoors, good players don’t chase them.
However, if the pot is huge, if you have position, if it’s only going to cost you one bet, and if you have a hand that contains two nut flush draws, then you can call and take one card off. But that’s a lot of ifs. In the long run you’re going to toss away a lot of money if you insist on chasing backdoors. It’s one thing to try to get lucky once, but with backdoors you’re trying to get lucky twice, and that’s just too much. Calling for backdoors is a weakness shared by many bad limit players, and you should do everything you can to avoid joining their ranks.
The best way to make a backdoor is to do it without even trying. One time I flopped top set and got called by a player who thought his pair of kings was good because it was an overpair to the flop and we were heads-up. He kept raising me on the flop until he’d put all his money into the pot. When we flipped our cards over, he saw the bad news: he only had two outs. His kings were suited, however, and on the turn he picked up a flush draw. Instead of only having two outs, he suddenly had eleven. That’s why you play suited cards in Omaha.
You already know how this story ends. He, of course, made his flush on the river.