Intermediate Omaha Poker Strategy

With starting hand strategies out of the way we can move on to some actual game time considerations and intermediate strategies for Playing Omaha. Much of the discussion here will most likely go against what some of you may think or know about Omaha. People have come to many wrong conclusions in regards to Omaha and we are here to set the record straight and show you the proper techniques to winning at Omaha.

Pre-Flop Raising

Many people will tell you that Omaha is more a game of flops and that it is better just to wait and see the flop before committing a lot of money to the pot. Well, that really is just not the case. Pre flop raising can be an excellent tool in Omaha and it is vital that you use it properly. While starting hands do run closer in Omaha there can be great disparity between a great hand and the crap that a lot of bad players usually hold. Pre flop raising puts these players on the defensive and puts you in a dominating position. Obviously the flop is very important and will determine how the rest of the hand is played, but it would be foolish not to put money in the pot when you have an excellent hand and your opponents have mediocre hands. Even in close situations, you can usually grind out enough of a profit to make your raises worth it. Here are some guidelines:

• When you are in middle or late position with a powerful hand, punish early position limpers by coming in for a raise, even if your hand doesn’t hit, it will enough to make this a very profitable play.
• If you have a good hand on the button or on the small blind and most of the table has folded, go ahead and raise to steal the blind. Even if the steal attempt doesn’t work, if you have a better hand it will be a profitable move.

Bluffing in Omaha

Bluffing certainly can be effective in Omaha. While it is not quite the same as with Texas hold’em, there are definite advantages to bringing some deception into your Omaha game. Because Omaha can be a new and confusing game to many who try it, you will want to be careful who you bluff against. Generally speaking, new players with low skill levels don’t really respond to bluffs. You can try, but more often than not, the new Omaha player will do a hail mary and pray for better cards to come rather than fold. If you can pinpoint a good player however, they might be susceptible to a well timed bluff. 

An excellent time to bluff in Omaha is when the pot is small and the board is generally uncoordinated. Often times what will happen is that a player will have something, but it could be very weak and this is a good opportunity for you to take advantage and win the pot. Look for boards like JJ9 rainbow or KJ9 with at least two of the same suit. Again these are boards that could be very good to certain players but they can also be very mediocre, missing many players by one or two cards. If you can be successful at bluffing for this kind of pot from time to time you will actually make a bunch of extra profit and fill in the gaps nicely.

Game Specific Strategy