Omaha vs Hold'em
Introduction
This article explains the differences in:
- Variance
- Play
- Winrate
between Pot Limit Omaha and Texas Hold'em
The goal of every poker player should be to become a good all-round player, to master every form of the game, and many of you are probably already accomplished and experienced fixed limit or no limit hold'em players.
Learning a new variant is not easy. It is a total change of environment. However, one shouldn't feel intimidated because of Omaha seeming complicated at first glance. Once you have understood the game and strategy, it is a pretty simple and very profitable game.
In addition to that, it will take you one step further to being an excellent all-round player, which can come in handy in future situations. Indeed, when one has mastered more than one poker variant, it is much easier to find good tables, since one is not restricted to one game any more. This increased flexibility can increase your win rate by a lot.
Rules and play
The fundamental difference between Omaha and Texas Hold'em is that one is dealt 4 pocket cards rather than 2, and that exactly two of these cards must be used in combination with three cards of the board to form a hand (The complete rules can be found in the article "Pot Limit Omaha Rules"). Omaha high is mostly played in Pot-Limit format (short. PLO), while Texas Hold'em is generally played in Fixed Limit or No-Limit.
Bankroll management
Because the variance in Pot Limit Omaha is much higher than in Texas Hold'em, you should use a more conservative approach to bankroll management. More information about this can be found in the "Bankroll Management" article.
The nuts
Unlike Texas Hold'em, Omaha is a game where the nuts are rather common. This is not only because of the higher number of hole cards, but also because there are usually much more players that see the flop in Omaha. In an unraised pot it is generally good to assume that one is faced with the nuts when re-raised, unless your opponent has a very strong draw and puts you on a weaker drawing hand, or hopes that you have a made hand that you can fold.
Bluffing
Bluffs are far less frequent than in Texas Hold'em. Especially in the lower limits (up to approx. PLO50), it is often pointless to bluff, because opponents are very loose and will overplay many hands. Therefore I strongly advise against bluffing in the low limits. On the higher limits however, bluffs can be profitable.
Example: The flop is Q
T 8, you hold A J
8
7.
Although you don't have a flush, you hold the Ace. Here one can try to steal the pot with a 1/2 potsize bet, when one knows that the opposition is relatively tight and won't call with the 3rd or 4th flush.
Example: The flop contains 3 cards that are 2-connected and 2-suited. You have a flush draw, and your opponent bets. You call and conclude that he most likely holds a set or top two pair. The turncard completes a potential straight, but not the flush. Your opponent checks to you. This is a perfect spot to represent the straight (which would make sense, since you would play a straight draw the same way), as well as similar situations when draws come in, unless your opponent is extremely loose.
Starting hands
Unlike Texas Hold'em, Omaha doesn't have any monster hands preflop, such as AA in the former. Indeed, it is rarely that an omaha starting hand is more than a 65:35 favorite! However, selecting starting hands wisely in Omaha is extremely important. Among other things, all 4 cards should work well together. Selecting good starting hands becomes increasingly important as you move up in limits to ensure that you don't get into too many tricky situations.
Example: You hold the nut straight. Your opponent also holds the nut straight, but also has a redraw possibility, meaning you can win only half the pot maximum.
To prevent such situations, careful hand selection is necessary.
Here is a little chart demonstrating the equity of aces against different hands:
Hand Pot equity
|
AA** vs random Hand |
65,64% to 34,36% |
|
AA** vs K |
60,99% to 39,01% |
|
AA** vs KK** |
69,95% to 30,05% |
|
AAK* vs KK** |
74,97% to 25,03% |
|
AA** vs 8 |
58,73% to 41,27% |
|
AA** vs 9 |
57,00% to 43,00% |
|
AA** vs 9 |
63,75% to 36,25% |
You can find software to make such equity calculations at http://www.propokertools.com
Drawing Hands
Compared to Texas Hold'em, there are many more drawing hands in Omaha, since one has 4 rather than 2 hole cards. But unlike Hold'em, it is extremely important to only draw to the nuts for flush or straight draws (unless of course you have one nut draw and a "free draw" on the side, e.g. the nut flush draw and a low straight draw, or vice-versa). Otherwise drawing can become very expensive. This point is especially important to Omaha beginners to avoid tricky situations and tough decisions on late streets. Having some guidelines to simplify the game when possible is always important when learning a new variant.
Example: The flop is J-6-5 rainbow and you hold A-Q-7-4. This hand is not a very good drawing hand, since you just have outs to the bottom-end, or idiot-end, of the straight. If a 3 comes on the turn, you will hold the nuts. However if the 8 comes, you only have the second nuts and are in danger of being up against a higher straight, since it is very frequent in Omaha to have several people drawing to the nuts.
Redraws
Another important aspect in Omaha is redraws. These are rare in Hold'em, but not at all so in Omaha.
Here is an example of redraws:
You hold A
Q 8 7 and the flop comes 2 9 T. Although you have an OESD, you must evaluate which outs are live, and which can give you a redraw. If a J comes, you have a straight, but still lose to KQ**. If the J is the J, you will also often be against a flush. The other 3 Jacks give you a redraw to a higher straight with the K.
This example should show how important it is to consider which outs are good, and which ones bring redraws.
Variance
Variance is significantly higher in Omaha than in Hold'em. This is first and foremost because, in constrast with Hold'em, one is rarely a big favorite, and big pots are more common. This means that one finds oneself very often in a coinflip situation for big pots, e.g. All-in with top set versus a strong draw. Because of this bigger variance, it has already happened to me that after winning 7 stacks in one session, I lost 8 in the next (although this is a rather rare situation). However, winning or losing 3-4 stacks in a session is not rare. Therefore you should choose a more conservative bankroll management in Pot Limit Omaha than in Hold'em. Details on this can be found in the "Bankroll management" article.
Backdoor Draws
In Hold'em, backdoor draws play a rather small role. In omaha however, they add a substantial amount of equity. It is relatively common, in an All-in situation, to have backdoor outs to a straight or a flush, or just outs to a backdoor flush and not a straight.
Example: You hold A K T 9, and the flop is T 9 4. Your opponent holds QT T 4 for top set. You get it all-in on the flop. In hold'em you would be as good as drawing dead with your two pair against top set (chance of hitting quads: ~0.1%). In Omaha, with all the backdoor outs, your equity is no less than 10%.
Implied Odds
Like in Hold'em, implied odds are very important in Omaha since one is more often in a drawing situation. However implied odds are usually much lower than in hold'em, since opponents will rarely continue betting or calling when a draw completes on the turn or river. It is important to be aware of one's implied odds against a particular opponent, and if one doesn't have stats on them, it is better to consider them as being rather low. Of course, reverse implied odds should be considered as well, especially when one isn't drawing to the nuts.
When a good opponent bets potsize and all others fold, then you should usually have over 10 outs to justify a call. For a correct call, you need aproximately 13 outs. This means that calling with just a flush draw is in most cases incorrect, in contrast to Hold'em where it is a clear call.
Traffic on the poker sites
A problem with Omaha is that there is a rather low traffic compared to Hold'em. Nevertheless, one can usually find enough tables on big sites like PokerStars and PartyPoker to play. However the traffic depends largely on the time of day. For instance, there is usually very few tables open in the mornings, so if you want to find a good number of tables, evenings are probably the best bet.
Overall strength of opponents
Especially on PartyPoker the opponents are very soft, and there is literally a sea of fish waiting for a game! Particularly at the lower limits, BB/100 rates can be much higher than in Hold'em, which is of course one of the main advantages of Omaha. At PokerStars however, the opponents are usually stronger than on PartyPoker, but there are still enough fish to make the game profitable.
Winrate
An interesting aspect is always how high the winrate is in this or that variant. In PLO, at the lower limits, it can be up to 10BB/100 ! Even at the higher limits, the winrate is rather high in comparison with Hold'em, even if the difference isn't as big as in the lower limits.
Conclusion
This article should give you an overview of the differences between Pot Limit Omaha and Texas Hold'em. Even though variance is much bigger in Omaha, requiring a larger bankroll, the game can be more profitable than its Texan cousin, and is also very interesting. Should you choose to play this variant, be sure to read all of the articles on PokerStrategy so as to understand the complexity of Pot Limit Omaha.
| LINKS | |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
