Pot Limit Omaha (high only)

[JMarks]

I have won quite a bit of money online playing in pl and nl holdem games, but when i play omaha(high only) i do much worse. Can anyone recomend some books/ give some advice. Ive noticed that alot of the players who seem to win alot raise almost all of thier hands, can someone explain this?

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Do you mean preflop? If so, and if you really mean they raise preflop the majority of their hands, then it most likely only SEEMS they're winning. It's hard to win in Omaha if you're playing lots of hands preflop, especially if the money isn't extremely deep postflop. Since you can only buyin for 100x the big blind online, it's not common to be extra deep and to be against opponents who are extra deep.

I limp in a lot in PLO, and raise preflop my fair share as well. The key is knowing when to value bet, and when to fold. Also, pushing big draws on the flop, where you win if they fold, and win (or at least don't lose) if they call, is a big part of PLO play.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[JMarks]

this answer is a little vague. Can you suggest any good books?

[Guy McSucker]

Three good books are Bob Ciaffone's "Omaha Hold'em Poker", which explains all the mechanics of the game and gives good solid advice; Bob Ciaffone and Stewart Reubens's "Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker", which is the best source on big-bet poker in general and has an excellent Omaha section by Reuben; and Reuben's "Starting Out in Poker" which has another short but useful Omaha section.

For online play, the big winners do a lot of betting after the flop. They win a lot of pots uncontested, and they are NOT hitting the flop every time they bet. There is a tendency in Omaha for people to fold the second nuts, which many online players will do; I'm pretty sure the biggest winners exploit this.

Someone made a nice move on me the other day, which backfired, but I liked it. He'd been raising a lot preflop, having a very deep stack. So he raised this time, and I called with double-suited aces. (No reraise because my stack size was inappropriate.) The flop gave me a flush draw. He checked it to me, and I bet the pot. He called. The turn completed the flush, and this guy bet the pot at me.

I just called, and annoyingly the board paired on the river, and we checked it through. He had nothing. No pair, no draw. He was stone cold dead on 4th street and needed a miracle just to outdraw my aces after the flop. So he made the flop call only to bluff me out when the flush card came. He's usually going to win the pot if I've only flopped two pair, or even trips on some days. Very nice.

Guy.

[JonCooke]

That's a nice move?

[Guy McSucker]

It appealed to me at the time. I don't like it now because, as we can all clearly see, the odds aren't there.

It does illustrate one fact: I'm probably getting run over by players like this.

Any advice on exploiting supertight omaha players postflop, and on countering bullying at omaha? I always seem to get shown the nuts when I call with a hand that may just have been outdrawn, e.g. trips vs backdoor flush possibility...

Guy.