Perfecting Your Omaha Poker Game

Perhaps the hardest thing to do in Omaha poker is quickly rank how good your hand is compared to the best possible hand. You need to do this quickly, often within a few seconds, otherwise you give away some details about your hand that you might otherwise want to keep to yourself. Below I have set up several scenarios to help in prefecting your Omaha poker game.

What we are going to do is first of all say what your best hand is, then say what the nuts are (the best hand possible) and then look at the hand analysis. Here we go:

Your hand: AD 7D 7H 8C
Board: AC 8S 9C 10H KS
Your best hand: 2 pairs, A’s and 8’s
The nuts: Straight, 10 J Q K A

Hand Analysis: 2 pairs is never a particularly good hand, though the fact that one of the pairs is A’s could make it a little better. Remember, that if someone has a pair in the hand, there is a good chance they could end up with 3 of a kind, thus beating your 2 pairs. You might stand a chance here, but if someone else is betting big, you should bow out of the hand.

Your hand: 5D 6D 9H 10H
Board: 6C 10C 7 S 8C AD
Your best hand: 2 pairs, 6’s and 10’s
The nuts: Flush, AC 6C 10C 8C, plus any other club
Analysis: Again, 2 pairs is not a very great hand, especially this time since there is an A on the board, you do not have the BEST 2 pairs. Plus, not only is there a flush possibility, but there is a straight possibility. Your hand stands little to no chance of winning this one.

Your hand: 8C 9C 10C 2D
Board: 2D JC KC QD 2C
Your best hand: Flush, KC JC 10C 9C 2C
The nuts: Flush, AC KC JC 2C, plus any other club

Hand Analysis: Congratulations, you hit a flush. This is a very good hand in any version of poker. However you do not have the best hand (the nuts). You don’t have the second nuts either, the person who potentially holds the queen of clubs and some other club holds this honor. No, here you have the third nuts. This is still a very good hand here, but the moral of the story is to be careful.

Your hand: 2D 4D 8C AC
Board: JD 8D 8S QS AH
Your hand: Full house, eights over aces
The nuts: Full house, aces over eights

Hand Analysis: Another great hand. Full houses are very hard to come by. But again your hand isn’t the best. If another player has 2 aces in their hands, they have you beat. Not only that, but if some player has 2 jacks or 2 queens in their hand, they still have you beat. This time around you have the fourth nuts. Go ahead and bet, often hands like these that are very good, yet not the best are the ones that lose the most money! Proceed carefully and don’t get greedy.

Pay close attention to your opponents and only bet big if you have a good reason to believe that you have everyone else beat.