All books on holdem tell you to play for the whole pot, the amount of money players put into the pot before they ever get to see their cards. This is a useful rule to follow in holdem because the majority of hands you will draw to the showdown will likely be outputs that make you the winner. Furthermore, you will not want to scare off other players by getting all your chips in the pot, as this will reduce the amount of money you will be able to win from the final showdown.
However in Omaha this is not the case. Because Omaha is a split-pot game, you only need to see the cards to establish who has won the pot. Let’s say that you’ve got four cards to a flush, and you’re up against an opponent, A, who has raised by four times the big blind, and has seen players fold to him in four other games.
If you run the numbers, you will probably see that you are a 60% favourite to win the hand, which means you are only getting two to one on your money. Because of this you should not slow play, because A will probably know that if he bets, there is a good chance he has the better hand than you.
However slow playing may still be a profitable play to you. What A can see at this point is that he is probably only making small bets on a hand that he knows he’ll win. Statistically for every three times you play hands, you will win one. The question is – what makes you a winner? Sitting back and waiting for a monster, getting your money in with the best hand, and not winning anything because you ‘pried’ too hard to get your money in with the best hand?
Playing the Pot Limit Omaha
Playing the Pot Limit Omaha on the other hand, you can tighten up a little and not worry about making a mistake in regards to playing the pot. This is because you are playing in a micro limit Omaha high, which means there is little else to worry about. You can concentrate on simply playing the cards you were dealt, and not how many chips are already in front of you. You still need to win the hand, and still get the most chips out of your opponents, but you can adjust down a little.
Of course the higher stakes you are playing at, the more likely it is that you will be up against players who are working off several micro stakes. Plus you will notice that most of the skill based players at these high stakes are working as hard as they can to learnt how to play Pot Limit Omaha, because they know that as well as having a hand they need to have patience as well in order to properly exploit their hands.
There is one other important factor to consider in Pot Limit Omaha as well, and that is that at any time there may be 4 or 5 players in the pot. This means that the chances of being great cards from your opponents are greater. As a result you may want to play more hands, and be more aggressive with great cards, but you should always have faith in your cards and not be afraid to throw them away if you feel they are not beneficial to you.
To learn how to play Pot Limit Omaha, it is important to not only learn the skills, but also the techniques used by the professional players. If you are not yet sure how to play MPO777, consider spending some time reading the book, and familiarising yourself with the high stakes so that you do not waste your money on low level players.
Never run into a game where the stakes are not high. Always consider that before you start playing, you should know the threshold at which you would feel comfortable playing at, or even though you have not yet practiced enough, you should be ready to play at high levels.
