Are you one of the many people playing online Omaha poker at Ignition? If you haven’t given this great game a try yet, you are definitely missing out. In many ways, it’s the same game as Texas Hold’em, but with four hole cards instead of two. If you can wrap your head around the subtle rule changes, you can build a solid Omaha poker strategy and start owning your opponents.

Getting dealt four cards gives you a lot more opportunities to make big hands, but there’s a trick: You have to use exactly two of your hole cards, and three from the board. If you have just the Ace of Hearts, and four more Hearts come out by the river, you don’t have a flush. If you have a pair of Kings with a Nine, and the flop comes King-Nine-Deuce, you don’t have a full house. Mis-reading your hand this way is the biggest mistake new Omaha players make – and many experienced players, too. It’s also one of the things that can make Omaha so profitable, once you know what you’re doing.
 

How to Play Omaha Poker

Most people who play Omaha at Ignition prefer to play Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), rather than using the No-Limit betting structure that most Hold’em players are familiar with. You’ll still end up with big pots in PLO, but not quite as often, and you have to watch your bet-sizing to make sure your pot-size raises will have the leverage you require. One other difference to consider: Omaha tournaments are typically played without antes, which means there’s less money in the pot and less reason to open speculative hands.

From a strategy perspective, if you’re comfortable opening a certain percentage of hands from each position in Hold’em, you can pretty much stick with those percentages in Omaha. Building good opening ranges will take more time, though. When you have four hole cards, you have many more categories your hand can fall into, like double pairs, or double-suited Aces versus single-suited. And since it’s so much easier to make a big hand, you have to be extra-careful when you don’t have the nuts. King-high flushes and bottom sets aren’t nearly as valuable in Omaha as they are in Hold’em.

If you want to give Omaha a try, start with a low buy-in tournament or one of the microstakes cash tables at Ignition Poker. Take your time to get comfortable with your new surroundings, and most importantly, enjoy the game. Omaha might be the most fun you ever have playing poker – you may even find yourself wondering why you didn’t make the leap sooner.