Pre-Flop Play in Fixed Limit Omaha
If you are one of the millions of happy citizens who are just now familiarizing themselves with the many joys of fixed limit Omaha poker, there probably are a number of aspects to the game which cause you to scratch your head just a bit. There is no need to be shy in admitting this, because for every truly confident Omaha player out there, I could swing a 2 x 4 and easily knock another half-dozen trembling and uncertain novices unconscious with one shot. (Not that I would ever do such thing; Floyd Manning is a devoted pacifist and have been such ever since my disastrous involvement in the Laotian conflict of ‘67. Please don’t ask me to revisit those bloody days, even in my memory. I simply used a violent metaphor to articulate the fact that there are many more uncertain Omaha players among our ranks than those who would qualify themselves as truly competent under all situations.)
OK, I got a little bit off track with that digression, but I would like to steer back to the point of this article, which is the inscrutability of certain aspects of fixed limit Omaha. In particular, many people find themselves confused as to the style of play they should adopt before the flop during any given hand. I am quite sure that most of you who would like an answer to this issue will be disappointed to hear that I have no easy solutions to provide. If that sounds like a cop-out, allow me to explain myself a bit further, and in doing so perhaps offer at least some guidance that will be of value.
The way in which a good player will handle the pre-flop aspect of the game of fixed limit Omaha depends as much on that player’s unique psychological makeup as the cards he or she is holding. As you know, in the game of Omaha, you receive four hole cards to start your hand, as opposed to Texas Holdem in which half that number is dealt at the beginning of the hand. Furthermore, in Omaha you are allowed to use only two of those four hole cards, in combination with three cards on the board, to complete your final hand. Therefore, you’ll find a greater level of flexibility and urgency in terms of how to manipulate your starting hand.
So, in the stage of the game before the flop, you will have to decide whether to bet, raise or just get the hell out. And this decision can only be reached after multiple hands of Omaha have been played, and you start to get a feel for your comfort level with the accelerated pace of calculations that the possession of four hole cards requires of you.
Some easy rules of thumb include looking for suited or double-suited cards, as well as cards that form a running consecutive order. Should you be gifted with such a strong starting hand, you will probably have a better idea of how to proceed (namely, with confidence). However, a good starting hand is certainly no formula for success. The many twists and turns that lay ahead of you as the average hand of fixed limit Omaha proceeds will be more than enough to test your mettle.