Omaha overpairs

I usually dont play much Omaha but like to play a litle ring game Omaha every now and then.
I guess i do ok at it but can some on explain to me how the hell u play overpairs at omaha,i usually just throw them away if i dont improve on the flop. And i know im losing value at it but the chances of some one hiting 2pairs or a set is so greatly incresed at O.

Ok lets get some discusion going.I know there are some great O players here so share your knowledge.

If you 3/4 bet preflop, and you've got a pair of aces, then you can play it for overpair value on a dry flop against one opponent. KQ9 is *not* a good flop for aces. 27J rainbow is a good flop for aces. So it really depends on the board texture and what other draws you have to go with it.

In limped pots, multi-way pots, just don't play them unless you have other strong draws to go with it.

And while we're talking about 1 pair hands in omaha, top pair with 3 overcard kickers is pretty solid in a small pot heads up. For example, if you hold AKJT, and the flop comes T62 rainbow, your hand is bettable in late position heads up or maybe 3-way, depending on how the action went preflop.

Granted, I'm not all that good at Omaha, and I play 6max. But at 6max, omaha is not the nutcamping game everyone says it is. You can bet with less than the nuts or top two pair. However, it takes a certain kind of board texture & action to allow you to do that.

I'm still learning too but I do much the same. Unless I raise preflop or there's a draw I dunno there's any particular value to overpairs.

c9's said pretty much everything I could - board texture and betting action are the two most important things to consider.

If you end up getting major resistance you probably need to dump the hand too, as it's still possible someone has flopped a set or a weird two-pair.

I play a lot of plo and overpairs are almost worthless. PLO is a game played after flop and the better players let go of aa post flop to a reraise unless you flop a monster draw. honestly i like to limp AA if i'm not double suited with connectors. When you hit the hand. People pay huge amounts

Got that right.

I play mainly 6-max too. Someone said pairs are worthless, I don't think thats true especially in 6-max, or if your at a full ring table and you get less than 4 people calling. I used to think overpairs were worthless too, but that was when I was throwing them away whenever there was any resistance; I was pretty much afraid to call often with pairs, and aggresive people will expose you for that in omaha. The thing about over pairs if you get the board to pair if they don't have trips than their 2 pair is no good, I think thats the biggest part of value in pairs in omaha when you have 2 pair because the board pairs, I like to check/bet or check/call these situations.

If your not used to raising at all in omaha, I probably don't think you should be raising the first pair of aces you get if the rest of your hand doesn't work with it. Definitely don't raise out of position with pairs if your not used to raising and your hand isn't something like qqj10. You'll get in trouble after the flop if your raising up pairs, c-betting and throwing away to any type of resistance you get.

I think a good way to get used to overpairs is to play them with position and try to bet-check-bet them or bet-check-call them when you can. Because if your playing with pairs the way I see it, you at least want to bet to see whose gonna leave the pot and whose gonna stay because you don't want people having one pair on the flop you give everyone a freecard more than likely someone will have 2 pair on the turn that wouldve left the hand on the flop with a 1/2 pot bet. The check is for pot control, and you do what ever on the river you feel is right. alot of times you c-bet than check the turn in omaha alot of people will just automatically bet the river.

To play pairs effectively, I think you can't be scared to call with them, and this where playing your opponent can help. You really have to think in omaha and a lot of times people bet without thinking and that can often be a sign of nothing. You can't forget that if your opponent doesn't have anything and he's out of position he HAS to bet into you to win, even though they have 4 cards alot of times if you put them on a draw they could have completely missed and may have one pair at the most. People don't make hands every single time in omaha, often times people have no more than one pair by the river. Here's an example:

Just yesterday I was playing with a hyper aggy player who raised out of position, he was known to raise so I reraised him on the button with a hand like kkq10 king high suited in diamonds. This guy was calling pot sized flop bets with absolutely nothing, I mean no draws, no pairs, no nothing, and he was willing to do this out of position. In big pots alot of times every action he made was instant, either instacall or instabet. He had the avg hand at $60+ on .25/.50 blinds, max buy-in is 50 on this table. This guy was willing to go all in preflop with 200+ stack with virtually any 4 cards just to make a point that no one was gonna be more aggressive than him at the table. Here's the hand history; hero=young_gung, villain = joommm


** Hand # 2101530206 starting - 2008-07-20 20:30:22
** Kinalik [Omaha] (0.25|0.50 PL - Cash Game) Real Money

Hypotenos sitting in seat 1 with $267.70
joommm sitting in seat 2 with $203.82
soossiee sitting in seat 3 with $71.66
young_gung sitting in seat 4 with $112.42[Dealer]
bububukas sitting in seat 5 with $6.25
IndysTC sitting in seat 6 with $13.15
bububukas posted the small blind - $0.25
IndysTC posted the big blind - $0.50

** Dealing cards to young_gung: Kc, Kd, 10h, Qd
Hypotenos folded
joommm raised to $1.75
soossiee called - $1.75
young_gung raised to $4.75
bububukas folded
IndysTC folded
joommm called - $4.75
soossiee called - $4.75

** Dealing the flop: Jd, 7c, Qh
joommm checked
soossiee checked
young_gung bet - $10.00
joommm called - $10.00
soossiee folded

** Dealing the turn: 3s
joommm checked
young_gung checked

** Dealing the river: 8d
joommm bet - $17.50
young_gung called - $17.50
joommm shows: 5s, 9c, 7s, As
young_gung shows: Kc, Kd, 10h, Qd
young_gung wins $67.00 from the main pot


I could tell you why I made the call and why I made the bets I did, but my point here is that if you start betting with over pairs and put your self in tight situations, don't just automatically throw your pairs away, rethink the hand through and assure yourself you can't call for various reasons before you tell yourself well that bet is just a bit more than I want to call.

Calling with pairs can definitely help your game if you do it at the right time, not only money wise, but those aggy people that think they can bluff you off every hand will slow down when they are hands with you if they know your willing to call with overpairs . The times your read is wrong, you'll still find out what that person was betting with

key point to take from this: Pot control and playing pairs go hand in hand, when you realize you can't control the pot the way you want to and you feel your pair is weak get rid of it, if you can control the pot size fiddle around with your pairs and feel out your opponent

The best advice I could give a mostly hold-em player about Omaha is do not play your hand as two hold em hands. Pre flop almost everyone is pretty even because of the wide variety of made hands. Post flop is where your hand is made or destroyed. I do not like pocket pairs and will fold three of a kind everytime.

Good post and discussion Omaha is a tough game to master in the beginning. I try to play like a holdem hand with two extra cards available. The winning hands are usually higher in Omaha fullhouses and flushes more than not. That is the key for me pairs dont make it.