Someone always has the nuts in Omaha.

I don't play Omaha very much, but when I do I play Hi. I've played sometimes with friends in small cash games. I mainly play hold 'em, so it can be tough to get accustomed to it. A friend of mine was telling me that you have to be careful in Omaha, especially playing with a lot of people because someone has usually got the nuts. Seems like every time I'm in a hand I'm beat or at least I feel like it. Do people win with pairs ever? Or is Omaha a big hand game?

I've a little experience in Omaha. The only time pairs wins if there is check down, which is rare.

Omaha is essentially a nuts game. A single pair is pretty much worthless in most situations.

On the same note you should be especially wary of non-nut hands like 9 to Q high flushes because you will only get action from a better flush. Non-nut draws are worth even less because you cannot rely on betting them for value when they hit.

I find a good approach to starting to play hi omaha is to only play when your starting hand has Ax suited, a high (T+ pair) or 3/4 connected cards. This allows you to play plenty of hands and means when you hit you will often be hitting nut hands or nut draws.

Some people may suggest playing even tighter than this but that depends more on your style.

Ive just started to play a lot more omaha and the key is to go into it with high cards that are double suited. that will give you your best shot to win.

Um, no. I play LO8, and two pair & 3rd nut lows win pretty routinely. Its not purely a nuts game. Its just like hold'em where you can win pots with 2nd pair/top pair no kicker. The key is to pick what size pot you want to win, and evaluate if those hands beat your opponent's range or not.

Omaha Hi bottom 2 pair is like A high in HE was one analogy I heard from a pro omaha player. One pair is worthless, if there's a board pair with action your flush is no good and most times with action you can lay down the 3rd nuts and sometimes even the 2nd. Obviously the higher up you go the more aggro it gets and the more you can call down lighter but unless you're at like $5/$10 (1k buy-in) I've heard basically most people play their own hand and look to make the nuts. Then again that's mostly the profitable strategy unless playing like HU because I believe there are 6 combinations of HE hands in PLO? So that means even at a 6max table there are 36 HE hands. So how would you play if you had to play nlhe at a 36-person table? Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that and the fact that there can be super-strong draws helps too but if you're routinely putting money in with one pair you're going to be burning money in plo.

Hi all,

I like to consider it like this. (BTW, I am huge Omaha fan):

If you are caught with a Two Pair, it is very similar to Ace High in Texas Hold'em.

If you have a single pair, it's like Queen high.

But, to be honest, I've seen a Pair of Twos winning a large pot. (The other guy was hoping for a straight)

Think about the concept of omaha. You have 4 cards. Do you really think that just one pair is going to win the pot? It's obviously a big hand game. You don't necessarily need the nuts to win, but you need to be pretty close to it. If there are 3 of a suit on the board, someone probably has a flush and if there are 3 connectors, someone probably has the straight. If there's a pair on the board, be able to fold a straight of flush to a big bet.