Hi everyone I am strictly a Texas Holdem No Limit player, but recently I started investigating some variants out of curiosity. One popular game I looked into was Omaha. There is an old Omaha saying that goes something like: "If the best hand is possible, then someone has it."

I played my first Omaha game yesterday (playchips with 7 players at a table including me; I came in 3rd/4th as we busted in the same hand). Anyway, just in this one game: I learned just how frequent Full House hands are here. I also witnessed someone hit a Jack-high Straight Flush (in hearts) and someone in another hand miss a Royal Flush draw. It got me thinking after the game: with 4 hole cards to each player: what are the approximate odds of getting a Royal Flush in Omaha?

Here's an awesome site that has the answer for you:

https://wizardofodds.com/games/poker/

spoiler its, 0.0092% chance

Hey, thanks for the hyperlink

Omaha's a lot different in many ways than Hold'em, but some basic principles to go by when playing.

Hand equity runs much closer in PLO than NLH.
Example: AAxx is not a big favorite to KKxx as the other two cards in your hand that you hold factor in to the equation. Whereas in NLH, AA is 80% over all Pocket Pairs from 22-KK.

Also, not all AAxx/KKxx hands are created equal as far as equity goes. If you have a hand like AAKQ double suited (meaning you have 2 nut flush possibilities), it's WAY better than AA93 rainbow (meaning you can't make a flush, and there's not many boards where you're REALLY feeling all that good about your hand after the flop).

Hands that play really well after the flop are hands that connect (like 4 Broadway cards such as AKQJ, KQJT; or even 4 lower connecters like 8765), but be careful, on flush draw or flush boards, those hands can lose you a lot of money too. If you have a hand that has a two way draw, like a nut flush AND straight draw, you're actually ahead of made hands because there's more cards that will improve your hand than your opponent's.

Position in ANY game is important, but I'd say it's even more so in PLO.

The biggest mistake that PLO players can make is overvaluing AAxx, and I've played a fair bit of PLO to know when someone DOES have AAxx (especially if I'm not holding an A). I promise that the best players know for sure (I say this in that I don't consider myself anywhere close to being the best).

Average winning hands in PLO are MUCH higher than in Hold'em because of all the possible hands/draws that you have just on the flop alone.

Thanks for the AAxx advice; good to remember for sure.