The skilled player should always keep the overconfidence factor of most of his opponents in mind and use this knowledge in all the plays. You should be able to play more hands in the Pot Limit games than you would in Hi/Lo. Watch for those continuing to bet on speculative hands where there is no quickly discernable method to the set they are trying to build. Unless there is a lot of pre-flop raising, you can expect these online wannabes are just hoping for a good final hand instead of actually knowing how to build one. Take every advantage of this when you see it in your opponents. The object of the game is to win the pot and if your opponent helps you do that, all the better.

With an all-too-human fixation on winning pots, the skilled player can take advantage of the many mediocre online players. You can raise just enough to keep them pouring money into the pot even if they are working from a poor hand or one that they are only hoping will eventually turn out good. It should be easy to see when they are carrying such a good hand that you fold early and wait for the next round to begin working them into helping you win again.

You can bluff in Omaha Poker, it is just that the opportunities for doing so are few with most of the cards being easily seen or anticipated. Nut hands are easy to come by and working a hand to where you can drive off some of the competition requires knowledge and nerves of steel to raise, call, or pass so that the impression is given that you have more than they do.

Still, if all you can manage are numerous small pots, it is still better than building sets for a big win that sweeps the pot which may come only rarely or not at all. Small pots with coordinated sets are much easier to bluff than most Omaha Poker players imagine which is why the bluff can be such a successful ploy.

Don’t underestimate the power of an Ace. A single Ace in your hand can dominate the remainder of your set while pocket aces are more likely to prevent you from having nearly as many final hand options as are required to take the majority of the pot.

Many players will simply limp along on weak hands in hopes that they will finally get what they need on the flop. By strategic raising on a hand that has at least a good potential, you can force the wagering to go more toward your best chance. Starting hands, even the junk hands, do not run in a close value at the beginning. By forcing bids and raises in your opponents who are looking to the flop to redeem these hands, you are in a better position to share the pot if not take its entirety.

A great deal of the Omaha Poker player’s success is in exploiting the small advantages one gets before the flop. By then you have had your opponents add to the pot and still be secure in knowing that all they have to do is draw a “dead” card for their flop to destroy their chances at the win. It does take concentration to use the information on the table to determine the approximate value of all the hands still in the game. If you hesitate and wait for the flop to determine the outcome of the big blind, you will have missed the opportunity to have weak handed players drop out so the odds are greater that you can emerge victorious in a more closely played heads up game against fewer opponents.

In Omaha Poker, there is very little randomness by which the concept of “luck” can attach itself. Omaha is very mathematical in its nature and is sometimes considered rather dull because of this. In Omaha Poker there is a great deal of information openly known and available. It is possible for the river card to suddenly fill a weak hand and make it a winner but this is not a standard feature of Omaha. Most of the strength or weakness of a hand has been determined in the earlier play, usually even before the turn card, much less the river draw.

A player who feels they derive their winnings through “luck” should stay away from Omaha Poker. The edges are small and the mathematical precision of the play possibilities makes it a game that will do the steady, observant player well. But Omaha Poker can quickly bankrupt a poor player who feels that surely somewhere within all those cards they have to work with they can find a winning combination.

Even Roulette is a game that depends more on the system of wagering than any “luck” that may drop the ball in one hole rather than another. Omaha Poker is like that. Careful observation and wagering skill is the more dependable way to winning.

In a game of Omaha Hi/Lo you often hear the term “nut low” in reference to the lowest possible hand that can be formed from the board cards available. This is not in reference to any “squirrelly” play, but merely a determination of the range in which the lowest hand can be formed. If the board holds 9-7-6-K-J then the “nut low” for that board could only begin with the 9, utilizing the 7 and 6 in combination with your two hand cards to form your final low hand.

Since the winning hand must beat 976??, you would then use the two lowest possible cards in your hand to finish the run. A 1 and 2 would give the best “nut” at 97621 which would beat anyone else unless they could also match the 1-2 combination to tie your hand.

Rather than focusing at first on your lowest possible hand, try to determine what the “nut low” for the hand will be. As example, 8-6-3-Q-A on the board would mean that you would get a better low hand with a 2-4 in your hand than if you had a 1-2, 2-4 giving you a final low hand of 84321 whereas the 1-2 would leave you with 86321. The Ace duplicated (or counterfeited) you could not use both of them to end you hand with a ???11.

When all else fails, rather than call your hand at the showdown, just present your cards for the dealer to read. Since Omaha Poker statistically provides big edges, even a bad player can pull off some spectacular pots just as an experienced player can still lose for the same reason.

In both combinations you must use two cards from your hand and three from the board. Since most Hi/Lo games have an eight or better limitation, the worst possible low hand is 8-7-6-5-4 with the best low hand being 5-4-3-2-1. When determining which of your cards to use for the low hand it is a good idea to view them as a single 5 digit number with your highest card at the left and building down from there. Remember you must use two of your hand cards for the high hand and the other two for the low, no combining allowed. Thus you may have a 5, but if the combination from the flop does not allow you to descend from there, you may have to use a higher card to start your low hand run.

Ultimately the lowest “number” wins the low pot. If you cannot form a decent hand for either high or low, calculating from what cards are available to create the bets winning potential for one or the other pots will give you better odds of not finishing the hand with a total loss of your wagered investment.