The best Of Cappelletti on Omaha High-Low

In order to win consistently at any game of skill, you must understand what the experts at that game refer to as the “basic strategy.” Perhaps the best approach to the basic strategy of high Omaha is to think of it as a three step process:

Step One is evaluating your hand before the flop. You pick up your four cards and decide whether they are worth calling, or perhaps raising, before the flop. This is where most players go wrong - by playing too loose. If you find yourself playing more than half the hands (counting the blinds), you are either holding unusually good cards or you are playing too loose.

Step Two, upon seeing the flop, is to decide whether or not to get further involved. This is frequently the most difficult and complicated decision in all Omaha. Your odds of hitting various combinations of “comes” frequently involve complex computations which often include making “human” judgements as to the likelihood of raises.

Step Three is to decide whether you still belong in the pot for the double-sized bets after fourth street and fifth street (last card). Since your possibilities are fairly well clarified by the fourth card, this decision to compete with the big money should actually be easier than the complex delicacies of step two. Otherwise put, how you play your cards after fourth and fifth streets, depends mostly on your usual poker skills. And as in most other forms of poker, here you have to be good at judging how what you have will fare against what the opponents are likely to have.