I have had a number of inquiries about raising before the flop in four-card high limit Omaha. The two most important strategic reasons to raise before the flop are to “reduce attendance” and to “loosen up the game” (see my book Cappelletti on Omaha, Quartet and Trio Straight Holdings). Please note that getting MORE MONEY into the pot is NOT always an important objective! It is nice to have more money in the pot, only if you happen to win it. But extra money in the pot makes the pot harder to win! (more…)

In the last article we stated that the “basic strategy” of high Omaha could be thought of as a three step process, namely:

Step One is evaluating your hand before the flop. . . [see page 1]

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 involves complex computations and often includes making “human” judgements as to the likelihood of raises. (more…)

In this article, let’s look further at the basic strategy involved in step one, which, although conceptually simple, is where most players go wrong. First, there is a basic principle common to all poker with blinds (as opposed to poker with individual antes) that you should NOT put your initial money into the pot unless you have a GOOD starting hand. (more…)