Main principles of winning in Omaha poker. Part 3

Getting into the flow

Someone once suggested constantly ask yourself following question: "If I make a combination, will it be winning? » This is an excellent rule for beginners, but I think that after acquiring some experience, everything should start to come to you naturally. Answers to such questions - this is what you need to know beforehand; all this should come to you during the game. You must not falter and think "If this card comes, then I'm OK, and if this card comes, then things are in a bad way." As long as you can not play any poker game, maintaining a smooth pace, you can not win. 

I never think about my hand. Period.

And I do not care what kind of game this is. I always do all naturally, because I'm playing cards. Good players surely will "read" you; they know how to "read" opponents. But if you always play with a uniform rate, they will not be able to "read" anything. They may think that something is known to them, but are not sure. 

Playing bridge, you must have three or four stored skillful moves. You need to learn to play poker the same way. Everything should be in your head - if comes one card, I'll make one, if comes another, I'll do another, and if neither of them comes, I can not do anything at all - to make a quick move, when flop comes. You should always play in front of yourself. "Immediately after opening of flop, you need to know how you're going to play your hand until the end of the deal, depending on which card will be on the table after flop. 

Raises in pot-limit Omaha

In any tournament of pot-limit Omaha, there are no hands, on which you can make a raise pre-flop. I do not say that you shouldn't re-raise on double-suited aces to knock out the one remaining player. If possible - of course, you can do it. But whatever hand you have, you will rarely make the first raise. Do you know how often players lose in tournaments and cash games, having a pair of aces? - Unimaginable amount of times! 

You see, this first raise will never be large enough to "squeeze out" opponents. They know that you have, in most cases. That's why I make a raise in cash games on T-T-9-8, for example, from late position, I want them to "read», that I have aces. And then I want to flop average cards, and then see what happens.

If someone plays a decent hand, he, at least will call the first raise. You can not knock out with first raise, so let them make the raise. If you want to do something in pot-limit Omaha, then look at the situation this way – in pot three players are involved, one of them made a raise, and other two has called. At this point there are enough money in pot, so you can "squeeze out» all of them, or all but one, if you make re-raise, equal to the value of pot. You see, pot must be large enough in pot-limit, to allow you to invest enough money in order to knock out other players from deal. That's why I think that for a good player no hand has a large enough value to make the first raise in pot-limit Omaha.