Connected hands in omaha are different from high pairs in one very distinct way. Unlike high pairs they have to connect with the flop, and they consequently have little value by themselves. This makes it even more crucial that the hand holds as many combinations as possible. It should therefore be emphasized not to play hands, which contains too many or big gabs (Gabs are the distance between cards: e.g. 5xx8 has a gab of 2 cards) or hands with to many danglers (Danglers are cards that can not be combined with other cards in the hand: e.g. QhJc10s3d where 3d is a dangler). At the same time connected hands, like high pairs, increase a lot in value by being suited. Like above four hands are shown below to illustrate this point:

QhJc10s3d vs. AcAd5d2s = 34 % vs. 66 %

QhJc10d9s vs. AcAd5d2s = 36 % vs. 64 %

QhJc10h9s vs. AcAd5d2s = 39 % vs. 61 %

QhJc10h9c vs. AcAd5d2s = 43 % vs. 57 %

This once again shows you how important the number of combinations is in omaha, and why you should avoid hands with danglers and gabs. Another even more important reason to play hands with a great amount of possible combinations is the possibility of re-draws, when we connect with the flop. The example below illustrates this point:

On a flop of: 9s6d5s

Player 1 has: Js10d8s7d

Player 2 has: 8h7c4h3c

Result: Player 1 wins the pot 58 % of the times, while they split the pot between them 42 % of the times.

In this example both players flopped the nut (best hand possible) straight, and the only difference between the two hands is the amount of re-draws. As is evident from the example, player 1 has a much stronger hand than player 2, which is due to the fact that he has a re-draw possibility to a higher straight or flush on the turn and river.

Although this is a somewhat worst-case scenario, it really highlights why re-draws are so important in pot limit omaha. At the same time it shows one of the biggest pitfalls within omaha poker games, as many players tend to overplay hands with no re-draws, which will cost u money in the long run. Consequently you should be very careful sometimes when you hit a good flop or turn card without any re-draws, and remember that your opponent could have the same hand just better.

In spots like the on above and alike, the concept of pot control once again becomes very important, as we do not wish to fold our hand, and at the same time do not won’t to commit to many chips in the pot. Although it is possible in extreme cases, that we can be forced to fold our nut hand because of to much action in front, but this will rarely happens and should only be considered against many opponents and very tight players.

Low connected hands in Omaha

Although the same overall characteristics is true for the low connected hands in omaha, as the ones discussed above in connection with high and middle connected hands, these omaha hands belong to a special category and needs more attention. When we talk about low connected hands this is mainly with reference to connected hands between 2-9, which can be quite tricky to play, because they make low straights and flushes. In other words you will be making the second and third or even weaker best hand in many situations, when you connect with the flop. This means you have to be more careful, especially with many players in the hand.

Of cause this does not mean you can not play these hands, but they should be well connected and have at least one suit. At the same time you have to very aware of the board texture, the amount of opponents in pot and how they play. Many times there will be draws out to higher straights and flushes, which might dominate your hand.

But although you have to be careful with the low connected hands, they may play very well in some situations. This is the case when you can be fairly sure that your opponent or opponents are playing high cards. In these situations it is sometimes possible to pick up a big pot, as many high cards are in play, which increases the chances of hitting our hand, and taking down the pot against an opponent who e.g. overplays a big pair. But be careful as your opponent might be aware of this tendency too. And remember you still have to be quite cautious playing your small flush draws.

Omaha Poker hand selection sum up

To end our discussion on hand selection in pot limit omaha, we now sum up with the most important lessons. As was setout from the beginning, the most important thing to have in mind when playing omaha poker is the amount of combinations the omaha poker hand contains. Above we discussed each type of omaha hand in turn and how they relate to this criterion. The most important lesson here was to avoid gabs and danglers, and to be aware of possible re-draws and the board texture.

To conclude the discussion on the different types of hands in omaha poker, we now turn shortly to how handselection relate to position at the table. This will only be a cruel recommendation on which omaha hands to play in different positions. The schematics below takes it’s starting point in a shorthanded table and shows which omaha hands we should raise (open the pot) with in different positions at the omaha table:

Early position (Blinds + UTG): play only the highest pairs (preferably suited and/or connected) and highest connected hands (without danglers, but can be considered if the dangler is suited), plus double suited small and middle connectors (with only one gab and no danglers) and two-pair combinations with one high pair (preferably with at least one suit).

Middle and late position (CO + Bottom): play all high pairs and connected hands, plus small and middle connected hands (preferably with one suit) and all two-pair combinations.

As pointed out above this is a very cruel division and you should not play exclusively according to the schematic above. You should always try to adjust to the table and your opponents. This means you might play different against loose and tight opponents, playing fewer hands against the first and more against the leather, depending on the situation at the table. Also one should note that this schematic does not take 3-betting range in pot limit omaha into consideration, but as a general rule you should 3-bet about the top 10 % of your starting range in each position. This should once again be adjusted depending on table and opponent.

As a starting-point one can use the same criteria’s as above with the high pairs in the evaluation of the middle and small pairs (JJ-22). I.e. the more possible combinations the hand holds, the higher the value of the hand.

If possible this might be even more important for the middle and small pairs. This is due to the fact that middle and small pairs have an even smaller chance to hold up on their own, and in turn we once again primarily play for set-value. Consequently the middle and small pairs in omaha has to be somewhat well connected, suited to higher cards (A, K or Q) or both to be playable at all.

When playing the middle and small pairs in omaha you also have to be aware of an important difference between no limit hold’em and pot limit omaha. The difference is in the mathematical probability between the two games. In pot limit omaha the probability of being dealt a pair is 2.3:1, while the equivalent odds for no limit hold’em is 16:1. This means that set over set will occur much more frequent in pot limit omaha, as the chance of hitting a set on the flop with a given pair is the same in both games.

What this means is that you have to be more careful playing omaha poker, when you do not have the top set, as higher sets more frequently occur. Of cause this does not mean you should fold a set every time someone shows strength, but you have to be somewhat careful with the smallest pairs, if your opponent gives you too much action on a very dry board, e.g. K82.

Another pitfall in connection with middle and small pairs in omaha is the fact that they often hit a set on very draw heavy boards in the form of straight and flush possibilities. This will mainly be the case for pairs between 33-JJ, as the probability that these cards are connected to other cards is quite high. Consequently you might even find situations where you are behind, even though you have flopped top set. In spots with draw heavy boards the concept of pot control (Controlling the size of the pot with the intension of keeping it small) therefore becomes very important, as we might wish to keep the pot small and see a safe turn card before putting all our money in the pot, and at the same time won’t commit to many chips in the pot if the draws complete.

Two-pair hands in Omaha

The last kind of pair hand is the special category within pot limit omaha poker; the two-pair hand. Although looking very pretty this type of hand can get you into a lot of trouble. As the two-pair hand still holds the problems discussed in connection with the middle and small pairs, and furthermore does not usually block or catch many additional draws.

This makes it even more important for this type of hand to have at least one suit, and/or for one pair to be relatively high. At the same time this type of hand plays far better with few opponents in the pot, which of cause is due to the weaknesses discussed above. In many cases you will be playing two-pair hands in omaha for purely set-value, which is fine by the way, as long as you do not fall in love with a hand like JJ22 on a 1064 board.

One of the most important concepts you need to become a successful pot limit omaha player, is an understanding of preflop handselection. Contrary to the more popular no limit hold’em you see on TV, it is quite difficult to make a direct hand chart for omaha poker and this will probably not be rather useful or the most productive way to go about it.

Instead it is useful to think about omaha poker hands as having three distinct possible qualities. When playing pot limit omaha you are dealt four cards, which can be divided into two types of hands or qualities. Firstly; the hand can contain one or two pairs, and secondly; the hand can be connected in different ways making straight opportunities possible.

Furthermore the hand can be improved by one or two suits making potential flushes possible. Each type of hand quality can be combined with one another making different kinds playable 2 card hands. This in turn makes it possible to put forward a fairly simple criterion for the evaluation of each hand’s strength:

- How many possible combinations of playable 2 card hands does the omaha hand contain?

And self-evidently the more combinations the hand holds, the stronger is the omaha poker hand. We now turn to each of the different hand qualities to explain how they are to be evaluated using the criterion set out above.

High pairs in Omaha

Contrary to no limit hold’em high pairs have little value by them self in pot limit omaha. This is mainly due to the fact that they rarely hold up with more than one opponent in the pot. Consequently it is very important to have other possible combinations of playable hands.

If we do not have other combinations of hands, the high pair will be reduced in strength, and we will be playing almost exclusively for set value by hitting one of the remaining two cards in the deck.

On the contrary the hand strength will increase heavily, when the high pair can be combined with the rest of the cards in the hand, e.g. through straight or flush possibilities. To illustrate this point four different possible combination of AcAh is shown below against another random strong hand:

AcAh7d2s vs. QcJh10h9c = 52 % vs. 48 %

AcAhKdQs vs. QcJh10h9c = 58 % vs. 42 %

AcAhKcQs vs. QcJh10h9c = 64 % vs. 36 %

AcAhKcQh vs. QcJh10h9c = 70 % vs. 30 %

As it appears from the example, the hand value almost increases proportional with the amount of combinations. At the same time it is worth emphasizing that this is with only one opponent in the pot. With more than one player in the pot our AcAh might actually be behind:

AcAh7d2s vs. QcJh10h9c vs. 8s8d7s6d = 27 % vs. 39 % vs. 34 %

This clearly illustrates how important the amount of combinations is, and why we should be careful playing high pairs, which are not, suited or connected in any way.

I think this is one of the best tips that can be given to poker players who flops a monster out of position. First of all betting your hand will in the instance where your opponents also connected with the flop make sure that the pot is being built as big as possible. Second of all players should consider what happens if they check raise the flop instead of betting. A check raise out of position in poker is kind of one of the strongest messages you can send an opponent. Rarely the out of position player will be check raising with any kind of draw as all the money might have to go in the middle if the other player hold a decent hand and by check raising the flop the pot might by now have grown to a significant size which pot commit the out of position player.

The only real market/money lost by check calling the flop is a 60-70% continuation bet from the player in position. Check calling will simply make him slow down on the turn or even worse he might get a fairly cheap card to outdraw you. Check calling also makes the turn decision a bit more difficult as checking once more gives your opponent the possibility to check behind and thus the pot remain very small. Checking the turn is only a real option against a known hyper aggressive player where you know he will fire the second and third barrel on the turn and river. As it is now determined that the correct decision in most instances is to bet your hand on the turn then it is evident that betting the hand already on the flop is a must.

Flopping a set of 8s when you are in the big blind on a K87 or AJ8 board is great because the initial raiser might have flopped top pair top kicker (TPTK) if he holds AK. Betting in to that hand certainly will create some action and a big pot developing. Even on boards like 873 or T84 it is correct to fire a bet as your opponent might hold an over pair or even try to bluff raise with over cards.

The best chance of winning a big pot when flopping a monster is by betting your hand and only a very few situations warrant slow playing. One of the situations where slow playing can be advocated for is when flopping quads. On a J88 board it is fairly impossible for any opponents to have hit anything on the flop and check raising might be the correct decision whereas a 988 board with 2 diamonds or similar should be bet in the hopes someone picked up a big draw.

Another benefit achieved by betting strong hands are that your observant opponents now will be more apt to muck when you try and steal pots. Having shown a few monsters will give them respect for any betting coming from you when out of position which will be very valuable in regards of stealing smallish pots.

We are often faced with the question if there is cheating taking place in online poker. The answer to this is a clear yes as it is unavoidable since poker is a game about money which will attract many types of people including cheating scumbags but this is no different than in live poker where a lot of cheating takes place too.

Mainly there are five areas of cheating to look into namely collusion, RNG security, super User, if online poker is rigged or not and Trojans.

Online poker collusion:

It happens and it happens daily. It is evident that some smart asses think they can cheat the other poker players for money by colluding. Poker collusion mean that by knowing another players (friend) cards then it is possible to squeeze other players (victims) out of the pot by raising and re-raising or pump the pot up pre flop when one of the players hold a real solid hand and thus make sure the victim loses the maximum possible amount in the poker hand.

There is not a single online poker room that can protect you against collusion upfront as there is no evidence at that point in time that collusion are going to take place. However the poker rooms have very sophisticated software tools that measure many things and especially player habits, percentage of games/tournaments played with the same opponent, standard deviation calculation tools and many other ways of determining if collusion has taken place. The most important tool to prove collusion is the ability to look at the poker hand histories after the poker collusion has taken place as those in a clear way will show if players have taken advantage of knowing each other cards. Bear in mind that this ability is not something brick and mortar casinos have and live collusion is seldom spotted whereas the online collusion will be found eventually.

The resolution when colluders are found is that the poker rooms go through all hands and reimburse the victims their losses.

If you believe you are or have been a victim of online poker collusion you should do the following. First of all leave a table in case you feel unsecure about what is happening at the poker table. There are many other tables to choose amongst so no need to stay at a table where you do not feel confident about the integrity of the game. Send suppor@thepokerroomwhereyouplay.com the names of the person you believe are colluding and more or less forget about it from that point on. The poker room will return to you with the amount of info they can disclose in regards of the investigation that have been initiated and concluded by their fraud team. All poker rooms take collusion accusations serious but they need evidence to make a clear ruling. Colluders account is closed and all funds blocked.

It is also important to note that collusion seldom take place at tables stakes lower than $2-$4 and more or less never in multi table poker tournaments as it is not profitable for colluders at those stakes and almost impossible to predict if you get on the same table in tournaments.

RNG security:

Is it possible that someone can break the RNG (Random Number Generator) code and know which cards will appear in the game?

No this is simply not possible as all security measures are taken to protect the deal and the way the RNG works. Even if it should happen then the poker rooms would spot if a player wins more than his fair share and thus perform an investigation of that specific account.

Super user:

Well it happened so there are no real good arguments to state that it is impossible that it happens again. However players can be certain that all the big networks and poker rooms learned a lesson from the UB/AP super user scandal and that the software’s are protected better than ever. All the data mining many players do also ensure that players with abnormal winning rates will be caught fast.

Players should also note the fact that poker rooms are customers of a software company and that it is in their interest to make sure the integrity of the software is beyond doubt. Big brands like Pokerplex, William Hill, Ladbrokes and many more will have their reputation destroyed in case they are clients of rogue software and thus they all require the software provider to continuously proof the integrity of the software.

Rigged poker software:

This is virtually impossible. The RNG does not know the poker rules and thus it simply has no chance of distributing specific cards to benefit certain players. Read a recent article called is online poker rigged ? to get a clear understading.

Trojans:

This is most likely the second worst treat against you being cheated at online poker. If someone is able to install a virus or key logger on your computer then you are in bad shape. We recommend making sure that you always have your computer security updated. You can read more about this here (ROBOFORM)

All in all online poker is extremely secure and normal average leisure players do not have any risks at all. The real risk are for players playing higher stakes and as colluders are easily found by the poker rooms then players should not worry too much about online poker security as in fact this is a lot better than what is possible in live poker environments.

When being seated in a cash game it is an ongoing discussion if blinds should be posted behind the button or not. As in much poker discussion there are a lot of aspects to look into before make up your mind what you prefer.

Posting behind the button let you invest your big blind in the second best position available at the table which is clearly and advantage compared to investing it in the big blind which is the second worst position at the table. Furthermore players only invest 1 big blind and this in position compared to 1.5 big blind out of position.

However at the same time you notify the table that you are not a newbie to the game which could cost a lot more money long term in the session. Another argument for not posting in position behind the button is that with money already invested in the pot then it is more than tempting to 3 bet in limit poker. 3 betting are necessary if the pot has already been raised to force the big blind out of the pot. This aggressive approach will create a fair amount of fluctuations to your bankroll but it is advisable to play very aggressive if posting in position.

In a 10 handed game there will be a cost saving per hand if posting in position. Any other scenario is either break even or more expensive for the getting the positional advantage. All in all we recommend taking the blinds as normal with the one exception where the table has a monster fish playing. In this scenario we recommend to pay the big blind at any point in time.

Sign Up Here

Our daily readers probably have observed that we closely monitor what the poker market searches for and we daily deliver poker bonus codes for all major poker rooms. The truth is that we have recently observed people not so much familiar with the online poker sites searching terms like full till and full till poker.

Due to the fact that search engines are more or less machines they deliver results based on what people search for and not what people in reality would like to find. This is the reason we should explain in this post opportunity that players searching for a full tilt poker referal code or full tilt poker referral codes are most probably misspelling the normal word which is spelled with double r.

The increasing popularity of full tilt poker and the brand awareness which primarily has evolved from mouth to mouth promotion make people think that the name of full tilt poker is full till poker. Well although it is the same brand players should be careful of imitations or other sites trying to call themselves full till.

Please be careful with your search entries as you might end up looking at the wrong site. Sites like full till poker might not even exist and of course what they are primarily doing is using the common misspellings of full tilt poker to might even deceive people to join the wrong poker room.

Play Well and Search Carefully!

Sports betting exchange is an extremely fun form of bookmaking. The concept saw the light in year 2000 where costumers for the first time could log in to the Betfare bet exchange and use the platform to place their sports bets.

Before the founders of Betfare sports could open the doors to their innovative sports arbitrage trading system, 2 years of IT development had taken place. Since then the company have been awarded tons of prizes for their idea and in 2008 more than 2.000.000 costumers already have used the betting exchange markets on Betfair.

The platform was named Bet Fair to try and make punters aware that Betfair odds are more fair and higher compared to the competition.

This is in line with the mission statement the company has developed:

“Our strategy is simple – we want to be the unassailable first choice of the punter by providing the best value, service and protection. We intend to achieve this through continued investment in our technology and a continued commitment to setting the benchmark standard in innovation, integrity, fairness and consumer protection.”

Betting exchanges sports odds are on average higher than most other bookmaker offerings. However the betting odds do not reflect the commission taken by the bet exchange.

A normal bookmaker has already incorporated the “juice” in the odds punters can bet on while the betting exchange takes a small fee called commission out of all winning bets. Still Bettfair is the superior place to place your bets on most matches.

Betfair tennis exchange betting has become extremely popular and in all major APT and WTA events in play live tennis betting is available. Tennis matches that include superstars like Roger Federer, Djokovis, Murray often trade more than $5.000.000 dollars and finals between Federer and Nadal have seen astonishing numbers of $20.000.000 traded between backers and layers.

Backing an outcome is when you believe you know who wins. When you use the Betfair Lay option you believe the outcome will not happen. This is in principle how Betfair works. Either you back your favorite team or you lay teams you do not believe in.

The bet exchange offers tons of action on the big soccer nights and weekends. Champions League matches attracts millions of dollars on the Betfair soccer exchange. The number of transactions done in one day require the best and most secure software to make sure the settlement of bets are done swift and precise.

In one day more than 6.000.000 transactions are performed. A number that exceeds the total of all European Stock exchanges combined. 400 engineers and a total of 1500 employees (2008) is the backbone of the whole Betfair entertainment operation worldwide.

Winnings are paid out instantly to player accounts the minute a match/event is over which is an incredible strong performance.

The Betfair UK betting market is the strongest which can be easily spotted when Premier League matches are in play.

The Betfare betting exchange is not the only leisure players can find when they create an account. Betfare Poker and Betfair Casino also provide players the opportunity to spend some time on online gaming. All of the brands allow players to receive a Betfair bonus when creating a new account. Betfairpromo bonuses are easy to clear and the exchange offer new costumer’s free sports bet. A Unique Betfair promo code is available on Bonusriders.com at all times. To play Betfair games are both an entertaining and interesting hobby.

No doubt this company is amongst the worlds leading innovative IT companies in regards of development, integrity and security. They have made “memorandum of understanding” with loads of sport gaming associations to ensure fair play. In this regards Betfair will contact the different sport association in case the see weird betting patterns on sport events. Monitoring betting patterns helps avoiding match fixing and Betfairs business model and idea has made the sport events even cleaner as they were before.

Being a costumer of Betfair is a simply choice. No one have higher standards when it comes to security, transparency and ethical values in online gaming.

PokerStars has just brought the upside down in the online poker industry, with a new breakthrough bonus scheme which just makes competition look incapable of ever coming anywhere near it.

The #1 internet poker room of the world has managed to become once again talk of the town with a new bonus package which just makes new and existing players forget the thought of trying a different poker room. With a new updated sign up bonus and a new reload package players just can stay away from the poker room that does 150,000 players online at the most moderate times.

The new reloaded PokerStars Bonus package which is applicable with the PokerStars bonus code which is offered in our pages, was launched earlier this week and the real effect will show this Sunday as ring games and tournaments are anticipated to break any previous record with predictions for more than 300,000 players online at the peak time which is usually around 8’o clock EST.

Sunday is a big day for PokerStars as the new bonus package has been unleashed to its immediate partners and many players previously signed up with other US poker rooms are just awaiting this Sundays arena to show what they are really about. It just seems like the best time in history of online poker for the leading poker room of the world and it might just be the perfect time to build a bankroll.

Our team is planning not to post any news on Sunday as we will be at the tables ourselves as we have been waiting for the Sunday blast since early this week. We would like to wish you good luck at the tables. Our new players can read how to claim the new bonus package we have been released at the PokerStars Bonus Code page.

Search for us under the nicknames tasouski and cyboy!

Play Well! See you at the tables!

Female Poker Legend Annie Duke of Ultimate Bet Poker has made her presence strong at NBC’s Apprentice! Duke has managed to raise $730,000 in total for her charity “Refugees International” which is a record breaking figure for the Apprentice show!

Annie Duke’s appearance on the Apprentice was an opportunity for her to exchange views and release her business side together with business mastermind Donald Trump, founder of the Trump Empire.

This is not the first time Duke has contributed to charity as she has been an active member on Capitol Hill of the Poker Players Alliance.

Duke will be also appearing on the World Series of Poker Academy to be held at the Horseshoe Casino Hammond between Aug 29th and August 30th.

Duke will be delivering poker strategy lessons which will apply to intermediary poker players. Topics that will be attacked include flop, ranks of hands, terminology and the idea behind a winning game.

The seminars which Duke calls poker “hand labs” will give participants the opportunity to play poker with Annie Duke and the other poker experts, in a multi table private tournament where the winner will qualify for the 2010 WSOP Academy of Tournament of Champions with a $10,000 WSOP main event seat up for grabs.

Annie Duke of Ultimate Bet is the sister of poker ace Howard Lederer of Full Tilt Poker team which is a holder of 2 WSOP Bracelets, 2 WPT Titles and one 2003 WPT title.

During her poker playing career Duke has managed to finish tenth in the $10,000 WSOP main event while being eight months pregnant and she has also taken away a WSOP bracelet on the $2000, 2004 Omaha Hi Lo Event.

Besides her poker skills and charitable side Duke is an active member of the Poker Players Alliance and she has represented them in front of congress in 2007!