How to Make $100 a Day Playing Pot Limit Omaha

 
The reason Omaha isn’t close to being solved, and won’t be for many years, if ever, has 2 parts:

1. With 4 cards in your starting hand instead of 2, the number of possible hand combinations is exponentially higher than in Texas holdem.
2. Most players are concentrating on Texas holdem and not Omaha.

Texas holdem has 1,326 possible starting hand combinations. Omaha has 270,725 possible starting hand combinations. It took years of research and computer programming to solve heads up limit Texas holdem.

With over 200 times the possible starting hand combinations, Omaha isn’t going to be solved by a computer any time soon. If you do a search for groups trying to use computers to solve Texas holdem and one for Omaha, you can quickly see that everyone is trying to develop a model for Texas holdem. Omaha is being ignored.

 
You may be wondering what everything in the first two sections has to do with making $100 a day playing pot limit Omaha poker.

Here are the main reasons:

• New players are finding it harder to win playing Texas holdem, so they’re looking for other games to play. This brings new money into the Omaha games.
• New players think they can play more hands with four starting cards than two, so they’re playing more pots with a lower chance to win.
• Even though Omaha has many more starting hand combinations, it’s a more straightforward game than Texas holdem, especially after the flop.
• You only need to win one or two big pots per playing session to turn a consistent profit playing pot limit Omaha.
• You don’t need to play for high stakes to make $100 a day.

You can learn more about these reasons as you follow the step by step guide to making $100 a day playing pot limit Omaha poker below.

The biggest and easiest advantage you can develop is to know the rules of Omaha poker. This might seem crazy, but most new players don’t completely understand the rules. Many players who’ve been playing Omaha for a while even struggle with some of the rules. This gives you an advantage. Make sure you understand all of the rules and how to play Omaha. If you have any questions or doubts, do more research and play for free online until you’re 100% sure you have everything figured out.

The rule most Texas holdem players have trouble with is the number of cards you use and the number of cards from the board you use. In Texas holdem, you can use any combination of cards in your hand with the cards on the board to make your hand. But in Omaha, you must use 2 (and exactly 2) cards from your hand and 3 (and exactly 3) cards from your hand. Players who don’t understand the rules often don’t understand what hand they actually have. That puts those players at a huge disadvantage.

One of the best things about making $100 a day playing pot limit Omaha is you don’t have to play at high stakes. I’ve done it playing at tables as low as $25 buy-in online. If I have to play at this level, I usually play at 2 or 3 online tables at a time. If you have a large enough bankroll and can find games, you can play at $100 buy-in tables up to $1,000 buy-in tables. The level of your competition will vary based on where you play and the table stakes, but even at $500 and $1,000 buy-in tables, you can find poor players.

I like to have at least 20 times the table buy-in as my bankroll, and 30 times is better.  But the truth is that at times I’ve played with as low as 10 times the buy-in in reserve and been okay. Playing with a short bankroll depends on your playing ability, the level of your competition, and your stomach for the volatility of the game. The best buy-in level for winning $100 a day is somewhere between $50 to $200. The level of play at these ranges is usually bad, and if you stay patient you have many opportunities to get your money in with the best hand.

One reason pot limit Omaha is the best game to make $100 a day playing is because at the low levels it’s easy to get other players to put money in the pot when you have a good hand. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t played a hand in the last hour, because no one is paying attention. This means you can wait until you get a good hand to enter the pot.

Here’s an example:

If you know you’re going to see 200 hands during your session and you only need to get in with the best hand a few times, you know you can fold any marginal hand. And when you see the flop and don’t clearly have the best hand or a profitable draw, you need to quickly get out of the hand. You don’t need to take many chances when you only need to win a few big hands.

Because each player has a 4 card starting hand, more draws are created on the flop. More possible straight draws and flush draws exist because of the extra pocket cards. This leads to more poor players chasing draws without the proper pot odds. This is good for you in the long run, but it creates some volatility in the short run. Even in the example hand above–where I flopped top set–it turned out my opponent had a straight draw. He didn’t hit it this time, but sometimes he will.

It might seem like you’re losing more than your share of hands where you get in with the best of it, but the truth is that the numbers always work out in the long run. Make sure you actually are getting in with the best hand most of the time and have enough bankroll to ride out short term volatility.

Not many people enjoy talking or thinking about math. But if you want to turn consistent profit playing Omaha you need to get a firm grasp of poker math. If you don’t understand and use pot odds when playing poker, you need to stop everything and master them immediately. This might sound harsh, but until you understand and use pot odds, you’re going to limit your profitability. The good news is once you learn about and understand how to use pot odds, you don’t have to use the complicated exact calculations often. In most cases you can make profitable decisions without doing exact calculations.

Here’s an example:

If you don’t understand what expected value is, you need to learn about it along with pot odds. It’s a huge deal and is the basis of all long term profit in poker.  Of course, pot odds help you make profitable decisions when you flop a strong draw and face a bet. These situations can also be profitable, but you need to understand them and be able to determine their profitability.

It depends on the limit of the game you’re playing in, but usually winning 2 big hands per session will bring you close to reaching your goal. As you learned earlier, you might need to get in with the best of it 5 or 6 times for the bad beats to be canceled out, but this doesn’t change anything. When you get all in with the best hand 6 times, even if you get a bad beat twice, the end result is 2 bad beats canceling out 2 wins.  This leaves you with 2 big wins.

Here’s an example:

You get all in with the best of it 6 times during a session at a $100 buy-in pot limit Omaha game for roughly $100 each hand. You lose twice and win 4 times. This is a net win of $200. This example ignores blinds and the hands where you have to fold on the flop, but the truth is you’re probably going to win more than $100 in at least one of the pots you win. Plus, you’re going to win some smaller pots along the way.

One of the best hands to create big win possibilities is a flopped straight with a draw to a nut flush. If you have the A and J of hearts and flop a straight with 2 hearts on the board, if one of your opponents also flopped a straight, you’re on a free roll. Your opponent has no choice but to call your pot sized bets, but if you hit the flush you scoop the pot instead of splitting it. But be aware; you don’t want to get caught on the other side of a free roll.

Even with a modest goal of winning $100 a day, doing it on a consistent basis is a grind. Some days you’re going to lose, and some days you’re going to struggle for hours to meet your goal or just break even. This is the nature of the game. The good news is some days you’re going to win more than your goal. Remember that poker is one long game that lasts a lifetime. We break it into playing sessions because we can’t play for more than a set number of hours.

I don’t set stop loss limits and win goals when I play, but many players do. I’ve included a few ideas about setting stop loss limits in case you might be able to use them to help you meet your goals. Based on the goal of winning $100 a day, here’s where I’d set my limits playing a $100 buy-in game. You can adjust these suggestions based on your needs, playing style, ability, and limits. I’d set a loss limit at $200 and a stop win at $500.

I’ve also played in games with bad players and quickly went over my daily goal. Inexperienced players are afraid of losing money they win, but I’m not afraid of giving back winnings. As long as the competition is poor and I continue to get in with the best of it, I’m going to win in the long run. If I have a stop win limit of $500 and am surrounded by poor players there’s no way I walk away from the game just because of the limit.