Position in Omaha
Start with the advantage of position
Position is important in Omaha for a number of reasons. Since the differences in value between starting hands is far less than in Hold Em the advantage that position gives you and the underlying information that you can gain from having position should not be underestimated.
Take the pot down in late position
You can bluff and semi-bluff or simply take down the pot with your moderate hands more frequently in position when you sense weakness from the players who have already acted, a couple of straightforward players check their hands to you on some relatively innocuous looking board say something like J 6 2 rainbow, you could probably take down this pot with or without an actual good poker hand.
Save yourself money in position
Having position allows you to fold your hand, thus getting away from your hand cheaply. Say you have a reasonable but not great hand in Omaha in early position on the flop, say top and bottom pair. Chances are you will invest at least something in the pot if you are in early position with this hand. If you are in late position you however can see the action that has gone before and make an obvious fold if there is lots of action before you, thus saving yourself money that you couldn’t have done if you were in early position.
Get information on the cheap
Another key factor why position in Pot limit Omaha is more important than in Hold Em can be seen from the very name of the game i.e. Pot. A player can never bet or raise more than the Pot, so unless a raising war happens it can be relatively cheap to call pre-flop and indeed on the flop, hopefully in theory at least by the time the turn comes and the pot size bets are now big, you will not have paid too high a price for your information, and can use your position and information to make your optimal informed decision.
Example of a marginal hand to play in late position
Of course you still can’t play just any rubbish cards in position, trouble hands like small pairs, cards with poor or no flush potential should be dumped amongst others. An example of a marginal hand that you could play in late position but that you should fold in early position would be something like Qs Qd Td 7c. Not a hand to get too excited about, but in late position if the Queen does hit it could give you a nice payoff, however in early position it wouldn’t usually be a good choice to enter the pot with this type of hand as it’s simply too weak out of position.
