The key to playing any Omaha game is patience. Yes, like other forms of poker, patience is a virtue. If you think starting hand selection is important in NL Hold em games, it is 10 times more important in Omaha games. If you’re playing too many hands in Omaha, you’re playing poker losing, plain and simple. Having won a big multi-table Omaha h/l tournament, I can tell you that the vast majority of players played way too many hands. Think about how simple this makes the game for those of us with some moderation. If you can resist playing the wrong hands, you can have an advantage over 90% of the players playing against you.

What I mean by this? Simple? Don’t play hands unless you have a chance to win the pot. Too many players will play hands simply because they have a good chance on the high, or even worse, the low. To be successful in Omaha h/l, you need to overcome this tendency and play hands that are likely to win on both the high and low sides. Anything else is simply risking your chips for too little of a win.

If you’re risking chips to win half a pot, you’re in trouble in the long run. Yes, you can get away with a hand or two and not do any damage, but it’s a losing strategy if you do it too much. So look for hands like A-2-TT, A-2-QQ, or Ah-2h-Ks-Qs. You’re looking for hands that at least have a shot at both pots. Other than that, play high because there isn’t always a low pot. Many times you will see players make huge raises preflop with A-2-xx and go broke when there is no low pot chance at the table. Don’t make this mistake.

Just tone it down and play hands that can win both pots, there’s plenty of money to be won in Omaha h/l tournaments.