I have been playing more pot limit omaha over the past few months and for me then this is the game to concentrate on with regards to profit potential for good players. I think that at this time then there are more weak players on a level per level basis at pot limit Omaha than at no limit holdem. We will look at the $100 full ring games in both environments to highlight what I am talking about here. This is a decent level in full ring no limit Texas Hold’em and a level that I have played an awful lot of over the past two years.

So I can only pass on what I have learned and this is that big profits are no longer coming from big pots. Your opponents simply do not stack off lightly in 100bb situations now and when they stack off then they have the nuts or a very powerful holding. This means that unless you have the nuts or very close to it that you can no longer have the same degree of confidence regarding whether or not you will win the pot or not. So quite often in NL Hold’em then you will be on the wrong side in big pot versus big pot situations.

This means that big value will no longer come from this area of the game against solid regs. However in PL Omaha then there is not the same number of solid regs playing the same stakes. This might and probably will change in the future but there is still value to be had in full ring PL Omaha games. So despite the fact that the average starting hand is close in value in PL Omaha, this does not alter the fact that the difference in all-in equity post flop can be absolutely massive at this form of poker and you can often be in numerous situations that are absolutely crushing.

So what does this actually mean for lower level full ring PL Omaha games? Well firstly it means that with very good hand selection that you can actually do very well with basic PL Omaha fundamentals and principles (providing that you know what they are) and no more. This concept applies to NL Hold’em as well but you get far shorter value on a level per level basis at that form of poker. For me the key difference between PL Omaha full ring and NL Hold’em full ring is that you can still make reasonable bb/100 at PL Omaha simply by playing ABC.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk