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Draw to the Nuts

Because you start with four cards facedown, you’ll encounter many more situations in Omaha where you don’t have a great hand, but you have multiple draws that would give you a very good hand. It’s a fairly simple idea — more cards give you more chances to win — but it has important consequences.

Don’t be scared to bet and raise with a drawing hand, as in many situations you can actually be the favorite to win despite the fact that you don’t currently have the best hand. What you need to be sure of, though, is that you’re drawing to “the nuts”, or the best hand possible.

Let’s say you’re playing Omaha and you have Ah 10h Ks Qs, and the flop is Jh Qh 5s. You have a very, very strong hand, despite the fact that you currently just have a pair of queens and may be behind another player. If another heart comes on the turn or river, you have the nut flush. You also have the nut straight if a K or a 10 comes on the river, too. In both cases, if you make your draw (and the board doesn’t pair, giving someone a possible full house), you have the nuts. That’s exactly when you want to be drawing, when you have the nuts if you make you hand.

Let’s say that instead you had Jh Jc 5h 4c and the flop is Ac 7h 6h. Like the previous example, you can make a jack high flush if another heart comes on the turn or river, and you can make a straight if an 8 or a 2 comes on the turn or river. In both cases, though, you can still be beaten, even if you make your hand. Someone could have a bigger heart flush or they could have a bigger straight. You’re not drawing to the nuts, so you can lose even if you make your hand.

If you’re going to put money into the pot with a draw, make sure that you’re drawing to the nuts and that you’ll win if you make the hand. Some of the most expensive Omaha hands you’ll lose are ones where you end up with the second-best hand, because someone else was drawing to the nuts.

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