Trouble hands. They’ll kill you if you’re not an experienced poker player. These are the hands that give you false hope, the sparkle of light that makes you believe you’re sitting on a potential powerhouse, when in reality you’re going to end up contributing to someone else’s pot almost every time.

The worst offender of all the trouble hands is the pre-flop, suited cards. Two cards of the same suit. The common player sees this and think, “I’m 40% of the way to a flush without the flop even coming out yet! Time to bet this baby up.”

Wrong. First of all, statistically speaking, a pacific poker flush is a very difficult hand to pull in hold ‘em, so you’re immediately playing against the percentages. You’ll be playing from behind against anyone that calls or re-raises, and right off the bat, that’s just poor strategy.

In any poker game, the last thing you want to do is go in on a draw. Drawing to an inside straight, drawing to a flush…you put yourself at a disadvantage and overextend your risk for an unacceptable possibility of return.

Another huge problem here is let’s say you do go in on a flush draw, even if you didn’t bet the pot up, but just called the blinds or limped in however else. Then, after the flop, you catch a mid-pair to strengthen your hand. Again, another deceptive “bonus” that leaves you chasing big dreams with a small hand and no backup against the likely possibility that other players still in the game have a better pair (or more) than you.

This same situation goes for two connecting cards pre-flop. Although the odds of a partypoker download straight are better than those of a flush, you’re going in on a draw, and if the high card in the straight is less than a Jack, you’re really leaving yourself no outs. The deeper you get into these hands (turn, river), the more you’re pumping in against increasing daunting odds against you. The safest and smartest thing to do is walk away before you get caught chasing. I know a flush and a straight are strong hands in Texas Hold ‘Em, and nothing would make you happier than to check raise somebody’s top two pair into the ground, but the odds are on your opponents side in that scenario I’m afraid.

Pot Limit Omaha or PLO as most of the professional’s call it has been growing to the point where there are now thousands of players who enjoy this poker game. If you’re a Texas Holdem player then you’ll be glad to hear that about 50% of the players who play pot limit Omaha switched from Holdem. The game is an entire new giant which you need to conquer and you’ll need to throw out most of the skills you learned from playing Holdem.

In PokerStars Download PLO you’ll be dealt four cards and to win the hand you need to make the best five card poker hand using two cards from your hand and three cards from the community cards. It’s important you remember that you always need too use two cards from your hand and three from the community cards.

The first thing we should look at is starting hand tips in pot limit Omaha. Since you need to use two cards from your hand you always want to play the hands where you have connectors, two suited cards with one preferably being an A, K or Q and high pocket pairs. Since you can’t use three cards from your hand you should automatically throw away hands with trips, three suited cards or more or hands that are unsuited with no connectors.

Now that you have an idea about what PokerStar starting hands you should play you need to know what to look for when you’re playing after the flop. Basically your strategy should be simple here and if you didn’t hit or have a high straight or flush draw then you should fold. The only exception would be if you’re going to try and bluff at the pot because you sense weakness from your opponents.

If you’re playing to the turn and you have a made hand then now is the time you need to bet the size of the pot to find out where you stand. It will be hard for a draw to call you at this point if you bet the pot so if you do get a caller then it typically means they also have a made hand. If you’re on a draw and you haven’t hit up to this point then you should be willing to fold the draw to any reasonable bet. If you can get in for cheap then sure it’s worth chasing down to the river, but make sure that your draw is at least a nut draw and not middle or bottom draw.

Pot Limit Omaha can be a very expensive game to play because often the players are really loose for the most part, especially on the lower limit tables. You need to pick your battles in this game and can’t play in too many hands or you’re not going to make money. The idea when you play any poker game is to win every hand you play so to do this you should be looking at playing a small amount of hands. The more hands you lose the worse your winning percentage becomes typically so keep this in mind when you’re playing please.