Here’s an example. Suppose the turn card gives you the best possible flush, no cards are paired on the board, your opponent has flopped a set. and there’s one more card to come. If you assume that you’ll win if the board doesn’t pair, but that you’ll lose to a full house or quads if it does, you can count your outs with certainty.

At this point there are 40 unknown cards. Ten of them will pair the board and allow your opponent to win the pot. Yet 30 of those unknown cards will not pair the board and you’ll be the one raking in the chips. In the long run. you figure to win this kind of confrontation three times out of four. When you have the best of it and figure to win a given hand most of the time, your best strategy is to build the pot before the river. While that last river card will determine the winner, it will also constrain the betting.

The time to get more money in the pot is when there’s still good reason for anyone with a drawing hand — and a set is a drawing hand in Omaha, particularly when there are three suited cards on board — to stick around and pay you off, chasing that draw for a win. While the winning hand in Omaha is frequently determined on the river, it’s the preparation for the river that determines the size of the pot. Winning at Omaha requires the skilled player to manipulate the size of the pot to the best of his ability. But when? And how? To do this successfully means getting more money in the pot and driving it with the best hand. It also means playing on the cheap when you don’t. Because the nuts are so common in Omaha, made hands that are the nuts and quality draws to the best hand can drive the betting in a way that non-nut hands never can.