Omahahahohohahaha

I'd say I'm fairly new to omaha. I enjoy the game and play freerolls and I'll play for money at Omaha PL. I've done ok, won a few low buyin Sngs(which I've sometiems entered by mistake) but know I can improve and read up a bit if I wish to play it more seriously.

I enjoyed the H/L game at first but I'm more drawn to Omaha high now and feel more confident playing this. I've found that I see such bizarre play at the H/L game at freeroll/low limits that you never quite know where you are. I feel you can judge things more in Omaha high.

I much prefer to play pot limit Omaha and I won't play Omaha for real money if it's a limit game.

Anyway, to the main point of my post. I occasionally enter Limit Omaha H/L MTTS. I'm lost at these. I just can't seem to find a good strategy and I'm asking for any views/tips/strategies for these types of games.

I think Omaha is basically about good starting hands and I'll generally wait for those in pot limit, or else I'll use position and betting to try and close down the hand when I hit good flops.

In limit games this just doesnt work. A limit Omaha H/L game just seems so difficult to play if you arent getting any good hands and if you get a good hand, you can't get people off the pot.

I can see that a high number of people are playing rubbish( maybe they think they have a good hand) but when there's 5 of em still left in the hand at the river what can you do? lol Someone usually hits something.

These limit MTTs H/L games just seem to be a case of hit good hands or get lucky. All a bit dull really. The last one I played I was low stacked after really only hitting one good hand and a few marginals where I scraped by on half of the pot. I was getting desparate with the blinds and ended up going on A3QJ not suited and went out.

So, any juicy tips on specifically Limit Omaha H/L Tourneys?

7letters

__________________
.



May/June '07
....Team:7 Black Balls
.... Sunday Lge Team Champs

Nov/Dec '07
....Team: 7Balls
....Sunday Lge Team Champs
....Sunday Lge Individual RunnerUp

Jan/Feb '08
....Sunday Lge Individual RunerUp

June/July '08
....Midweek League
....Winner

Alright...

First off, starting hand selection, look for one of these hands to play:

-4 cards above 9, none of which are paired, and preferably double suited. This will basically mean should the flop bring mostly high cards, you should have two pair with a strong straight draw. Best of all, it means not splitting the pot with the low hand.

-Ax2y, preferably A2 suited and xy suited. x would be any card J or higher (including ace), y is a 3, 4, or possibly 5. This should help you get a good low hand, and if low cards hit, you should have a good chance at hitting the wheel.

-4 cards, 6 or lower, no pairs. If you get something like this, you are almost guaranteed to win the low hand (should it be eligible).

Now, there are other starting hands you can play, but I feel this is a good starting point. All of these are capable of seeing a flop with, and can be folded fairly cheaply being that you will either hit a very strong draw or nothing at all with these.

The biggest thing you'll want to do in this game is scoop the pot. For those who don't know, scooping is where you win both the high half and low half of the pot. When you win the entire pot, well...it's a nice addition to your chip stack...but you'll find when you split the pot you only add a small portion to your chip stack (and sometimes will lose in the end...nevermind the dreaded quarter pot or 1/6 pot !!). However, a split pot is inevitable at points in a game, so its important to build up the pot as much as possible with as many players as possible. Here's an example: the board reads Ad5xQdJd3x. You just happen to hold KdJdXxXx. AWESOME! You hold the nuts, the royal flush. However, it's quite possible someone was chasing (and hit) a low draw. Knowing a split is likely, it would be a very good move to build the pot while keeping as many players in. If the majority of chips was put in by only 3 players, your only getting 1/2 of one players chips! However, if you can find that magic number where 6 players will put in chips (and this is quite possible at low limit O8), you have 2.5 players worth of chips profit! Make sense now?

Omaha is all about draws. Chase them, oh yes, please chase them...but make sure they are strong draws. Don't chase any flush other than the nut flush, no straight other than the nut straight, and only if there is no pair on the board (cuz 9 times out of 10 someone will end up having a FH in that situation..yeh those aren't the real stats but close enough). Don't call any river bets unless you have a made hand, straights or better...if you don't have better, make sure you have a damn good read on the player, or if its a REALLY small bet (in which case, it's good to get information).

So, that's my view on Omaha H/L, if someone with more experience would like to shoot me down now, that would be perfectly fine .

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

Sccooooooop! AA23 double suited = best starting hand in Omaha HI/LO. If you see this, raise a lot. Like he said, you want to scoop, which means a starting hands needs to have both low and high elements. For low hands its good to have A23 or A24 so that if one of your cards is counterfeit you don't end up losing the low, and suited aces are always a plus.

Do not get excited about hands like [8989]. They're real crap. They have no low chance, and while they may hit sets, the sets will often be mid set, and not the nuts. Set over set is very common in omaha, as is full house over better full house. For example, flop is [8 8 Q] and you have [Q8xx], an opponent could easily have [QQxx] and you'll dead to 1 out.

Since you really want a hand that can be strong at both ends, just avoid hands with middle cards. [AK95] is not a good hand. Look at it as 6 different holdem hands.
AK - good,
A5 - ok low,
K9? K5? 59? A9? Those don't add much. No straight draws, no flush draws, no low draws.

You see what I mean. On the other hand, a hand like [AcJd3cQd]:
AcJd - straight draws/high cards
Ac3c - nut flush and 2nd nut low draw
AcQd - straight draws/high cards
Jd3c - eh
3cQd - eh
QdJd - straight flush draw

If you've got 4 or more decent drawing/made hands, you're good to go. Hence why [AdAs2d3s] is the best hand:

AA - Bullets!
Ad2d - nut flush, nut low
As3s - nut flush, other nut low
2d3s - low draw, straight draw
Ad3s - same
As2d - same

Awesomeness, scoooooooop

Good luck!

Omaha Hi/Low is the only way to play the game. It adds depth and skill to the game. Hi only, if you can't get them off the pot preflop any card could make a set and you will never know where your at with a bunch of ppl in the pot... Then any over card that comes could make someone a set....