why arent i playing omaha 8?

so now ive just read in poker essays that i only need about a third of the bankroll that i need for hold em to play omaha 8 (provided im very good at it). so why arent i playing omaha 8?


well for one thing i dont know how to play it yet. i mean i know the fundamentals and i understand some basic winning concepts. if i go buy zee's book and study it long and hard and practice what i read in there will that be enough to beat easier games? there is a 4-8 half kill at my local cardroom that's very loose and it's $4 live drop on the button. should i be able to kill that game if ive read zee's book? or is there another book i should look at?


is there any reason i shouldnt leave behind the painful suckouts and irritations of hold em (A game i beat, but sometimes dont have the adequate bankroll to conquer as i would like) and become an expert at a game that most people seem to play even worse?

usually only 3-6 is spread.


brad

4-8 w/ a 6-12 kill at the place i play at and 6-12 and sometimes 20-40 down in LA. so someone please answer!

Hello,Mike,

Since you are beating low-limit Hol'em,you should try to increase your poker bankroll enough to progress to the next level.


Sitting Bull

mike,


I'm not familiar with the action in your area, but if you get Ray's book and read and understand Part I (1st 25 or so pages), you should be able to beat a low limit O8 game.


Mack


P.S. Don't chase!

1) Suckouts seem even more prevalent in Omaha. It is a game of draws after all.

I've played a lot of both O8 and hold'em. I find O8 to be much more of a grind than hold'em, as the basic strategy doesn't involve much thought. In a good O8 game all you need to do to beat the game quite handily is just practice good starting hand selection, and only continue past the flop if you make the nuts or a nut draw with sufficient odds. Most of the time you will be a spectator and the hands go quite a bit slower than in hold'em. Combine that with the fact that fewer of your starting O8 hands are playable than in hold'em, and you might want to bring a book for something to do while the dealer chops pots and bad players (and sometimes even the dealers /images/wink.gif) stare at their hands trying to figure out what they have.


For some reason I also seem to run much more hot and cold in O8 than hold'em, but that's probably a function of the fewer hands I play per hour (and session). With a smaller sample size, each winner or loser should have a bigger impact on session results. So as far as bankroll goes, I'm not sure if the requirements are substantially different from hold'em. Maybe someone who has kept better track of their SD than I could provide some input.


That said, O8 is certainly a profitable game to learn. There's something about having so many draws that encourages loose players to stay in with nearly anything, and I think your average opponents are much worse at playing O8 than they are at playing hold'em. If nothing else, adding another game to your arsenal should give you an out when the hold'em games look tough.

If you are a patient man Omaha 8 is the game for you. If you are impatient, well then consider another game. Learning to play well enough to beat the game you describe is easily summed up in 2-3 pages.


But the game is so SLOW, you may end up playing as badly as everyone else out of boredom. Omaha 8 is a game that suits play on the net very well. Cards are dealt fast, pots are split instantly and the games are very beatable.

I'm not very good at Omaha 8. At least, there are lots of people, probably most who have posted here, that I wouldn't want to play against, but I'm much better than anybody I've met so far (I live in Asia) and that's been good enough to earn me enough to pay for Ray Zee's book roughly 200 times over in small to medium-sized games.


As others have said, the main enemy in O8 (once you've done some studying), is yourself. And if you tend to go on tilt in hold 'em or lack proper starting hand discipline, O8 is not for you. Most of the people I've played against see virtually every flop. Which is a good thing. And fortunately many of them stay in until the river. So you see how it goes, you've got to be able to spend long periods of time only watching the action. And you've got to be able to lay down a lot of seemingly good hands after waiting ages for a playable starting hand to hit you.


I downloaded the O8 demo from Wilson. I'll probably end up buying it, but am still a bit undecided. It might help you, it might not.


http://www.wilsonsw.com/demo.html


And here is an introduction to the game which is useful, but only as an absolute introduction to the game. It's more of an encouragement as to why one should learn the game.


http://www.playwinningpoker.com/omaha1.html


And buy Ray's book. I mean, you're asking us why you aren't playing O8, but seems to me you don't want to pay the dues. And no, studying the book or practising on software won't be enough to make you a winning player. It'll go a long way to helping you, sure, but in the end you have to be able to take all the information available everywhere and make it your own. Great good luck to you. Paul

Steve Badger`s website has good omaha info.

One thing different in omaha from holdem is u have to have the good cards to win U can`t win with any 2 cards like holdem.

And another thing U can`t bluff in omaha with much success. If u don`t get the cards U just can`t win in omaha. If U don`t get a good flop for your hand U have to fold. U can`t chase.

Coyote

Brief Comments to Mike I. (I "the Family Man" play OM8 in the LA, CA area)

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The Zee OM8 book is excellent. But to learn the game you need experience. Some comments....


If you play a nine-handed 4/8 OM8 game with a dead drop of $4, then your expenses with be on the order of $12 per hour plus tokeing the dealer (most players toke). So if you want to break even "zero profit," then you have to earn "WIN" about $13 or $14 per hour. Also remember, most casinos in the Los Angeles County area in California, maintain the maximum drop for down to seven players, Realizing that about maybe 40% of the time the game might be eight-handed, then your actual expenses will be $14 to $15 per hour. So the bottom line is: to actually win $10 per hour, you have to have an average win rate before expenses of $25 per hour. You have to be a really good player to actually win "before expenses" $25 per hour in the LA County area.


Really the other equally important thing in OM8 is game selection. If you sit down with six or seven other players as skillful as you, then you may only have one fish to fry. So....


The botton line is: (1.) read good OM8 books, (2a.) get experience playing OM8, (2b.) select games with 3 or four fish "poor players" in that game. (3.) repeat steps 1., 2a., 2b. If at the end of a specified time duration, you aren't winning a little then play some other game.


Also, Fridays evening OM8 games have the most fish to fry.

Family Man here....