dumb O8 newbie questions

Hiya. Just started playing some O/8 on PP (.5/1) this weekend. Essential I went into this almost totally blind and only a basic understanding of the game - I've played plenty of hold em though. Amazingly I was able to win like 50 bbs in just a few hours with such elite strategies as "lots of low cards in hand = good, lots of high cards in hand = good, drawing not to the nuts = bad, drawing to the nut flush on a paired board = bad (found that out the hard way)". Here's a few questions though:


Lets say you flop a decent hand like middle set with no easy straight or flush draw with 1 low card on the board. You've been betting it on the flop and turn no one is playing back at you. The river brings the 3rd low card and all of a sudden 2 people are raising. Is it safe to assume they both have the nut low and their raising only helps you? What about the opposite situation, you hit the nut low and someone else comes to life - should you just call hoping to minimize your loss from the 1/4 pot you win? It seems like I saw quite a few split low pots where the nut-lows were firing at each other and the decent-high was just calling it down, even though he was benefitting most from it.


Here's another one: I'm playing something like AAQJ, flop is essential a bunch of rags, flop is checked through 6 people, turn is as well, so is the river (no low possible), and I win. Should I have bet somewhere in here? heh. I'm essentially scared to bet or raise without the nuts or a very strong hand like flopped trips.


Also can anyone recommend some good O8 sites with strategy, etc? Thanks for the help.

"The river brings the 3rd low card and all of a sudden 2 people are raising. Is it safe to assume they both have the nut low and their raising only helps you? "


With low cards on the board consider that one may have made a straight and the other the nut low leaving you...


Unimproved middle sets are generally death in O/8, IMO. Even middle sets that make a boat can be hazardous to your bankroll and should be played somewhat cautiously, again IMO.


"What about the opposite situation, you hit the nut low and someone else comes to life - should you just call hoping to minimize your loss from the 1/4 pot you win? "


To me that depends a lot on which cards make the nut low. If its A2 and the bets and raises start I usually just call because a lot of players will play that with nothing else in their hand and play it strongly too. As the nut low holding moves farther away from A2 (34 for example) I'm more inclined to jam with it. Be aware of where there might be someone holding the nut low and a low straight as well (e.g. board is A256 and they hold 347x).


"I'm playing something like AAQJ, flop is essential a bunch of rags, flop is checked through 6 people, turn is as well, so is the river (no low possible), and I win"


Did you raise preflop to try and thin the field? Essentially a bunch of rags is somewhat nondefinitive. How many of one suit? Any pairs? Any potential straights? Generally if I've raised with aces preflop and have thinned the field down to two or three I'll fire off a bet if in early position or a raise if the board doesn't look too threatening. You have to try and get a handle on what your opponents might be holding and how they react to bets and raises.


Disclaimer: I am NOT an omaha expert, but hopefully one will come along and also answer your questions and critique my answers.

"Lets say you flop a decent hand like middle set with no easy straight or flush draw with 1 low card on the board."


Coz - It's easier for me to look at specific hands and flops and then generalize, rather than generalizing in the abstract. Trouble is, I can't come up with a flop that has no easy straight or flush draw and only one low card. (The best I can come up with is K-9-2-rainbow, but that has a straight draw for someone holding Q-J-T-X).


“The river brings the 3rd low card and all of a sudden 2 people are raising. Is it safe to assume they both have the nut low"


No. However, you should tend to put them on lows if the river did not also enable a flush or straight. Note that it's surer some opponents have made a low than others. Whether something is "safe" or not depends on what you mean by "safe." I think it's generally safe to call here, but depending on the situation and your opponents, it may not be safe to raise. In general, I think I would just call.


However, if I was playing AQQJ, the flop was KsQh2d, the turn 3c, the river 7s, and two of my opponents suddenly came alive and started betting, I wouldn’t really care if they held low hands or inferior high hands. The only hand that could beat me would be a set of kings, and someone suddenly coming alive an betting a river card that enabled low wouldn’t seem to have a set of kings.


"I'm playing something like AAQJ, flop is essential a bunch of rags, flop is checked through 6 people, turn is as well, so is the river (no low possible), and I win. Should I have bet somewhere in here?"


Depends on a number of factors.


"I'm essentially scared to bet or raise without the nuts or a very strong hand like flopped trips."


Sounds sane. It's a place to start.


Buzz

www.playwinningpoker.com (http://www.playwinningpoker.com) has a nice article on Omaha 8. Check it out!

most of your points have been rather well answered, but I might add these:


if there are at least 4 players, continue to raise with nut low


if everybody is checking on the rag flop, you may want to make a "feeler" bet


go to bottom of far left and find ConJelCo--then go there and order book by Ray Zee

hi,


i posted this below but its about to fall off the board so here it is again... Annie Duke wrote some good O8 articles for www.ultimatebet.com (http://www.ultimatebet.com)


this is how you get there: go to the website as mentioned above (NOT the software start page) and click on Team Ultimatebet; then click on the name Annie Duke on the right column; then click on 'Learn Omaha from a Pro' in the right hand column which will take you to the first article and at the bottom of that page are links to further articles.


This is the link to Annie's page, not sure if it'll work: http://ultimatebet.com/team_ub/duke/a_duke.html


good luck

Daisy