omaha hi lo help

[beeyjay]

I just accidentally signed up for omaha hilo. (amazed it took this long 8 tabling.) but i was just wondering what is a good hand in this game or any other quick tips. its a 30 buyin. is anything less than the nut flush basically useless? thanks
bj

[Voltron87]

If its a big multiway pot get used to folding anything but the 1st-3rd nuts. In multiway pots don't even think about playing 2 pair, a flush on a paired board or sometimes even bottom set. I would just sit it out and start pushing when you get an A later.


I've been wondering for a while, is there profit to be made in Omaha SNGs? I'm a pretty solid omaha limit player, and I could learn the basics of pot limit pretty fast. Anyone think a high ROI could be attained at the 33s or so? Anyone beating these right now?

[skipperbob]

Go allin on every hand; kiss your ass good-bye

[beeyjay]

thanks a lot.

[se2schul]

LOL. I've accidentally done that too. It's always quite the shock for half a second when you think: "Party Poker must be broken because I'm getting dealt 4 cards. No wait, I'm just a moron".

I play the game for fun occasionally. I like O8, partially cause I've never studied the game, so I'm somewhat winging things.

The O8 games seem very soft. It seems like all party O-8 players are compuslive callers. You get 1 or 2 players folding a hand preflop with the others limping. Despite my ignorance with the game, I've had great success by playing tight, and only raising with the nuts or near nuts.

I'll tell you some of my observations from O-8. I'll warn you that some of them will be common sense, and other may be flat out wrong, but they're just things that I've noticed in my very limited experience. I've never read a book on O-8, so hopefully someone can point out my mistakes. I'm not so much putting this out as advice as I am looking to get advice on my own O-8 game.

-TPTK in O-8 is like high-card in holdem - don't play it.

-top two pair is pretty weak in O-8, so watchout.

-Holding A2 is a very valuable. You definitely want to limp, and perhaps raise depending on your other 2 cards.

-AA23 (2 suited) is the best starting hand you can have. Bet the pot.

-KK23 is significantly weaker than AA23. If you can't see why then do more reading before playing O-8 again.

-The nut low is less valuable than the nut high. Often multiple people hold the nut-low, although you contributed to 1/3 of the pot you may be splitting the nut low and actually lose money getting something like 1/3 of 1/2 (=1/6) of everything you contributed.

-For starting hands, I play any A2, or sometimes 234 hoping that an A will flop, 4 cards like 9TJQ, and stuff like that. Sometimes I'll play hands like AAJ9 hoping for a nut-high.

-Once you make your hand, never slowplay it. I have never seen so many suckouts with quads on the river.

-without knowing anything about O-8, you should make the money enough to be profitable if you understand the GAP concept and play tightly.

Steve

[Voltron87]

[ QUOTE ]
LOL. I've accidentally done that too. It's always quite the shock for half a second when you think: "Party Poker must be broken because I'm getting dealt 4 cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's an lol right there.

As to your strategy, its all good except for the part about A2 and lows. Never play a hand just because it has A2 in it. That's a huge leak. A238 unsuited is a crap hand, and should almost never be played, even though its a nice low hand. A2 is greatly over rated and is not a reason to play a hand but a nice little bonus. Never set out in a hand thinking "right I'm going to take ths low down."

[beeyjay]

hey thanks for the ideas and help. i finsihed in 4th which i felt was pretty good seeing as for most of the tourney i just wasnt even paying attn. and i had only done a little reading on the game before today.

It was funny when i first saw the 4 cards. Earlier today i had just been thinking about how i need to change it up as holdem has been getting a little dull lately. then this just magically comes along.

As to your question of it being beatable/to agree with the comment that the game was soft i have to agree. I really have read very limited amount on the game before this and felt that by just playing really tight i was able to get to the final 5 with a decent stack. With even a decent understanding of the game i think it would be very beatable.

My biggest killer though (as well as the biggest drawback to hourly rate if you were to play thse seriously) was the length of the game. by the time my holdem games ended i was kind of hungry and to win this tourney it would have taken a fair amount of extra time. Maybe im just ridiculously impatient but the length of a party nlhe tourney is just right for me and seems to help the hourly return.

So that seems a good point to end this attempt at making generalizations about a game i dont know and only played in once. it was at least a change of pace from hold em.
bj

[se2schul]

Thanks. Do you have a hand ranking list? I've looked for one and haven't been able to find one. Any good books?

[Slim Pickens]

Ha. I've done this too. Finished second... had 7000 chips at one point.

[Voltron87]

There's a Books & Software forum, they should know.

Some more advice is to play exceptionally tight preflop. Most Omaha hands are easy to play on the flop: you either have a solid draw to the nuts, a solid set to protect, or absolutely nothing. And 95% of the time when you have a OOESD or a nut flush draw you have odds to call (all my experience is limit, not pot). Basically you want to play hands that use all 4 cards. Hands that can win the high and the low (scoop) are also premium. Suited aces are good. That is why AA23 double suited is so good. You have 2 nut flush draws, a 3 card wheel draw, two nut low draws, top set draw.

I look at it like this: Can you use all 4 cards? Is one card totally useless (ex: A2K9. The 9 does nothing for you.) Pocket pairs, suits, and connectedness are all helpful. Thats a start, a real author will make it a lot clearer. But to me internet low/mid Omaha is 75% pf hand selection and 25% evaluating whether the flop hit you or gave you a good draw. The basic principles of hand selection are "Do I use all 4 cards, are there multiple ways I can win the hand, and is it good for a scoop?"

[johnnybeef]

[ QUOTE ]
I just accidentally signed up for omaha hilo. (amazed it took this long 8 tabling.) but i was just wondering what is a good hand in this game or any other quick tips. its a 30 buyin. is anything less than the nut flush basically useless? thanks
bj

[/ QUOTE ]

unless it is backdoor or you have the nut low to accompany it. basically you want to see flops for cheap, and you want to get hands that have a good chance at scooping the pot unless it is multiway. don't draw to half of the pot, dont draw to non nut hands. in a tourney, adjust your hands to the amount of players at the table...that should be a start, if you need any more help, post some hands over at the new omaha 8 forum and ill be happy to help.

[johnnybeef]

[ QUOTE ]
If its a big multiway pot get used to folding anything but the 1st-3rd nuts. In multiway pots don't even think about playing 2 pair, a flush on a paired board or sometimes even bottom set. I would just sit it out and start pushing when you get an A later.


I've been wondering for a while, is there profit to be made in Omaha SNGs? I'm a pretty solid omaha limit player, and I could learn the basics of pot limit pretty fast. Anyone think a high ROI could be attained at the 33s or so? Anyone beating these right now?

[/ QUOTE ]

even at the higher limits, omaha hilo is full of bad players who think that they are good. id keep playing the ring games...as a matter of fact im currently building my br back up to play in the higher omaha 8 games by playing sngs.

[beeyjay]

ha, just saw the o8 forum. would have obviously been the better place for it. i tend to automatically just come to this board and sometimes the internet board.

[KingDan]

Though this is the one table forum, the two table plo8 are a complete joke. I showed up a few hands late because for some reason party didnt take me right to the table. I missed 5 or 6 hands, still diddnt post a big blind, and 5 players were already knocked out.