Omaha/8 Tourney Practice

[omahanut]

Because I plan on playing in a couple of the Omaha/8 events at the WSOP in June, I would like to get some good multi-table practice. However, I play at Party and all of the multi-table tourneys are a PL structure. Do you folks know of any sites that offer structured multi-table Omaha/8 tourneys that are well attended? Thanks in advance!

[Luckless57]

pokerstars has what you're looking for.

[AnyAce]

Pokerstars is the way to go I think. I played a $40+4 last night with 150+ people. They have pretty much everything from $1 buyin to $200+15 every sunday night at 10pm Eastern.

Good luck.
AA

[FeliciaLee]

I, too, recommend Stars for lots of MTT pratice. They have the structure that most resembles the WSOP, to my knowledge (I'm not much of an online player, but this is what I have observed).

Also, make sure to practice holding and memorizing your cards for the live event.

Come up with a memorization short-cut so that you can quickly look and memorize all four cards, place a chip or protector on them, and NEVER look back. I have my own technique, as does every WCP I know, and looking back again and again will not only cost you pots, but may cost you the tourney.

If you need any help with this, please PM me.

Felicia /images/graemlins/smile.gif
www.felicialee.net (http://www.felicialee.net)

[gergery]

[ QUOTE ]
I, too, recommend Stars for lots of MTT pratice. They have the structure that most resembles the WSOP, to my knowledge (I'm not much of an online player, but this is what I have observed).

Also, make sure to practice holding and memorizing your cards for the live event.

Come up with a memorization short-cut so that you can quickly look and memorize all four cards, place a chip or protector on them, and NEVER look back. I have my own technique, as does every WCP I know, and looking back again and again will not only cost you pots, but may cost you the tourney.

If you need any help with this, please PM me.

Felicia /images/graemlins/smile.gif
www.felicialee.net (http://www.felicialee.net)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there are quite a few of us who'd be interested -- can you post your technique here?

[FeliciaLee]

Okay, sure, I'm getting PM's with requests, too.

Keep in mind, I have a brain like a steel vault. I'm pretty good at memorization. I'm certainly no genius, though, nor do I have a photographic memory.

Here is an excerpt from the PM I sent Omahanut:
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There is a saying in Omaha..."You can tell the quality of the player by how many times he has to look back at his cards."

While I don't necessarily agree with this 100% (after 12 hours at a tourney table, sometimes it's simple unavoidable due to fatigue), you will notice that the best players don't look back.

So say you raised up front with double suited aces and maybe deuce/four. You see two suits on the board. But you forgot, did you have spades or clubs? You know you had suited black, but can't remember which suit. You look back.

Great players are going to know, if two low didn't fall, that you have aces with a flush draw, if you stay in or bet into them. They will refuse to pay you off if you hit, and charge you the maximum to draw, while tricking you into a check-raise when they know you are bluffing. It's a horrible situation to be in, to have your hand virtually turned over, exposed, for the best players to exploit on every street.


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2. You mentioned a memorization short-cut in order to not have to look back at your cards?


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I memorize from the top down in high games, and from the bottom up in split games or low games. So say I'm playing HE, I memorize: AcKd. KcJs, etc.

In Stud; AcAdTh, KcQcJd.

In Stud 8; Ad4h5c. 2h3c4d.

In Razz; 458 (suits aren't necessary, obviously).

In Omaha 8; A46K (then whatever highest suited cards)

Ace is always high in high games, always low in split or low games.

So I am dealt my four O8 cards. I memorize each as they come to me, then I put them in low-high order, then repeat in my head the highest suited card. So here are some examples:

"A249 ace-hearts" (doesn't matter about sidecard, unless it can make a straight flush)

"234K king-diamonds, four-hearts" (that means I'm double suited, with the highest rank of each suited card being the one I memorize)

"A26Q queen-hearts"

It really is simple if you do all of this before the flop, repeating again and again what you have, in order, with suits that matter (rainbow obviously doesn't matter at all in O8).


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3. Do you play tournament omaha/8? If so, can you please share any general insights that may prove helpful?



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Yes, I've played from small, $25 buy-in tourneys up to $1500 tourneys (and the $1500 we chopped three ways, so I got really lucky there!). I've played in big venues and small. You can read some of my write-up's in the archives, in "other poker," since we didn't have an O8 section of 2+2 then.


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4. Because of where I am geographically, obtaining live tournament experience is not much of an option. Other than that, can you suggest anything I should be doing to prepare myself for these events?


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Just deal yourself four random cards and practice memorizing them. Also make sure you put a chip on top of your cards, or some kind of protector. In today's poker boom (with extremely inexperienced dealers), if you don't protect your hand, it will get snatched away sooner or later. Don't make this during the final table of a big tourney, when thousands of real dollars are on the line!

Felicia /images/graemlins/smile.gif
www.felicialee.net (http://www.felicialee.net)

[Tom Bayes]

I was about to ask the same question for a different reason-I'm not planning on playing in the WSOP but I've decided to shift my online focus towards playing more limit Omaha/8 and less no-limit holdem.

It appears, as I suspected, that PokerStars is the king of MTTs for limit Omaha/8. They have several tourneys a day from the freeroll to the weekly $200, with everything in between.

Party and Paradise both only offer PLO/8 tournaments. I guess they want 70% of the field to bust in hour 1 and go play a cash game and pay some more rake.

I looked at UB, they seem to offer a $10+1 with $1800 guarantee everyday at 8:20 PM ET. I don't know if there is typically an overlay. They don't have many more offerings.

Full Tilt has some low buy-in O/8 tourneys with a fairly small number of entrants; even the $1 will draw <200. Full Tilt's structure starts steeper for limit tourneys than Stars, but does level off if you survive the first few hours.

I've also played a few O/8 tournaments at 24hPoker. They offer a few per week, usually a low buy-in (2-5 Euros) with 1 rebuy and 1 addon allowed. These tournaments are a berry patch, even with rather high blinds. Most of the players fail to utilize the rebuys and are hopelessly loose-passive. I have a 1st and a 3rd in a small number of attempts. They usually attract 40-100 players.

If there is decent O/8 tournament action at any other sites, will somebody please post and let me know. I'm very interested in playing a lot more O/8.

[FeliciaLee]

[ QUOTE ]
I looked at UB, they seem to offer a $10+1 with $1800 guarantee everyday at 8:20 PM ET. I don't know if there is typically an overlay. They don't have many more offerings.


[/ QUOTE ]
I've played in a few, but I've never gotten the overlay /images/graemlins/frown.gif The structure isn't nearly as good as Stars or FTP, imo.

Tonight at 9:30 EST is the $1 Stars. Be there! Or be cooler than me, obviously you have a life... /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[mshalen]

The UB at 8:20 usually runs between 175 and 225 people. So no overlay but I've found UB usually is very accurate at predicting the number of players and offers lot of guar. tourneys where there is almost never an overlay.

[mshalen]

Friday night $10 on UB went off at about 205 players. I have heard that Royal Vegas has a 9:00 that is good, but I don't play there.

[Beavis68]

Tom, we were both that the same table last night. Congrats on cashing, I made 18th.

[ QUOTE ]
I was about to ask the same question for a different reason-I'm not planning on playing in the WSOP but I've decided to shift my online focus towards playing more limit Omaha/8 and less no-limit holdem.

It appears, as I suspected, that PokerStars is the king of MTTs for limit Omaha/8. They have several tourneys a day from the freeroll to the weekly $200, with everything in between.

Party and Paradise both only offer PLO/8 tournaments. I guess they want 70% of the field to bust in hour 1 and go play a cash game and pay some more rake.

I looked at UB, they seem to offer a $10+1 with $1800 guarantee everyday at 8:20 PM ET. I don't know if there is typically an overlay. They don't have many more offerings.

Full Tilt has some low buy-in O/8 tourneys with a fairly small number of entrants; even the $1 will draw <200. Full Tilt's structure starts steeper for limit tourneys than Stars, but does level off if you survive the first few hours.

I've also played a few O/8 tournaments at 24hPoker. They offer a few per week, usually a low buy-in (2-5 Euros) with 1 rebuy and 1 addon allowed. These tournaments are a berry patch, even with rather high blinds. Most of the players fail to utilize the rebuys and are hopelessly loose-passive. I have a 1st and a 3rd in a small number of attempts. They usually attract 40-100 players.

If there is decent O/8 tournament action at any other sites, will somebody please post and let me know. I'm very interested in playing a lot more O/8.

[/ QUOTE ]