[Iceman]

"How many hands do you play, % wise, b4 the flop? This would include the blinds. I remember Steve Badger saying that this should be less than a holdem %, but I can't seem to get anywhere near that."

In limit Omaha-8, 15-20% outside the blinds depending on game conditions. 10% in the rare case that the game is both tight and very aggressive preflop. I always fold trash hands in the SB or in the BB of a raised pot. Whether you play more hands in holdem or Omaha-8 depends on game conditions, but in general, preflop play in holdem varies much more than in Omaha-8. As compared to holdem, Omaha-8 hands tend to run closer in value, and the presence of a premium hand in the field does not significantly reduce your hand's value. Even a moderate chance of facing AA or KK or a hand that dominates yours forces you to fold some pretty good hands in holdem; while many normally playable Omaha-8 hands would still be playable if someone flashed AA or A2. In most cases, I play more hands in a loose-passive holdem game than in a loose-passive Omaha-8 game, and fewer hands in a tight or aggressive holdem game than in most Omaha-8 game.

In pot-limit Omaha-8, if the money is deep, I would play even more hands than in limit when in position and getting in cheaply against loose or aggressive opponents. On the other hand, if there is a lot of preflop raising such that I would have to put in a significant fraction of my stack preflop to play, I would play very few hands; sometimes as little as 5%.