[benfranklin]

Even if you are very comfortable with playing ABC poker in O/8, a review of the basics can only help. I did it a few months ago, and my game improved. I quickly read through the Tenner/Krieger book again, and then did a detailed reread of Zee. Twice. The more hands you play, the more sense Zee makes. If you don't have the Tenner book, Krieger has about 5 articles in the CardPlayer.com archives that summarize it. If you haven't read Cappelletti, I'd recommend him too. (Warning, beginners stay away from Mr. Mike until you are playing well. He has some seat-of-the-pants attitudes on aggression that need to be taken with a grain of salt.)

That said, O/8 is primarily a game of hand evaluation. I assume that you have that part under control. Rule 2 is don't play post flop without the nuts or a draw to the nuts. Like all rules, this one can be violated when appropriate, but do so at your own risk.

Rule 3 is O/8 is a game of flushes. I read recently that in a 10 handed game, 7 players will usually be dealt 2 to a flush in their down cards. If there are 3 of a suit on board, don't be rammin' and jammin' your straight.

If you are doing pretty much all of that right, I think that the main reason for losing is winning small pots and losing big ones. I'm guessing that this is your problem.

There are lots of little leaky reasons for that. Some have been mentioned. Falling in love with your 2nd nut hand is a big leak. Taking off just one more card for a small bet, etc. Anytime you "know" you are doing something you shouldn't, but do it just this once is a leak.

One leak of mine I found recently was checking it down when I was heads-up and had the nuts one way and virtually nothing the other way. When you do that, best case scenario is you split the pot. If you hammer on the other guy, worse case scenario is that you split the pot. If he is checking it down with a weak low and a weak high, he could fold if you jam him.

The leak on the other side of that coin is folding that weak low/weak high when your opponent bets into you. If you are heads up and you have say the 2nd or 3rd nut low and a decent shot at high, don't fold for one bet.

Finally, a big reason for winning small pots is not playing aggressively enough post flop. A big leak here is quarteredphobia. If you "know" that you have a good hand, push it. If you have a high hand and two high cards (9 or higher) come on the flop, start betting to drive out the low draws looking for runner-runner. Again, read Cappelletti to learn to play more aggressively. Also, Miller's SSHE principles of postflop aggression translate well into O/8.