[Luckless57]

At least the game seems boring to me when I play like a rock. However, in general, I don't play like a rock and in any event, the game isn't boring to me. But I think unless you're in a tournament or simultaneously playing in four on-line games, folding, folding, folding, folding, folding, folding, folding, folding, and then pouncing seems more like work than recreation - and as jobs go, I think I'd rather be working the counter at MacDonalds. And I certainly don't think that's the optimal way to play in a normal casino ring game. But it is a very safe way to play and allows for much observing while you're learning about how your opponents play. And every good player should at least be able to successfully play like a rock. And I still think it's the place to start..

<font color="red"> The game does become incredibly boring when you play only the premium hands and I’ve found myself moving away from that playing style by trying to open my game up by playing more hands when I’m in late position. The thing with playing ultra tight is it’s not really that profitable online anymore. Without any statistical data to back it up it appears to me that games (even at the lower limits) have tightened up dramtically (at least on the sites I play on). Omaha/8 becomes a very tricky game when pots are played with 3 or less players preflop, it’s an adjustment that I’m finally starting to turn the corner on, but I’m not completely comfortable at it.</font>


My thinking on this topic has changed a bit.
1a. It’s still good advice to avoid playing starting hands with “middling” cards. I now call these cards middle cards and think of them as sixes, sevens, eights, and nines. In general, all these cards detract from the value of a starting hand, some more than others.
1b. Suitedness is very important. I’d advise beginners to avoid playing “rainbow” (also called non-suited) hands where you have one card of each suit. There are (obviously) some starting hands you’ll play, even if non-suited - but almost all of these involve
• an ace plus a deuce, hopefully with another wheel card as backup,
• an ace plus a trey and four,
• an ace plus a trey and five,
• a pair of aces plus a trey
• a pair of aces plus a couple of wheel cards
• high only hands with two pairs of honors. (Aside from aces, which belong in a category all their own, honors are kings, queens, jacks, and tens). Obviously the higher the pairs the better the hand, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a gap between the best of these hands, QQKKn and the worst, TTJJn. Here’s the sims data:
hand.....high....low...scoop....total
QQKKn.....407.....0....1125.....1532
TTJJn.....455.....0.....967.....1422
For contrast, here’s the sims data for KQJTn and AKQJn:
hand.....high....low...scoop....total
TJQKn.....409.....0.....721.....1131
AJQKn.....352.....0.....745.....1097
If you make the various hands suited (two in suit, suited to the highest card) or double suited (to the highest two cards) here’s what happens:
hand.....high....low...scoop....total
QQKKd.....681.....0....1182.....1863
QQKKs.....555.....0....1119.....1674
TTJJd.....639.....0....1031.....1670
TTJJs.....561.....0.....992.....1553
AJQKd.....662.....0.....876.....1538
TJQKd.....650.....0.....878.....1528
TJQKs.....550.....0.....788.....1338
AJQKs.....524.....0.....807.....1331
If you’re just starting, you probably do better to stick to hands on the above list with scoop totals above 800. And that means I no longer recommend beginners play some high only hands I formerly recommended.
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A few comments I’d like to add to this. Don’t you think the statistics on hands such as KKQQ JJTT etc are a bit misleading? I believe a lot of their high wins are due to paired board situations where no one has trips or a full house. In these situations you commonly have someone with a good low draw, combined with a flush or straight draw betting the flop hard. These are situations where it’s almost impossible to make the call, yet in the end you would either scoop or take the high half. Also in rare cases you can win with just top pair, those cases are rare and you wouldn’t find anyone making it to the river with that type of hand unless it was checked down.
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Kind of obliquely worded, but all right. Here’s some sims data for 2345n and 3456n:
hand.....high....low...scoop....total
2345n.....185..1145.....340.....1670
3456n.....290...590.....292.....1172
2345n is not all that great a hand, mainly only good for the low half, with a low scoop potential. There’s nobody who won’t be playing those starting cards - but you really do need to see an ace on the flop (or flop quads or a full house) when you do play them.
3456n is quite a step down from 2345n.

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I’ve always wanted to see more statistical data on 2345. It always seems like a good hand, but as you’ve pointed out it’s not that great unless an ace hits the flop. Once an ace hits the flop it’s a hand you can get yourself in a situation where the hand can make you a lot of money and it’s a hand that’s very easy to fold after the flop.
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My opinion regarding pre-flop raising has evidently changed considerably since writing this post. My own default mode is to usually limp with most starting hands before the flop unless I want to intimidate an opponent (or opponents) and it seems reasonably possible and feasible to do that.
I think whether or not you raise before the flop is a matter of playing style. Some very fine Omaha-8 players raise more often than not when they decide to play a hand. Whatever you do, I advise you to at least consider the effect the raise might have on your opponents.
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That’s another topic that I always question myself on, my passiveness. Like you I also limp in for the most part. I very rarely will raise in Omaha/8. I raise only in situations where it’s been folded to me when I’m near the button with a solid hand, or there’s a lot of callers preflop and I have a hand like A23x where I’m trying to build a big pot for low. Just wondering if people think limping almost always is a bad move.

Just wrote a general response, because I get frustrated with Omaha/8. Although I’m a winning player I feel like I have the ability to win much more in this game and any suggestions to possible adjustments in the way I think about or play the game are appreciated.

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