Limit Omaha High Question

[Fairless]

Local casino spreads a 10-20-30 Omaha High game. Generally a very good loose game. The structure is a $5 small blind and a $10 big blind. The first raise can either be to $20 or $30 with all other raises after that being in $20 increments. Example: Open raise to $30 a reraise takes it to $50 total. Bets on the flop and the turn are in increments of $20 and the river bet is a $30 bet.

My question is how should this structure alter your starting requirements? And how should it alter your play on later streets?

[Orpheus]

I assume you've been watching that table closely. I'm curious: what's the observed betting pattern on the flop raise to $20 vs. to $30? It seems to me that it could be a huge information leak (It's probably not a good way to bluff or steal, since you said the table was very loose).

I'm curious how it gets played in actual practice. I'm always too conservative to play new variants especially against regulars. (If I want "lessons", there are cheaper ways to get them.)

I imagine the answer to this question (i.e. local playing patterns) might also help the Smart Omaha Players(tm) here give you a better answer, if they haven't played this variant themselves.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
My question is how should this structure alter your starting requirements? And how should it alter your play on later streets?


[/ QUOTE ]

Here are a couple of illustrative examples, that may not apply to an actual hand.

When seeing the flop for $10, you're paying the same price as in a standard 10/20 format, but you have future rounds of 20-20-30 instead of 10-20-20. This improves your implied odds a bit.

When seeing the flop for a $20 raise, it's the same price as a raise in a 15-30 game, and this time your future rounds of 20-20-30 compare to 15-30-30, slighlty reducing your implied odds.

All this assumes that most deals continue to the river. Other situations may be different. For example, in an unraised pot with four players, in this format, on the flop you'd be betting $20 to win $40 pot, whereas in a normal 10-20 game you'd be betting $10 to win a $40 pot. In games where players fold to flop bets, this decreases your price. However, limit omaha games where there is multiple folding to flop bets may not be worth playing.

In games where if you flop big you will have chasers to the end, and you are confident of seeing the flop for $10, you can loosen your starting requirements slightly. If you have to play BTF for a raise, they must be tightened.

As to exactly how starting hands should be altered, my experience with these escalating betting structures is that players draw to the end, then like to pop it with the nuts. So, for example, I'd guess that hands with A-high flush draws would go up in value, while hands with non-nut flush draws go down. Hands with pairs lower than K's probably decrease in value also.

This is all JMO, it's hard to say without watching the game.

[Fairless]

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