pot limit Omaha 8

[count1]

Played pot limit $50 buy-in for the first time. Was amazed at what a different game it is from limit. Broke even after an hour and a half. Won one big pot and lost some mid size pots. In my opinion this game plays better at pot limit.

[Cooker]

I have never played PL Omaha 8 except in some of the old free speed tournaments they used to have on Doyles Room (managed 3 final tables in fields of around 1000, but I put it down to mostly dumb luck and absolutely horrible players).

I have been thinking about playing some, and my thoughts are that it will be almost impossible to correctly draw for half the pot. Lets suppose you are faced with a pot sized bet on the turn and you currently only have a draw for half the pot. Suppose X is the probability that you win your half. Your EV is

EV = X*(0.5 * 2 - 1*.5) - (1-X)*1

So what does X need to be in order to break even on calling? X = .6667 or about 67%. This means that you need more than 30 cards to make your hand in order to call this bet and do slightly better than break even. Also note that this neglects the chance that you get quartered when you make your hand, so you would probably want even better odds than this to high straights or low draws. If you are calling to get quartered or are currently getting quartered, calling pot sized bets will be a total disaster. Obviously, some dead money in the pot by few other callers with hopeless hands could make this a solidly profitable call for draws at the cinch high or low. Suppose X=.25 (a reasonable draw), then you need 3 other callers of the pot sized bet in order to make your call profitable assuming you don't get quartered when you make your hand.

I think this alone will allow the better players who are in there with hands that have scoop potential to absolutely destroy the loose passives that I have seen at the normal Ohama/8 tables. In this game calling down with second best lows is going to be a terrible mistake.