Anyone play Omaha Hi/Lo SNG's?

[UncleRemus]

I'm primarily a NLH SNG player (as most of us all are), but have a (pretty bendable) rule to not play them before 4PM EST or after 1AM EST. However, this can lead to some boredom at 2:30 in the AM, and I decided to try something new tonight, firing up 2 small stakes (10+1) Omaha Hi/Lo SNG's. I had a blast! Was a lot of fun to do something new, and I'd like to continue in the wee hours now and again.

I actually finished 1st and 2nd respectively, but I have no delusions... I'm not a 264% ROI Omaha Hi/Lo player. However, I do have 2 requests/questions of anyone who plays quite a few of these.

Are they profitable long term? What kind of ROI could a decent player expect long term?

Also, do you have any tips for these? I consider myself pretty competant at ring, but found myself scratching my head quite a bit as blinds got quite large. For instance, in one tournament I was quite shortstacked and waiting for a hand to look to get all my chips in with. Luckily, the decision was made easier when I looked down at AA34. I realize this question is very situation dependant, so really I'm just seeking ANY good information pertaining to these SNG's.

Thanks a bunch,
Remus

[Eihli]

I decided to play one after reading your post. $5+1 LIMIT omaha hi-lo. 3 hands in and one person already busts out. This is a limit tourney. I repeat, limit.

[UncleRemus]

Tell me about it! Are they weak or what?! Funny to see people play the likes of 47TJ in the first level, absolutely amazing. It is fun change of pace though, eh... I just played 2 more and money'd in both. I realize a sample size of 4 is anything but reliable in the least bit, but it still feels good! After running pretty bad at Hold'em earlier today, I actually made more playing Omaha. Now that's just wrong.

[ethan]

The 10+1s are definitely beatable. I haven't tried the 30+3s, though. I'd expect play to be significantly less godawful there, but I'll probably give them a shot soon.

[Hood]

I'm very interested in this too.

I think I've entered 6 to date, all 10+1 NLs. The first two times I did by accident - the others just for a bit of fun and change of base. I think I've ITMed in them in all but 1.

Obviously there was a lot of luck involved, but I saw some truely, truely stupid play. People calling in all with top pair. People having no hand because they didn't understand it's 2 from the hand, 3 from the board.

In the first game I played (when it was an accident), I only knew the rules and had no idea for tactics. I googled for about ten minutes, and learnt the very basics ... starting hands, drawing to both hi and lo, reading the board. After 10 minutes I felt like I had a serious edge of all but a couple of opponents at the table.

When it got short-handed, I pretty much had no idea what was going on. So I reverted to the 'if you don't know, raise' tactic and just kept pushing. I think this was mainly where my luck came in [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jedi]

[ QUOTE ]
Tell me about it! Are they weak or what?! Funny to see people play the likes of 47TJ in the first level, absolutely amazing. It is fun change of pace though, eh... I just played 2 more and money'd in both. I realize a sample size of 4 is anything but reliable in the least bit, but it still feels good! After running pretty bad at Hold'em earlier today, I actually made more playing Omaha. Now that's just wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

Omaha players in general online are pretty weak, but my problem is that if I don't get good hands to start (or if my premium hands get cracked), then I'm staring at a short stack even if the numerical value hasn't dwindled all that much. When I first started out on Party SnGs, it would frequently be down to 5 players by level 3, even though I had only played a few hands.

At that point, some people are more versed in tournament theory, and will mind the gap concept so you might be able to pick up some small pots by stealing. Don't go nuts early on, and you'll be in a good position later on in the tournament.

But all in all, I think my patient style is better suited for ring games.

And what the heck happened to the guy who busted out in 3 hands in a limit tourney? Maybe he was trying to lose as fast as possible when he realized this wasn't hold em?

[Irieguy]

I am primarily an omaha h/l player, only recently switching to NLHE as my staple because I found it was easier to beat. A couple of months ago I compiled a series of 500 omaha h/l SNGs at the $33 and $55 level. The following results are only for POT LIMIT omaha h/l... more on limit to follow:

ITM%= 42%
ROI= 26%

At first these numbers were very disappointing to me, because if I can't play omaha... then I can't do anything. I've read everything on the game, play constantly, and feel like I have a much better instinctive grasp on omaha than any other card game. But I found that my returns were better at NLHE. So here's what I think:

Pot Limit Omaha h/l is very beatable on-line, but the SNG structure with a high-low split allows too many players to be alive in the later stages when skill becomes a marginally less potent weapon. Limit omaha h/l is very, very beatable in ring games on line because the quality of play is so poor, but the SNG structure is simply too fast to allow the bad players to sufficiently dump off their chips. As hard as they try to call everything off with 3rd nut double gut draws, they simply can't do it fast enough in a SNG. I don't think limit games are beatable in any SNG to the extent that it's worthwhile, particularly if the game is a split game.

Rather than expound ad nauseum about how I think you should play the game when not many people probably give a ratsass what I think, I will just offer a few suggestions.

1. Read everything ever written by Bob Ciaffone and Michael Capelletti on the topic.
2. Play ABC omaha in ring games and you will kill them.
3. The key to PLO-8 SNGs is knowing how to play aggressive, short-handed omaha. The difference between 6-10 handed omaha and 2-5 handed omaha is much greater than the difference in other games as you move to short-handed. Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly what to do because I can barely beat the damn SNGs as it is right now and there are already a few very skilled players at PP.

Play the right way,
Irieguy