O8 starting hands

[mat]

i noticed that a lot has been writen about starting hands in O8 my question is calling raises pre flop. also which hands do you want to get heads up with? i know high hands play well heads up but what else?

[chaos]

I find high only hands do not play well heads up. You have no shot at low. If you opponent has a two way hand you are an underdog. If you do not have an Ace you are an underdog to someone with an Ace and any low card.

A pair of Aces and a low card plays well heads up. So do hands like A2 and A3 with two face cards or a big pair.

[Billy Baroo]

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i noticed that a lot has been writen about starting hands in O8 my question is calling raises pre flop. also which hands do you want to get heads up with? i know high hands play well heads up but what else?

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A lot has to do with who is raising. To paraphrase a passage from Ray Zee's book: it doesn't matter much if the pot has been raised because the type of hand you require to enter a pot is typically better than the type of hand your opponents will raise with. Against tighter players, you have to be more careful since a raise from lp probably means at least A2xx and a raise from ep probably means at least AAxx (or A2xx if a lot of people are cold-calling raises). Against these raises I'd throw away the more marginal hands that I'd typically play or even raise with in lp (like As 3s Kc Tc for instance).

IMO, the best time to get it h/u is against a weak/tight player (and there are hordes of them at O8). This type of opponent often won't draw to less than the nuts even h/u, so you can rob him on the flop if it doesn't come down perfectly for him/her.

Many high-hands play better multi-way than h/u (iirc Steve Badger has a good article on this) so I'd usually try to promote a multiway pot with them and try to win a large pot with a boat, nut flush, or big straight.

[lawfive]

Does it matter if it is limit, PL, or NL?