It probably feels like we have been trailing it for years but now, at last, with no further ado, live and direct from a two bedroom house in London, comes the one, the only, guide to playing Omaha Hi/Lo! We promise that this series of articles will be so exciting, so full of profitable plays, that after reading it, you WILL believe in God.
It is a game that has broken many players’ faith in poker, usually because they use over elaborate plays. However, particularly at the lower levels, it is easy to beat, as so many players forget the basics. To be successful at Omaha Hi/Lo you need to become a fundamentalist. You need to remember the following rules:
1. You must have stricter starting requirements than your opponents.
2. You must remember that the nut low hand will regularly tie.
3. If you decide to play for a drawing hand, it must be the nuts.
Three simple rules that are enough to beat a high proportion of games and yet they are extremely difficult to follow. I can almost guarantee that at some stage over the course of a session, you will break at least one of them. I know I do. In fact, I don’t feel that I have done myself justice unless I play a few hands that break all three at once.
The problem stems from the fact that Omaha Hi/Lo is an action game. There is so much potential in every set of four hole cards that a lot of flops can be very seductive to those who ‘came to play some poker’, i.e., all of us.
Omaha Hi/Lo deals each player four hole cards and the pre-flop betting structure is identical to Hold ‘em. However, the pot is frequently spilt – the high hand and the low take half each. Some flops mean a low hand is impossible as the minimum is ‘eight or better’ – i.e. the player must make five cards that are eight or lower.
Here is an example of such a flop:
K-T-9.
As there are only two cards to come and players must use two hole cards, it is not possible to make ‘eight or better’: even if the turn is an ace and the river a two, the best anyone can have is four cards ‘eight or better’; or, if you prefer, ‘nine or better.’ When a low hand is impossible, the best high hand takes the whole pot.
Although players must use two cards combined with three from the board to make the best high and the best low hand, it is possible to use the same card in both directions.
Here is an example:
A player holds: Asp, 2c, Ksp, 5c.
The board is: 3sp 7sp Kd Jsp 4c.
The player uses Asp Ksp with 3sp-7sp-Jsp to make the high hand (the nut flush); but also has 7-4 for the low using Asp 2c with 3sp-7sp-4c. The hole card 5c is not used at all. It is this factor that makes the ace such a powerful card.
Note: for the low hand is not enough to state ‘seven-low.’ This is because there are quite a few hands that begin with ‘seven low’ and we must rank them. Therefore 7-6-5-4-3 is a worse low hand than 7-5-4-3-2, which is in turn beaten by 7-4-3-2-A. In principle, this is the same as the ‘kicker’ issue in Hold ‘em – the best five cards count.
This may seem confusing. It is, at first. When a low is possible, the key is to think about your hole cards.
Another example: the board has offered 8-6-4 and the game has five players. If your best low cards are 7-5, you are extremely unlikely to take the low half of the pot. It will be trashed by so many hands. In fact, you can almost guarantee that at least one person is holding A-2, for the nut low, and is about to pump the pot.
For that reason, and many, many others, Rule One is vital:
YOU MUST HAVE STRICTER STARTING REQUIREMENTS THAN YOUR OPPONENTS.
Ok, before we are inundated with sniffy emails informing us that this rule is not universally true, I will state that we are simply getting players started. As the stakes increase, play changes but, for the low-mid stake beginner, Rule One almost guarantees a profit, particularly in Pot Limit games, where there is no small blind. (As both blinds are ‘big’, more players see the flop and that boosts the action. For the following, please assume Pot Limit games. I think it is the only way to play.)
Many players will forget that the aim of the game is to scoop the whole pot and will become seduced by hole cards that can only win half. (In fact, if you played by the rule to never to see the flop without at least one ace in the hole, you would probably still show a profit, simply because it can go both ways.) The worst thing you can do pre-flop is to limp with a hand full of middle cards. Do you understand why?
It is because it is very likely that you will hit a seductive flop and, because the cards are neither high nor low, you will probably be massacred at both ends. If an opponent shows a mixture of 6,7,9, etc, you know you have a live one and you should lock and load. Even with a board that leaves no possibility for a low hand, they are the kind of cards that will make a straight, but lose to a higher one.
It is possible to play hands that can only go one way but you have to aim high, simply because there is not always a low hand. For that reason, there are situations when you can play K-Q-J-10 but you MUST hit the flop. If you miss, you have to muck. If you are invited into a family pot by plenty of action chasing opponents, then high hands can play well because, even if you only take half, you should still make a return on your investment.
However, it far better to see the flop armed with aces and suitable co-workers. A-2 and A-3 are great, particularly if the ace is suited, as they have reasonable chances of making the nuts. As the board will frequently pair the two or the three, it helps to have another card, five or lower, to improve your chances.
Some of the best openers are
A-A-2-3
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
See if you can work out some of the others.
In the next post, we’ll go through Rule Two and continue to confuse the hell out of you.
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