Poker Strategies

A split pot version of your regular Omaha Poker, Omaha 8 or Better follows rules that are similar to those followed in Omaha High. There is only one difference: a qualifying low hand will take half the pot.  This hand is a five card hand of five unique cards eight or below.  Straights and flushes don’t count against low hands while aces play both high and low. That makes the wheel best low hand (A-2-3-4-5).  This variation is typically played in either a limit or a pot-limit fashion but here we discuss only Limit Omaha-8.

When playing Omaha Online Poker, you must use two cards in your hand and three from the board.  The same holds true in hi-lo. The only difference is that you do not have to use the same two cards for both high and low.  For example, you have A-2-K-Q and the board ran out 3-6-7-K-Q.  You can play your K-Q for two pair to take high. You can play your A-2 to give you the nut low too.

The key to long term success in Omaha Hi/Lo poker is knowing what a good starting hand is.  The object of the game is to scoop pots as much as you can.  This is when you win both the high and low sides of the pot, and when there are no qualifying lows. You need to play hands that give you a decent chance to do this and will want hands that have an ace and one or more wheel cards.  Hands containing A-2 or A-3 are powerful hands.  A-4 and up are a bit tricky and should be played only in the blinds. You should for cards that are suited and connected in your hand and would want cards suited with your ace.

Remember that this is a drawing Poker game which means you will constantly be drawing to either a low, a straight, flush or full house.  You need to always be aware of the possibilities on the board.  When you are not drawing to the nuts in one or more directions, you may want to get out of the hand.  Do get out if you are drawing to a straight and there are three suited cards on board.  A full house is likely if you are drawing and the board is paired. In this case, you will want to get out.  Fold if you have only 2nd or third nut low and more than one opponent is in the hand. Don’t play second best hands because they will only cause you money.

A player is said to be quartered when he has tied another player for one side of the pot. This will most probably occur on the low side of the pot.  In this case, a player will receive only one-third of the total pot.  If there are only two or three players are in the pot then a player will lose money in a quartered pot.

A player is counterfeited when a card falls on the board and eliminates the ability for the player to make low.  For example, you are counterfeited if you hold A-2-10-J and the flop falls A-7-8.  You can only make a low if a fourth low card falls, and it will not be a nut low.  This term also applies when a player whose nut low is eliminated and left with a weaker low.

The various combination of starting hands among other things makes Omaha hi-lo a more complex than most variations. But armed with the basics, you can now go on and play the game. You’ll eventually pick up along the way and learn more.

When playing Omaha 8 or better, starting with strong holdings is one of the most important things.  Playing speculative hands may make large portions of your stack disappear quicker than any other poker game you have played and will ever Poker play.

One of the things to consider here are starting hands that include an ace.  The Poker ace is the most powerful card in Omaha 8 or better. This because an ace is the only card that plays both ways.  It is can make nut straight and flushes and it is also required to make nut lows.  In Omaha 8 or better, you will almost always need to either hold or to draw to the nuts.  Most of the time, not doing so may cause you the game.

Hands that have an A-2 and two coordinating Poker cards are the strongest in Omaha 8 or better.  It will be ideal to have an A-2 with another wheel card and a card above 9 or hands that have at least two cards suited, preferably with the ace.  Other very strong hands in Omaha 8 or better is A-A-2-3 with the two aces suited as well as hands with A-3 and two coordinating cards, which are generally raising hands pre-flop.  A-4 and two coordinating cards can be played too but should if you area a beginner you should be cautious about doing so.  A-5 and two coordinating cards could be played from the blind to no raise while A-6 and two coordinating cards should only be played from the big blind to no raise.  A-7 and A-8 hands should not be played. They will make the worst lows possible and will be outdrawn most of the time.

In Omaha Hi/Lo, high hands become very tricky to play. Most of the time, they can lead you to only winning half the pot.  The problem here is that when the board comes low or is drawing low, you are drawing to half the pot at most.   As a beginner, you should probably only play high cards in one of two cases.  First is if you are in the blind to no raise, you may see the flop with high cards.  Second is if you are in a tight game and a lot of players are seeing the flop, then there is a huge chance they are holding a lot of low cards.  In this situation you can speculate with high cards.  If the flop comes low or middling, it will be a good choice to just fold.

Omaha 8 or better is a game that relies on hands and that rewards solid plays.  It comes as no surprise that the winner in most Omaha 8 or better games is typically the one who plays a rock solid tight game.  For the most part, this is due to their ability to get away from weak hands and capitalize on weak and looser players. While you’re just beginning to learn the ropes, it is better to stick to a tight strategy. Stay away from weak and mediocre hands to try to hold on to your stack.

If you are playing Texas Holdem and you see pocket aces in your hand, you might feel inclined to do a little leap inside your head. The same thing tends to happen to players who see pocket aces when playing Pot Limit Omaha Poker. But you should keep in mind that not all poker hands that have aces are strong. They are called “uncoordinated aces” or “naked aces”.

Many players know that the best starting hand in this variation of poker is A-A-K-K double suited. This is considered a monster hand in Pot Limit Omaha Poker and pre-flop this hand will always be ahead. Other powerful hands are those that have aces in them and a couple of coordinated cards.

But when the aces are not coordinated or suited, it can get a little tricky as Poker players will usually assume that it is a strong hand also. They sometimes start playing it as they would a Holdem poker game, treating any starting hand with two aces like the nuts. The problem here is that aces that do not have any backup will force you to rely only on the aces to win your hand. Either that or you need to be extremely lucky.

Let’s look at this situation. Player X is an aggressive player type who raised from the middle position in an Omaha Poker game. The player on the button reraised the pot. The LAG player then reraised all-in and was called. He showed A-A-4-9 off suit and the opponent had a holding of Qh-Jd-10h-9s. In this case, the aces only have a 58% chance of winning. It is too close a poker game. The flop falls 8s-10c-2d, which suddenly brings the aces down and leaves them the underdog. The player with the wrap now had a 57% chance of winning and actually hit his straight. The aces were busted.

While the situation above required the wrap to hit the hand, it also demonstrates that a player needs to backup his aces. Any random hand with two aces may be a favorite pre-flop but it needs to hit in order to stay ahead in the game. Majority of the time uncoordinated aces will not hit the flop.

How you should play uncoordinated aces depends on a couple of factors. You should consider what your position is at the table, what type of players your opponents are, what the limits are, and how much you have in your stack. This is the type of hand that you may even want to consider doing a limp-reraise with just to see if you get lucky on the flop. Limping with aces seems to be a pretty bad thing to do but you should keep in mind that this is an Omaha Poker Games hence it is a drawing game. If you pick up a draw on the flop, you will actually be ahead against other players who have uncoordinated aces. If you are playing on the button against only limpers and you know that a raise will eliminate some of them out, you may consider putting in a raise. Just remember that if you do not hit the flop, you should tread lightly or you might just end up giving your chips all away.

During a certain game at the World Series of Poker,  David “DevilFish” Ulliott had flopped a set of kings holding Ks-Kh-7c-2s.  The flop fell Kd-Jc-5d.  His opponent, Markus Golser, had a holding of Ad-Qd-10c-4s.  He had both a nut flush draw and a nut straight with 17 outs to hit his hand (Jd would give Ulliott a full house and this had to be subtracted from the equation).  At this point, Golser was around 70% to make his poker hand but Ulliott was behind.

Omaha Poker is a game of big cards and big draws. The game between Ulliot and Golser was a very good example of how a big draw can actually be better than a made hand.  Golser caught a 9 on the fourth street and had a hand that had multiple straight and flush draws. In the end, he was able to knock out a player when his draw got there.

A wrap is a poker hand that has at least 3 coordinated cards that can help make a straight.  An example of this is A-Q-10-4.  Hands such as J-10-9-8 are also very powerful hands because these can make any potential winning hand from a nine high straight to broadway.  Hands that are also suited and coordinated will be even more valuable.

Players who have a big wrap like A-Q-J-10 or J-10-9-8 will usually raise pre-flop. This is not a really bad play, actually. If the board flops low or paired then you will have some kind of a straight draw with many flops. There is also a very good chance for flopping high pairs and even sets when the board comes paired. You get additional outs when you catch a flush draw if your wrap is suited.

When doing flop a solid draw, many Poker players get a bit confused as to how they should play a wrap. Some recommend pushing draws like what Golser did. This play is solid because a lot of times you will have a lot of outs to hit your draw. Just be careful pushing if you only have a gutshot draw because then you will only have four outs and you want at least an open-ended straight draw with at least 8 outs. If you have a straight and flush draws, you will usually have 18 outs. You can feel confident about your Poker Games now as the odds are in your favor for hitting your hand.

Be a little more careful if you’re pushing a wrap on the turn. Here, your odds will be reduced by half due to the fact that only a single card can come and you might not hit your hand. Thus, at this point, it becomes more important to look at your pot odds, which you can compute for using the 4-2 method. If you have 18 outs, then the possibility that you will make your hand is 36%. In most cases, the odds will be for you to make a draw. But if the odds look a bit bleak, then you might want to consider just folding your hand.