The Official Omaha Discussion MEGATHREAD.

[Fat Tony]

ok gang, like the title says...........

[Reverend SC]

Kewl, thanks Tony.

I guess the first thing to do is to find out who plays it. I know myself and snoogins left a HE table to hit Omaha, but he left after only a short time.

And secondly, are there any real Omaha vets here? I'm a complete newbie at it, about a month old and I don't play it every night like I do HE.

The first thing I needed to figure out is that there are actually fewer great starting hands in Omaha than there are in HE, although you'd think it would be opposite. If you start calling everything that "looks" decent, you'll quickly discover your bankroll is half what you started at and all you won was a 1/4 pot low hand. Hand selection in Omaha, especially limit I'd assume, it very important. Obvioulsy that doesn't mean you wait for a whopper like AA23 before going in, but just be extra wary, seeing flops can get expensive in this game.

So again, if there are any Omaha vets here, speak up and elaborate (or correct, lol) please. I think think the time is right to make a lot of money in this game as the new HE players get tired of HE. People just like me for instance. If one were a good Omaha player, methinks there is probably more profit potential playing online Omaha than HE right now....

[HalfSugar]

I have dabbled but no more - until I read about it and play some more low limit stuff, I'm not prepared to get involved in it properly. Question tho:

Would you fold AAAA in the hole? :D

[Reverend SC]

Would you fold AAAA in the hole? :D

Um, instantly Horrible hand.

Folded 4444 last night

Geno, you play on PP? If so, look me up on the Omaha tables tonight!

[HalfSugar]

PP and Tilt are the only two poker rooms I have no account at

[ilikepoker]

fisrt off, before anyone reads any further, i have to say i am faaaaar from a vet at omaha hi-lo. i just really enjoy playing it and tend to do pretty well, although i have had my swings like any other poker game i play. i think one of the reasons i like it is because i think there is more action and is something different i can do if i am losing my patience in holdem. or maybe i just like the extra action in general.

so here's a few things i have picked up on. all of it is just off the top of my head.. they might be right and they might be wrong. i actually hope that some things are wrong so that when i check back into this thread when i return from my trip in about a month, i can learn some things specific to my game.

everything i mention is in regards to a full handed table, a hi-lo split, and generally low limits.

i'll start off with geno's question. i always fold 4 of a kind, no matter what they are. (especially if they're suited ) not too many nuts to draw at with four of a kind. you have to use two of them, so straights are out. flushes are out, and so are boats. theres no low to draw for either.

when calculatng odds, remember you might only be looking for half the pot.

when betting on or drawing to a high hand, usually make sure it is really high because with 4 cards in the hole, high tends to be the nuts. if you have a flush, and the board is paired, you can usually expect somewone to have a boat. if the board has three of a suit (especially off the flop!) you can usually expect someone to have a flush. weak flushes tend to lose in this situation.

obviously it is better to be drawing to both the hi and the lo, so you can have better chances of winning one or maybe even both. both tends to be a nice pot. when betting on a low (without the high), even if you have the nut low (the bike, A2345) there is a better chance someone else will split it with you than if you have the nut high. ie there are 4 possible nut lows vs 1 possible nut flush.

i think it's always good to see a flop with A2, A3, A4, A5, when they are suited, because you have a chance of both nuts (watch out for the boat!). i like to see the flop if i have any two cards that fall between A-5, but that might be a flaw in my play. ie i probably over value a hand like 2-3-8-9. actually as i type it i can see that its probably a weak opening hand. omaha is a nuts game, and the only nuts i would be drawing to is the low and possibly a straight. even a boat would be tough because even if lets say 8-8-9 flopped, it is possible someone could hit their pocket 10's J's, Q's K's or A's to have a higher full house.

if you bet into a draw, or check a made hand, i find omaha hi-lo is a great place to be able to hide the nuts, or represent them on a draw. but sometimes it can work against you. if you hit the nut flush on the flop with no low possibilties in your hand, but there is a 239 on the board, it might be worth your while to check it, so you can wait for the low to catch up. let more than a few people fight out the low, and take 1/2 of all their bets, instead of potentially splitting it with one opponent, and just getting only your own money back in the split. on the other hand, if the table is real loose, they could all call on the low draw, and if it doesn't hit, you take it all down with your hi. but then you might have to worry about the boat if the board does pair. on the other hand, if you have a low and high draw, lets say the nut flush draw and a not perfect low draw of A6 with a 3-4-10 on the flop, it might be worthwhile to bet enough to get some of the people with only a low draw or only a high draw out of the pot. 2 draws is stronger than one.

anyways i feel like im rambling a bit and starting to not make much sense even to myself, so i'll leave it at that for now. i just didn't want to go away out of town without contributing at least a little to this thread, even if was total garbage, though i hope it is not completely useless. i do really enjoy the game and i look forward to more comments in this thread.

[Reverend SC]

Wow what a river, what a hand!

***** Hand History for Game 1245085677 *****
$0.5/$1 Omaha Hi/Lo - Sunday, October 31, 03:13:27 EDT 2004
Table Table 25414 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 4: kaquarian ( $84.24 )
Seat 5: ReverendSC ( $27.38 )
Seat 7: madhi ( $27.5 )
Seat 1: justfunin1 ( $41.5 )
Seat 2: gabjma ( $9.37 )
Seat 6: jwpoet ( $12.63 )
Seat 10: LCChari ( $32.5 )
Seat 8: tangent ( $44.25 )
Seat 3: dubbl ( $24.5 )
madhi posts small blind [$0.25].
tangent posts big blind [$0.5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ReverendSC [ Td 8d As 3s ]
LCChari calls [$0.5].
justfunin1 calls [$0.5].
gabjma calls [$0.5].
dubbl raises [$1].
kaquarian folds.
ReverendSC calls [$1].
jwpoet calls [$1].
madhi calls [$0.75].
tangent calls [$0.5].
LCChari calls [$0.5].
justfunin1 calls [$0.5].
gabjma calls [$0.5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 2c, 4s ]
madhi checks.
tangent checks.
LCChari checks.
justfunin1 checks.
gabjma bets [$0.5].
dubbl calls [$0.5].
ReverendSC raises [$1].
jwpoet calls [$1].
madhi calls [$1].
tangent calls [$1].
LCChari calls [$1].
justfunin1 folds.
gabjma calls [$0.5].
dubbl calls [$0.5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
madhi bets [$1].
tangent folds.
LCChari folds.
gabjma calls [$1].
dubbl calls [$1].
ReverendSC calls [$1].
jwpoet calls [$1].
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
madhi bets [$1].
gabjma raises [$2].
dubbl calls [$2].
ReverendSC raises [$3].
jwpoet folds.
madhi calls [$2].
gabjma raises [$2].
dubbl calls [$2].
ReverendSC calls [$1].
madhi calls [$1].
gabjma shows [ 3h, Qd, 2h, Ad ] a full house, Twos full of queens.
gabjma shows 5,4,3,2,A for low.
dubbl doesn't show [ 8h, 4h, Kc, Js ] two pairs, fours and twos.
ReverendSC shows [ Td, 8d, As, 3s ] a straight flush, five high.
ReverendSC shows 5,4,3,2,A for low.
madhi doesn't show [ 5h, Qc, Qh, 3c ] a full house, Queens full of twos.
ReverendSC wins $17.5 from the main pot with a straight flush, five high.
gabjma wins Lo ($8.75) from the main pot with 5,4,3,2,A.
ReverendSC wins Lo ($8.75) from the main pot with 5,4,3,2,A.

[ilikepoker]

still here for another day..

nice hand rev!

quick question: anyone know why PL omaha is so much more popular than NL omaha?

[MasterShake]

Less of a chance to go completely broke maybe? Omaha does tend to give a player a ridiculous number of outs. :D

[The Nutz]

Do you have to use the same 2 cards to win both ways??

[Reverend SC]

Do you have to use the same 2 cards to win both ways??

No.

And I think PL is more popular because pre-flop action can only go so high. It escalates from there, but it usually won't get too crazy pre-flop.

[Reverend SC]

nice hand rev!

Thanks. I'm 99% sure I played that hand completely wrong, but it sure was pretty!

[Reverend SC]

OK, so I'm slowly figuring stuff out. I had a moment of clarity last night (few and far between for me, lol). Now what I'm about to say sounds so amatuerish, and it probably is, but I thought I'd share it just in case there are some others as slow as me, lol!

Try to only enter pots where you can get both hi and lo.

(ilikepoker eluded to this in his post as well, thanks bro!)

Sure, sounds obvious, but it's different when you're staring AAKK in the face. This would be a good hand to see the flop with, but you're really only going after the hi. If and A flops with 2 other low cards, you're looking at a split pot at best because you have no chance of low. And you really only have trip aces, won't beat a str8 unless the board pairs, and low str8's are very, very common because people keep low cards. If an A flops with other high cards, you're in better shape because a split would require runner runner low, but you still only have trip aces, which is good, but not spectacular in Omaha.

I played for 3 hours last night with this in mind and only entered 3 pots, won them all and came out almost tripling my money, $25 to $68. This is in a .50/1 game. That's big money at that limit. Not good hourly, but I'm playing the low limits to learn.

[The Nutz]

In a pot-limit omaha game... Is there a 3 raise limit per round?? If the blinds are 5-10... how big can the opening raise be? (1st position) Thanks.