Omaha Hi-Lo Tips

Omaha Hi-Lo commonly known as 08, poker is currently experiencing a huge growth spurt driven mostly by its extraordinary in both on-line live dealer rooms as well as the more conventional on-line poker rooms. Its popularity further fuelled by the heavy action and the complexity of play that typifies its particular variety of on-line poker game in contrast to No-Limits Hold’em. Due to its intricacy and speed the game itself can initially seem extremely confusing, that is without even considering the Hi-Lo aspect, just compare Hold‘em at 169 possible starting combos to Omaha fielding in excess of 16,000. Below are a number of extremely valuable tips that will take you a long way to becoming a much improved winning competitor.

The Highest-Rated Combinations all include Aces & Deuces, which if you only played hands containing those two cards you could in all probability survive on. In full games hands containing the Ace-Deuce combined with two randomised cards will prove to be superior to hands containing paired Aces with two randomised cards. A hand with an Ace-Deuce combo will under normal circumstances always be played pre-flop in loose full games, due to the fact that there are a number of hands containing paired Aces that are not nearly as strong
More Cards Are Better, all players have many cards in their hands and you might just need all of these to survive the river. Ensure the cards in your hand are as closely connected as possible to improve your odds of winning.
No Bluffing, Omaha Hi-Lo is won on hand values, with these values usually representing the nuts. It’s extremely tough to fold that an opponent with the nuts, it’s not even possible to bet up a strong non-nut hand, since your opponent who’s calling on you might in all likelihood possess the nuts and is concerned with being quartered. Allow your opposition to cool you down while you’re in possession of the nuts and leave bluffing for other variants of poker.
Don’t Fear Potential Quartering whenever four and more players contributed to the pot, if you win a quarter of the pot and you have contributed a quarter then you have broken even. Games with more than four players in it will allow you to raise and again re-raise, since it is extremely unlikely you’ll be sixthed. In all likelihood you will gain a small profit even if you only receive a fourth.
Ensure You’ve Provided Backup for Your Lows, combinations consisting of Ace-Deuce & Three will prove far superior to just an Ace-Deuce combo. You may frequently suffer from the ruined hand, after having it counterfeited by a duplicated card showing up on the board, if you do not have a low card as a backup. Suffering from counterfeiting is more of a regular rather than rare occurrence, since at each opportunity you flop a nut low there exists six outs that may counterfeit your cards which delivers odds of an approximately 24% for a counterfeit.
Ensure You’ve Provided Backup for Your Highs, similar to providing a backup for your lows as described above the same situation and odds persist with highs.
Refrain from Playing Heads up on a Big Pot, if one way you don’t have the nuts as well as a superior and in the other. In contrast, if a quartering in multi-way pots is not a major deal, finding yourself in the same situation during any heads up represents a disaster of epic proportions. This issue is exacerbated if your chosen room demands a high rake, even after equal pot splits you could still wind-up losing money.
Refrain from Playing Omaha High Hands, there are numerous Pot-Limit Omaha players wasting the time in Hi-Lo gameplay that continually winds up attempting to win a hand containing cards that represent percentage losers. In Omaha Hi games a hand consisting of a double-suited 8 – 9 – T – J is extremely powerful, but it quickly becomes a Ho-Hum in AA hands; in contrast, the same hand will prove terrible in Omaha Hi-Lo, since it offers no shot at a low and it draws high.
As a Rule, Refrain from Playing Any High Hands, in any Omaha Hi-Lo heads up confrontations nearly all hands consisting of high only cards suffer from a significant disadvantage compared to any hands containing at least two low cards, the cards does not even have to be very good. Do not generalise or misunderstand this advice, since high hands definitely features very strongly but requires a specific strategy to play effectively. In addition, even the strongest high hands offer a very slim return, since in most cases high card hands can be dropped completely from your range of starting hands without losing a lot of value. However, if you play high cards wrong, you will be better off not playing high cards at all, it will instantly show up in your return on investment.
To Live Poker Enthusiasts, observe the actions of players around any live table while you’re not playing yourself and you will see for the greater part of players failed to protect the card visibility of their hand by holding it too far away from their body. This provides your opponents with good observation skills with the perfect opportunity to gather some unsolicited, but much-needed intel that will lead to you being bled dry quickly.