I will be the first to admit that I am no expert at Omaha High-Low. You will never, ever see me sitting in the $1,000/$2,000 game at Full Tilt Poker, not even if I happen to win the Main Event of the World Series of Poker some day. But Omaha High-Low is my favorite game and I haven’t embarrassed myself at the tables. In this week’s column, I would like to present to you my advice on how to approach the game at the lower stakes, against players that are more or less predictable. This is not the “right” approach to the game; it is just how I have found some success. Like any bit of strategy you read, internalize it, evaluate it, and decide if it is something you would like to incorporate into your own game.
You Are Playing Omaha High-Low
I can’t tell you how many times I have been playing in a juicy game of Omaha High-Low and after the pot gets pushed to someone (hopefully me), another player who was in the hand starts complaining. “What the hell? I had a flush! There’s a bug in the software! This site is rigged!”
Of course, that person either didn’t know or forgot that in Omaha High-Low you can only use two hole cards; he probably had three of a suit and two more hit the board. The moral of the story: remember the rules of the game. I have played Omaha High-Low for years and still make that mistake once every few months.
Also, and this is something I also have happen to me every so often, make sure you know if your table is a High-Low table or a regular Omaha table. I once went two orbits on a regular Omaha table, actually winning a couple pots, all the while trying to hit low hands. I got lucky in that session; it is a terrible feeling to think you just hit the nut low only to see the entire pot shipped across the table.
Look for the Big Score
One the biggest leaks I have seen in the Omaha High-Low game of both beginning and intermediate players is the obsession with playing for the low hand. It is understandable why people play this way, though. It is very easy to identify a nut low draw if you have it and there are many more ways to make that nut low than there are to make the nut high hand. After all, if you start with A-2, you just need three unpaired low cards 3 through 8 to show themselves. If you have K-Q, however, you will need specific three-card combinations involving 9, T, J, and A to make your straight.
The problem with focusing too much on the low hand is that you tend to ignore the high hand. Winning half the pot is not going to make you money in the long run. Typically, all you will do is break about even in the hand. Sure, there may be some dead money in the pot, but in a cash game, the rake will offset some of it. Rarely will you make a good profit on a hand if you only take half of the chips. Your goal should be to scoop the entire pot, grabbing the chips of everyone who was going for a high hand, a low hand, or both.
And you won’t always be guaranteed to win half the pot if you hit the low hand. Because most players will see a flop as long as they have A-2 in the hole, there is a reasonable chance that you will chop the low with somebody else. If several players see a flop, expect another A-2 to show up.
What you want to do is play hands that have a chance to be both the winning high and low hands. Of course, starting hands that contain A-2 are good. But you want to combine those two cards with others that could help you with a high hand. Pairs, suited Aces, high or low connectors, all can be solid holdings. A-A-2-3 with the Aces sharing the suits of the other two cards is the best starting hand, as it gives you two nut flush possibilities, a pair of Aces, multiple nut-low options, and three connectors. Something like A-2-Q-Q is pretty good, as is A-2-K-Q. “Suitedness” makes these starting hands even better. If I can match the Ace’s suit to another card in my hand, I’m more than happy to play A-3 if the other two cards give me something with which to work.
And don’t forget about playing a “high only” hand, like K-K-Q-J. There is always a high hand possible, but if the board does not offer three unpaired low cards, nobody is going to win the low half of the pot. Thus, if you can make yourself a great high hand, you will have a decent shot at scooping the pot.
All Hands are Vulnerable
Omaha High-Low is a game of draws. As such, even the best starting hands are extremely vulnerable. Because everyone starts with four cards, the nuts (both high and low) are constantly in a state of flux. Pocket Aces have a great chance to make it all the way to showdown as the best hand in a game of Texas Hold’em, but in an Omaha Hold’em contest, I never feel over-confident, even with A-A-2-3 double-suited. Even if you flop a set, two pair, or a good draw, someone else likely has a good draw of their own.
Limping is OK
Continuing on the last paragraph, because you shouldn’t get married to your hole cards as much as you might in Texas Hold’em, you don’t want to be committing all of your chips pre-flop too often. Way too much can change from the flop to the turn to river. It is so easy to get counterfeited or drawn out on because of the multitude of hand options four starting cards can bring. Thus, I like to see the flop as cheaply as possible. I will raise pre-flop on occasion, but not nearly as much as I will in Texas Hold’em. Plus, in intermediate and beginner games, players love to play any four cards, so raises won’t necessarily thin the herd and reduce the number of draws that opponents will hold.
After the flop is when I’ll start tossing chips around, as even though the turn and river can still wreak havoc in Omaha High-Low, my hand will still be much better defined than it is pre-flop. Now is the time I want to make people pay to try to draw out on me.
Don’t Get Fancy
One thing I have learned from playing at the lower stakes in Omaha High-Low is that someone almost always has the nuts. If I’m not the one with it, someone else has it. It is for this reason that I tend to be a “nut peddler.” People play such a wide variety of starting hands in Omaha High-Low that even some of the most unlikely of holdings tend to present themselves at showdown. That’s not to say that I will never bet, call, or raise without the nuts, but I try not to go too crazy unless I know I have the best hand.
