Introduction to Pot Limit Omaha High / Low

 

What is Pot Limit Omaha High / Low?

 

Pot-limit Omaha Hi-Lo, also known as Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or PLO8, is an exciting game that can be very profitable for good and disciplined players. Strategically it is very different from any other form of poker and presents many traps that bad players fall into (which explains why beginners who think they understand the game donate so much to real winners). An unfortunate consequence of this is that bad players go out of business faster in PLO8 than in other forms of poker.

 

Rules of Omaha Hi / Lo

 

Omaha Hi / Lo is a split game, that is, a divided game, which means that in each hand there can be two winning hands, the high hand and the low hand (high hand and low hand). There will always be a high hand, which is the same hand that you would win for example in Hold'em, but there will not always be a low hand. The low hand is five cards less than 9 and all different, and the less they are, the better our Lo play will be (the best low hand is A-2-3-4-5), so for a low hand to be possible you have There must be three cards less than 9 among the community cards, if there are none, you cannot make a Low or Low play.

 

Examples of low-handed confrontations:

 

7-6-5-4-2 beat 8-7-4-2-A
8-5-4-2-A defeats 8-6-3-2-A

 

One trick to quickly comparing low hands is to imagine that the plays are numbers; thus, in the first example, 76542 is less than 87421.

 

In Omaha Hi / Lo, four cards are dealt per player and at the end of the hand there will be five community cards on the table to form our plays. Unlike what happens in Hold'em, we are obliged to always use two cards from our hand to make our play, but we can use two cards to make the Hi play and two other cards to make the Lo play, or the same two cards to make both plays. Some examples that will make it clearer:

 

We have A2QQ and on the table there is Q-J-8-4-3. To make our high play we use the two Q’s, so we have a trio of Q’s, and to make the low play we use the A and the 2, so we have the best possible low play on the table.

 

If we have for example A ♠ 3 ♠ 5 ♦ K ♦ and there are 2 ♠ 4 ♠ Q ♠ 5 ♥ K ♥ on the table, we can take A and 3 to make the high move (flush to Ace) and also A and the 3 to make the low play: A-2-3-4-5.

 

Game objectives

 

Omaha Hi / Lo can be a very difficult game to play if you face good opponents or very easy if you play bad ones (the most common). Against good players you will only win or lose money when big confrontations occur, such as losing with the highest full house against poker, etc., while with players who go for the second or third Low it is all much easier.

 

If you are going to play limit, you should play tighter than in Pot-Limit since in the latter the implied odds that you get when playing marginal hands are much higher.

 

The objective of Omaha Hi / Lo is to scoop or 3/4, that is, take the whole pot or 3/4 of it, and you should avoid situations where you can take 1/4 (by splitting the Low with another, for example). While scooping is difficult - there will be sessions where you only scoop once or not at all - 3/4 or 1/4 is much more common. 3/4 normally occurs when two players have the nut low (the best possible low play) and one the nut high, (the best possible high play) although it can also be the opposite. Some situations are clear, such as when you have the nut flush and a nut low, but others are not so easy to discern and that is the greatest difficulty of this game.

 

Example: you have A238 and the table is 3-4-8-Q-K. Are you going to take 3/4 of the pot or 1/4?

 

Strategy

 

In limit Omaha Hi / Lo the basic strategy usually consists of looking to make a nut low or a nut high (like a nut flush) and bet and collect bets from people with lower lows or colors; As there are usually four or five people per boat, you don't run the risk of taking 1/4 of the boat. Unlike in PLO8, where it is almost never correct to call, in LO8 if someone has bet on us and we only have the nut low with people talking behind us, we can only call on the river so as not to scare people with worse lows.

 

Another difference is the position. While in limit Omaha 8 it hardly matters, in PLO8 it is very important, as you can steal pots when you speak last and everyone has checked. When to try to steal the pot? When everyone has checked up to you. When a pair appears on the flop and there is no low draw. Sometimes, you can steal the pot when someone makes a mini-bet, since the mini-bet is usually a question on the part of the player to see where it is (although you have to know the opponent and know if this is one of their trends). Don't try to steal pots when there is a low draw, as almost everyone looks for the low play.

 

In Pot Limit there will normally be no more than two or three players on the turn and frequently the hand will be played heads-up, so in these short-handed pots the goal is simple: win the whole pot or 3/4 of it . Playing a hand with the intention of winning 1/2 pot is a losing strategy in this game, even if only because of the rake, although it is clear that when we have the best high hand, we are heads-up and our opponent bets us, we will have to see it even if we are going to take only 1/2 boat. If a hand made to win 1/2 pot is bad, a draw to win half pot is horrible.

 

In general, if you don't see a reasonable chance of winning more than half the pot, you should fold, unless you want to bluff or semi-bluff. If our opponents honor our bets and raises, we can steal a lot of pots this way.

 

How much to bet when we are the first to speak or everyone has checked us? If we have some kind of hand, it is very clear: the pot. As a general rule, if we have a flush, a straight, etc., on the flop we want to protect our hand, so the best thing to do is bet the pot. Of course, we also bet the pot if we have a high hand and a low hand. We can place small bets when we have a monster like, for example, AA34 with A-8-8 on the table, to invite someone with an 8 to enter the pot.

 

As happens at Omaha High, calling is usually a bad move in Hi / Low, unless our opponent bets little giving us good odds, but in most cases if they bet the pot our decision is between raising or fold (post-flop, pre-flop is different). Normally, either you want to put all your money in the pot on the flop or you want to fold, but not see pot bets, unless several players also called the bet before you, or you want to induce more players to follow behind yours when you have a very powerful draw (in both cases there must be several players in hand). If you have a made hand, such as a nut low and a high pair, you can re-raise with position on the flop and try to take a free card on the turn instead of facing another bet from the pot on the turn.

 

Like Omaha High, flushes and open straight draws are losing hands, unless they have something else to go with them (like a draw for the best low hand). If you're going to play a draw, make it one with a lot of outs.

 

Lanterns. You rarely bluff in this game. This is because with so many opponents, four cards per hand and two possible plays (high and low), almost always someone has a made hand or a good draw; therefore lanterns are not recommended. But as in almost everything, there are always exceptions, and we can bluff when we are in a heads up and the opponent shows weakness, or in a play of this style: if there is A-9-7-Q-2 on the table without possible Flush and we have A246, although it seems like a bad hand it is one of the few hands that we can bluff with in this game since betting the pot with this hand almost ensures the entire pot or at least half a pot.

 

Some basic concepts to remember:

 

• Never go for a Low with 2 high cards (greater than 8) on the flop

 

• Never go for a High with 2 low cards (less than 8) on the flop

 

• Never go for a project other than the nuts (Hi or Low)

 

• Never go for a project to take 1/2 boat

 

• Never play middle cards (6, 7, 8, 9), since in case you get a maximum straight there will be a Low on the table.

 

• Never go for a full house when it is clear that someone has a flush or a straight (unless they give you good odds by mini-betting)

 

• DO NOT play your chips with low triplets.

 

Regarding the starting hands, I would play the following:

 

• A2xx: If the game is loose-passive (mostly at low levels); you can play any A2 from any position. Of course if the Ace is suited better. Hands like A23x or A24x are excellent and you can raise with them. I personally like to raise only from late to fatten the pot when multiple players have entered. Raising early I don't like because you kick people out and with these hands you prefer to have the more people in the pot the better.

 

• A3xx: A3 needs help to play, like Ace suited or another low card like 4 or 5.

 

• A4xx: These hands need a lot of help, like Ace suited and a big pair or a 5.

 

• 23xx: I would only play 2345, 2346 or 2356, and of course if the Ace doesn't come out on the flop, it's time to fold.

 

• High cards: letters starting with the T. AKQJ, AKJT, KKQJ, etc. If they contain big pairs or are suited, all the better. Be careful with some hands like KQJT that are not suited, because they are like KJ in Hold'em, many times you will get a good flop but you will lose on the river.

 

• AAxx, KKxx, QQxx - Almost all of these hands are playable except for perhaps the worst combinations, like QQ97, etc. With AA2x or AA3x I raise and re-raise and my opponent can see or not. You have to be careful with the sets, since for me they are drawing hands with which you want to make a fat full house, since if you get a set there will be a Low or High project on the table, so you should go with careful. There are people who say that KK is better than AA because if you top set with AA there is already an A on the table (a card for Low) so low plays are more likely.