How to Play Omaha/8 | Omaha high-low split eight or better

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How to Play Omaha/8 | Omaha high-low split eight or better
by NoLuckNeeded member

How to Play Omaha/8

The second most popular poker game today is Omaha high-low split eight or better, mercifully shortened to Omaha/8. Omaha/8 can be a very profitable game, as many players don't understand the rules and how to determine the best low hand. Here is a short tutorial explaining the rules and how to play.

Omaha/8 is played in limit and pot-limit with the final pot often split between the best high hand and best low hand. Omaha/8 is spread nine or ten handed and has a rotating blind system. Each player is dealt four down cards, often called hole cards. Then three community cards are dealt face up in the center of the table. This is often called the flop. Another card is dealt face up and called the turn, followed by the last card being dealt face up called the river. Rounds of betting are before the flop, after the flop, after the turn and after the river.? Each player must use exactly three cards from the five community cards and two from his or her hand in any combination to form a high hand and a low hand. The same two cards do not have to be used for the high and the low. Please note that if there are not at least three community cards ranked eight or below, there will be no low hand and the entire pot will be awarded to the best high hand. The most important rule is: Each player must use exactly three community cards and two hole cards. It sounds simple, but many players, especially at lower limits don't understand the rules. Many times two players will have the same low hand and split the low half of the pot. This is often called "getting quartered."
In Omaha/8, there is an 8 qualifier. This means that to have a hand that qualifies for low, you must have five non-paired cards eight or below. One thing that often confuses players is how to correctly determine which hand is the lowest. The easiest way to do this is to read the hands backwards like a number. For example, 8 5 3 2 A would be read 85,321. The lower the number, the lower the hand. Here are a few examples in order from lowest to highest to help you understand how this works.

A 2 3 4 5 ??????? 54,321
A 2 4 5 6???????? 65,421
2 3 4 5 6????????? 65,432
3 4 5 6 7????????? 76,543
A 2 3 4 8???????? 84,321

Omaha 8 Starting Hands
Omaha/8 is a game of winning both the high and low pots on the same hand or the high when no low is possible (called a scoop) and having a good hand with the opportunity to improve to a better hand (a redraw). This is why starting hand selection is so important. Most of your starting hands should include hands that have the possibility to scoop and offer redraws. The most common hands have an ace because an ace can be used for a high hand and a low hand.? Another important concept is having counterfeit protection. If your only two low cards are A 2 and an Ace or 2 falls on the board, your hand loses much of its strength. By playing hands like A 2 3 K or even 2 3 4 6, you give yourself counterfeit protection. One of the worst things that can happen is if you have A 2 and a made low hand and an Ace hits on the river to give the low to someone else.
One of the biggest mistakes that inexperienced Omaha/8 players make is playing too many hands. Just like effective holdem strategy, winning Omaha/8 players only play 20 to 25% of the time. However, especially at the lower limits, you will see 7 to 9 players seeing the flop often. It is very important to not fall into the "well, everybody else is doing it" mindset. Because everyone works with four cards, you must often have the best possible hand to win. By playing too many hands you will find yourself making second and third best hands and losing money with them.
Unlike holdem, position is not one of the most important issues in selecting your starting hands in Omaha/8. That is not to say that it is of no importance. It is still better to act last because of the added information available to you. The reason it is not as important as in holdem is because, as mentioned above, you often need the best possible hand to win, and after seeing the flop you will have a good idea of the chances of it happening as well as often having the correct pot odds to draw to it if you need to.
In holdem you only start with two cards so you have only one combination of two cards. In Omaha you start with four cards that create six unique two-card combinations. The best starting hands have all four cards working together. Hands that have three cards working together and one that doesn't (a dangler) are much weaker than ones with all four working in conjunction
Here is some specific advice about your starting hand selections. As you are learning to play Omaha/8, I suggest only using the following hands. An x denotes any card of any rank. A w denotes a wheel card (2, 3, 4 or 5). A t denotes a trump plus the ten (T, J, Q, K). 1
1. A 2 x x
2. A 3 x x If the ace is suited to one of your other cards.
3. A w w x As long as the two wheel cards are not the same)
4. w w w w Four wheel cards, even if you have one pair, but not if you hold two pair or trips.
5. A t t t An ace with three high cards, especially if the ace is suited, is a strong high hand.
6. t t t t Four high cards, even with a pair or two pair.
The above guidelines are meant to be used while you are learning the game. As you
gain experience and learn your opponents playing styles and hand selection, you will be able to play a few more starting hands. Hands with an A, 3 and two high cards are often playable as well as hands containing an ace suited to one other card that offer straight possibilities and some low potential like Ah 4h 6c 8s.

Pot-Limit Omaha/8

For those of you thinking about taking a shot at pot-limit Omaha/8, here are a few strategies and points that must be considered. Everything discussed here is with the assumption you are a good limit Omaha/8 player. If you are not a good limit player, immediately abandon the idea of playing pot-limit unless the money you are using is purely discretionary. In my experience, this is the most brutal and unforgiving poker game available at high stakes today. Even if you are a good limit player, I recommend starting at a much lower buy-in than you are used to playing until you can handle the differences between limit and pot-limit Omaha/8.

By now you know that most of the profit you make in Omaha/8 is from the mistakes of your opponents and playing hands that offer good scoop potential. This is magnified to a great degree when playing pot-limit, and when you add having a made hand with a redraw to a better hand you have covered just about everything of importance. Because of the nature of pot-limit, the pot can quickly become very large and you can lose a great deal of money on drawing hands. Here are the three biggest mistakes, other than poor starting hand selection, I see players make. The first is calling large bets with only a draw to half the pot, the second is raising with only three players in the pot with only a low hand and the third is calling bets with second and third best hands with no real chance to improve to the best hand. Because of the great possibility of being quartered with a low hand, when less than four players are contesting the pot, every dollar you put in the pot may only return seventy-five cents.

I have put together a short list of rules to live by when playing pot-limit Omaha/8. If you don't live by these rules, you surely will die by them.

1. Only play starting hands that offer scoop potential, including high only hands.
2. This is a game of scoops and redraws.
3. Don't draw to a low only hand against a made high hand.
4. Be careful to not trade a dollar for seventy-five cents very often.
5. Be patient and let your opponents make mistakes.
6. Don't lose much money with second best hands. Wait for the best possible hand to get most of your money into the pot.