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Playing a hand in Omaha High/Low Split part one

Game: Omaha/8

Position: Cut off

This is a form of poker that has crept into live card rooms and online poker games over the past ten years or so and this is also a game that many players find difficult to play. In fact I used to pick this game more than straight PLO in the dealers choice cash games as you could guarantee that the calibre of play would be mediocre during the hand. You could also guarantee that more players would fold their hands as well and especially from early position.

To be fair I have not observed quality play online in Omaha/8 either but I think that this just reflects the fact that most people don’t play the game all that much. In this hand it had been folded around to me in the cut off and I have the Kd-Qc-Jc-2h and I open raise to £20.

Before we have a look at why I have done this, I think that it is only fair to mention that for anyone who happens to be reading this article and who doesn’t know how to play Omaha/8 then there are plenty of books and websites out there that will fix this problem for you. But I simply do not have the space to talk about the basics of Omaha/8 in this article.

Also for anyone who has noticed that most of my hands in my articles are played from position then I hope that the importance of position is also sinking in. But as with all forms of poker, the first goal that a player needs to achieve is to recognise what constitutes a good hand from a bad hand and how those hand values alter as the game becomes short handed.

Full ring games are the easiest in which to play because you can be a lot more selective in what hands you select to play but in short handed games then you don’t really have that option of waiting so you have to get involved.

But whenever I raise from position with a hand that’s marginal then I am always looking for a way out of the hand if I get played back at. I like high cards in O/8 when I am raising from position for several reasons and one of those is because they have scoop potential if there is no qualifying low. So the flop comes 10s-9c-3d giving me a decent flop as I have a good straight draw with over cards and no qualifying low hand which can only be good for my chances of winning the pot.

My opponent checks and I fire a two thirds pot size bet which ends proceedings there and then. But I think it is worth mentioning here that I will not always continuation bet in heads up situations and if a flop came that was say 7d-5s-Ac then I may probably check that back as then I really would have thin air although even then it would really depend on what I felt about my opponent. In a heads up scenario then I would be watching my opponent as the flop came.

I wouldn’t be looking at the flop, there would always be plenty of time for that later. I would be trying to get whatever information I could on my opponent that could help me to make a decision in how I should proceed, or in this case whether to launch an outright bluff or not. Look out for part two coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”
Omaha poker is the real action game so come and play it on bwin.

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