Poker Articles

Omaha 8: Do you hate to gamble?
By Guy Downs

There is a misconception amongst poker players that Omaha 8 is more of a 'gambling game' than Texas hold 'em. Where this idea came from I can't say, although it's probably tied in to the fact that Omaha 8 pots are usually far bigger than their Texas hold em counterparts. In any case, we've been hearing for years that the Texas hold em tables are the place to be if you're a player who likes to grind out a win, while the Omaha tables are better suited for players whose sole reason for visiting the card room is to 'shoot it up.'

Even before the recent hold em explosion the number of live Texas hold em games running in a card room usually outweighed the number of live Omaha 8 games by at least a 10-1 margin. Did you ever wonder why this was? After all, if the above assumption is correct then Omaha 8 should have been the game of choice for degenerate gamblers for years now. It's a fast action game, lots of betting and raising, the strategies required for winning play aren't nearly as complicated as those required for Texas hold em... On the surface it would seem that Omaha 8 should have been 'America's game' for years now. But, as we know, that never happened. And the reason it never happened was because Omaha 8 is in fact one of the few games where a truly terrible player has virtually no chance of winning. Ask any poker pro and they'll tell you that the bankroll requirements for Omaha 8 are a fraction of what's required for Texas hold em. Which means, amongst other things, that a good Omaha 8 player is almost never going to lose. Or, if he does lose the losses will usually be negligible. It follows, by extension, that if a good player is almost never losing then a bad player is almost never winning.

How is this possible? How is it that a game with huge pots and fairly simple strategy can offer such low variance? The answer lies in the fact that proper Omaha 8 play is guided by only a few key concepts; but these concepts are so powerful, and so critical to winning play, that a player who masters them will have an insurmountable advantage over his unthinking opponents.

What, then are these concepts? Space constraints obviously prevent us from detailing all of them (Omaha 8 is a fairly straightforward game, but that doesn't mean the strategies needed to beat it can be condensed into a 1000 word article), although we'll touch on a few of the basics here. If you decide you want to read a more detailed treatment of the game I recommend Ray Zee's book "High Low Split Poker for Advanced Players', which in my opinion is the best book ever written on Omaha 8.

Concept 1) Starting hands are not difficult to evaluate.

The prospect of evaluating starting hands in Omaha 8 can be daunting indeed. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons why so few winning Texas hold em players ever gravitate to the Omaha games. They remember how long it took to really get a handle on pre-flop play in hold em, and figure they have better things to do then reinvent the wheel. Also, Omaha hands look complicated. There are four cards instead of two, and most of the hands 'look the same'. Give a hold em player a choice between AKo and T7s, and he'll choose Big Slick every time. But show a beginning Omaha player JJ44 and TT98 and the choice isn't nearly as clear.

Thankfully, this is not something winning Omaha players need concern themselves with. Which one of these hands is better? The correct answer is 'it doesn't matter', since neither of these hands will ever be played. The only people who get caught up in the debate surrounding starting Omaha 8 hands are the people who don't understand that most of the hands you're dealt are simply not playable, and those that are playable are very, very easy to spot. Here's a basic rundown of the hands that are playable in Omaha 8 (expert players have obviously expanded on this list, although not by as much as you might think).

a) Any four cards above a nine, double suited
b) Any four cards above a nine with two of them suited (middle position or better)
c) Any four card above a nine, rainbow (late position only)
d) Any A2
e) Any AA hand
f) Any A3 hand with the ace suited (middle position or better)
g) Any A3 hand with the ace unsuited (late position only)
h) Any KK hand (late position only)
i) Any 234 (late position only)

Master Omaha 8 can add more hands to the mix, although it's really not necessary if you're playing $3-$6 or smaller. By sticking to this list you should do just fine in the smaller games.

Concept 2) Draw to the nuts

This just can't be stressed enough. Hands like an overpair, top pair top kicker, top and bottom pair, bottom two pair, etc., are absolute money burners in Omaha 8. What you're looking for in this game is either a) the flopped nuts (preferably with redraws working to better hands), b) a draw to the nuts. There are a few other hands that are worth getting involved with on the flop, but in truth there aren't many.

Omaha players get themselves in trouble because they insist on doing dumb things like drawing to the third nut low, or three betting bottom set on the flop. Don't get into these habits. When you have a hand like A3, for instance, you're typically looking to either flop a fluky hand (like a full house), a made nut or second nut low, or a draw to the nut low. Obviously there's a balancing act at work. A hand like A 3 K 9 may continue past the flop if the board comes J 7 5, although even then you wouldn't want to pay multiple bets to see the turn. In any case, you need to seriously devalue any draw that isn't to the nuts. Omaha is a 'nut game'. Bad players never seem to get that, which is why they constantly go broke.

Concept 3) Not all nut low draws are created equal

Many players will indiscriminately pump the pot with any nut low draw. This is wrong. Yes, many nut low draws demand to be played fast. But there are exceptions. Two of the factors you need to consider are:

a) How easy can my hand be counterfeited?
b) Do I have a draw to a high hand?

Let's look at two nut low draws.

Hand A-A 2 7 J. Flop: K 8 6.
Hand B---A 2 3 J. Flop: J 6 5.

Hand A is playable, but it's no monster. This hand is playing for half the pot, because it has no realistic way of making the high. Also any ace or deuce on the turn or river will essentially ruin this hand. It's a hand that may be worth a bet, or a raise, but certainly isn't worth going to war with.

Hand B is a whole different story. For this hand to be counterfeited the turn and river must both bring either an ace, deuce or trey-an event which is very unlikely. Also, this hand has something working for high (in this case top pair), which means pairing another hole card may be enough to sneak through for the high. Further, any 4 will give this hand a straight and the nut low, and there are running nut flush possibilities at work. To the beginner these two hands may seem to run fairly close in value, but in fact Hand B is significantly more powerful than Hand A.

If you've never gotten serious about Omaha 8 I recommend giving it a strong look. The strategies needed to beat the game aren't enormously complicated, which makes it a natural game for players who like to multi-table on the Internet. Also, while the Texas hold em boom has attracted a ton of new players to the tables, some of these new players are actually starting to learn how to play. You won't have this problem at the Omaha tables, since very little 'new talent' has tricked into the Omaha games in the past few years.