Poker Articles

Winning Omaha/8 Strategy
By Michael Wiesenberg

Omaha high-low with an 8 qualifier for low, known also simply as Omaha/8, is becoming more and more popular in cardrooms. The game is a frustration to many, particularly who think of it as just hold 'em played with four cards down.

The game also has many fervent adherents, sometimes known as Omaholics.

Since Omaha/8 can be confusing for beginners, PokerPages offers this series on how to play the game. This series discusses low-limit games, say up to $4-$8. Much higher-limit games exist, of course, but before jumping into them, you better learn how to beat the smaller games.

On the surface, Omaha/8 bears a resemblance to hold 'em. Players start with four downcards. Those are their private cards, much as are the first two cards in hold 'em. After the players receive their downcards, there is a round of betting. The betting is usually on a two-tiered system. That is, like hold 'em, Omaha has four rounds of betting. The first two rounds are at the lower limit, and the last two at double that limit. So, for example, in a $4-$8 game, the first two rounds are at the $4 limit, and the last two at the $8 limit. Omaha games have two blinds, just as in hold 'em; usually the big blind is the size of the lower limit. For example, the blinds in a $4-$8 game would be $2 and $4.

Since the game is played high-low, the pot is split at the showdown between the high hand and a possible low hand, with the caveat that the low hand must be at least an 8-low. Thus the name, Omaha/8. If no player holds an 8 low at the showdown, the entire pot is won by the highest hand. Also, if one player holds simultaneously a hand that is the best low and the best high, that player wins the entire pot. Both situations are known as scooping. The hand itself is called a scoop hand. In some games, if a player scoops, the limits of the game temporarily increase for the next hand. Sometimes they go up by half; sometimes they double. For example, if Mary wins the whole pot in a $4-$8 game, the next hand might be played at $6-$12 limit, or $8-$16. A game with this feature is often called Omaha scoop. The player who scoops puts up an additional blind on that next hand, making three blinds in that pot. Again, in our $4-$8 example, the blinds would become $2, $4, and $6. The player immediately to the left of the button (the deal position) would put $2 before receiving any cards. This player--and the blind the player puts in--are both known as the little blind or the middle blind. It may seem a bit confusing to use the same term for two different things, but don't worry; you'll be able to tell which is meant by context. The player immediately to the left of the little blind would put in $4. This player--and also, as before, the blind the player puts in--are both known as the big blind. And the person who scooped the previous pot would put in $6.

How should you choose which Omaha/8 to play? Don't play in a tight game. Watch the game you plan on joining, and if it's tight, don't jump in. Or, if you're in one, get out. Ask for a table change. If you can't find a loose game, go play hold 'em or seven stud. In most poker games, most of your profit comes from mistakes other players make. That's most true of Omaha. It's said about Omaha/8, "Any four cards can win." You want to be at a table where the players fervently believe that. Ideally you'd like to see most of the table see the flop, half or more stay for the turn, and four or five remain till the bitter end. Fewer than that, small pots, raises that drop most of the players: you don't want that game. Fortunately, most Omaha games are not like that, particularly $3-$6 and $4-$8. And that's big enough for you until you learn to beat those games. Good players can win upwards of $500 in a single session in one of those games, and bad players lose that much.

And how do you do this? By observing a few simple principles. By realizing some things that most Omaha players don't realize. And by not making the mistakes and falling into the traps the others do.

What most Omaha players don't realize, particularly first-time players, is that this is not hold 'em with more cards. The most obvious difference is that in hold 'em you start with one two-card combination; in Omaha, you have six two-card combinations. Where does that six come from? Four cards can be combined six ways. Let's say your four cards are labeled A, B, C, and D. You can combine them these six ways:

AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, and CD.

Many new players look for one good hold 'em combination in the starting hand--whether high or low--as a justification for playing it. Remember, they're looking for excuses to play. You should be looking for excuses not to play. The better Omaha hands have cards that work together to make multiple playing combinations.

And the traps players fall into start here.

Many players will play a hand like K-K-8-2, which you should toss without a thought. The king-king combination has value, but there is nothing else going for the hand. But even if the hand was double-suited, that is, with the eight and the deuce in the same suits as the kings, a good player would most likely drop the hand. Omaha is a game of having the nuts and drawing to the nuts. The big trap lots of players fall into is drawing to less than the nuts. And in a game with lots of stayers, you rarely have the absolute nuts before the river, so it's primarily a game of draws. That's the seduction of the game, and what keeps players in till the end, there to lose to someone who made a better draw. If you play premium hands and watch out for the traps, you'll be in there at the end either with the best hand for one way or both, or draws to them.

Some rote Omaha players think that the best hand is ace-deuce; while the strongest two-card combination in Omaha-8 certainly is ace-deuce, don't fall in love with it, though, as many players do, or you'll find yourself not getting any part of the pot, or, getting quartered. When you get quartered, you get one fourth of a pot when only three players are contesting that pot. This could happen if someone else has that ace-deuce at the same time as you. There's an Omaha joke, "I hope I don't win any more pots, or I'll go broke." This happens to players who go with just ace-deuce and no backup, and then stay till the bitter end. If you are counterfeited on the flop, or only one low card flops, the ace-deuce is not enough to warrant further play. Many players will raise or reraise preflop any time they have ace-deuce in their hand before the flop. This is a mistake unless the hand has other things going for it. "Other things" means cards that work together, such as one or two other wheel cards, another ace, or another card in suit with your ace. (For those of you who don't play lowball or high-low games, a wheel card is an ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5.) Preferably all four of your cards work together, because otherwise you have only three good combinations, and probably only one, whereas someone playing good starting cards could have six times as many possibilities as you. You see plenty of pots won by less than premium holdings, but this is because so many players stay in with those combinations. You will probably also notice that those who win more than a few of those pots are also probably losers overall, so don't you fall into that trap.

More strategy will appear in succeeding articles in this series.