I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now: Omaha-Eight-or-Better

The transition from limit hold’em to Omaha-eight-or-better is a natural one for the most part. How the cards come out and how bets go into the pot are identical with the exception of preflop cards. In hold’em, every player gets two and may use zero, one, or both of his or her cards. In Omaha, all players get four cards, and must use two and only two of those cards to make a hand (players may use different pairs of cards to make the high and the low hand). The primary difference between the games is that Omaha-eight introduces the element of the split pot. This added complexity induces mistakes from the inexperienced player, especially if they have no split pot experience under their belt. Consequently I will discuss the theory of split pot games in this column examining how they specifically apply to Omaha-eight-or-better, and we will use this foundation to launch us into other more complex split pot games.  

The biggest mistake players make in split pot games is taking a hand that usually can only be good for one half of the pot and overplaying it, eliminating opponents in the process. Especially when coming from limit hold’em, where you want as few players in the pot as possible, the opposite is often true in Omaha-eight.
 
A few months ago I was playing $400-$800 mixed games and the current game was Omaha-eight. Daniel Negreanu open limped from under-the-gun. Tom Dwan was next to act, and just stared at Daniel’s limp in his classic mouth agape style of puzzlement. After a few moments I started cracking up, saying something like look, Tom’s head is exploding, he has no idea what that means. Everybody laughed, Tom did too and just folded his hand in confusion, admitting that he truly had no idea what that meant.

The standard holding for Daniel’s limp is four low cards with very little opportunity to make a high hand. Some things that are true about Omaha that aren’t true about hold’em make this play standard, where in limit hold’em open limping anytime is most likely a bad play. First, pots are not won pre-flop very often in Omaha-eight due to the higher number of playable hands. Equities between playable hands are usually very close in Omaha-eight. The worst possible hand in Omaha-eight is four deuces, and hands with three of a kind in them are also pretty bad, but those are all rare and won’t be played by most opponents anyways. Taking the best possible starting hand in Omaha eight against a very bad hand only makes you a 3-to-1 favorite, which is a stretch from the 4-to-1 favorite you are in hold’em holding the best hand versus the second best hand. Second, equities swing dramatically postflop in Omaha-eight. And third, if Daniel can only win half the pot, then he really doesn’t want to be playing heads-up postflop with such a hand.  

By limping, he loses the minimum when he completely misses the flop, insures that there will be more players seeing the flop, and he lets weaker hands into the pot, which isn’t a bad thing in a split pot game.  

Our first goal in split pot games is to play for scoops, winning the whole pot. When we can’t win the whole pot, we want as many opponents in the pot as possible to make the half of the pot we’re trying to win bigger and to play against inferior hands. So, when considering preflop whether or not to raise, we need to meet one of two conditions. Either our hand has to have the realistic capability to scoop the whole pot, or we are in late enough position that the likelihood of winning the pot without showdown is increased. When I’m in the hijack position or later, I’m opening for a raise preflop in Omaha-eight. Otherwise we should only be opening for a raise if our hand can scoop, hands like A-K-Q-2 as compared to A-2-3-4. Having suits in your hand to make flushes helps your opportunity to scoop, but beware of the non-nut flush in any Omaha games, since the likelihood of running a smaller flush into the nuts is much higher with four starting cards than two.  

High only hands like K-Q-J-10 or K-K-10-9 are a different beast. I prefer to limp my unpaired hands in early position like the king-high rundown to balance out my limping range of low only hands, and I prefer to raise hands like the K-K-10-9 because K-K can scoop unimproved in a heads-up pot. These hands become especially strong in multiway pots due to card removal. When several players are seeing a flop, the number of low cards left in the deck is reduced, since players generally play low hands, especially with an ace. Therefore, the likelihood of there being three cards eight or lower on the board by the river is diminished, increasing the potential for a high hand to scoop a bloated pot where no low is possible.
 
Postflop should be played straightforwardly, for the most part. In Omaha-eight, it’s never a bad thing when they fold, especially in limit, due to all the extra combinations of hands and lows that can be made with four cards and a split pot structure. There are very few instances where slow playing is optimal because people don’t fold as often as they do in hold’em and equities are much tighter and swingy postflop. There are very few spots like in hold’em where your opponent is drawing very slim and getting them to fold is tragic.  

The most common postflop mistake made by inexperienced players is overplaying their low hands. Even though A-2 will make the nut low often, just because it is the nuts doesn’t mean that it should be played fast. First, by playing a hand that is just the nut low aggressively, worse low hands are less likely to come along. Second, since nobody folds A-2 preflop, you are going to end up splitting the low half of the pot one or two ways much more often than expected.  

The key to any split pot game is playing to win the whole pot, and in instances when only half the pot can be won, make sure you aren’t playing in a heads-up pot.
Peace and good luck. ♠

Bryan Devonshire has been a professional poker player for nearly a decade. With over $2m in tournament earnings, he also plays high stakes mixed games against the best players in the world. Follow him on Twitter @devopoker.