Thoughts on Omaha Eight-or-Better - Part IV<br>By Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger

Authors' note: This column is based on material that will appear in slightly different form in our upcoming book on Omaha eight-or-better, to be published this fall.

This is our fourth and final column in this short series about Omaha eight-or-better. We hope we've included something of interest for everyone: Omaha eight-or-better novices as well as seasoned veterans. Because the first three columns in this series approached the game conceptually, we thought we'd get down to the nitty-gritty and end our series with some very specific tips that you might use the next time you play.

• Praying – and playing – for runner-runner: You have a premium starting hand, catch a bad flop, and call a bet, hoping to catch a turn card that will give you a draw to the river. When you do this, you are living on hope, and hope is the death of many Omaha eight-or-better bankrolls. Let your opponent try to catch runner-runner – essentially a parlay in which one is looking to pick up a draw to another draw – because plays like this are very bad news.

• Drawing for a high hand when three low cards flop: When three low cards flop and you have naught but a draw to a high hand – and draws in Omaha eight-or-better include flopping middle and bottom set – you are chasing half the pot, but the cost to draw is the same as if you were chasing the entire enchilada. It's OK to see the turn if you flopped top set or have a draw to the nut flush, but even these hands ought to be pitched some of the time.

• Failure to value bet: When you fail to value bet the river, you can wind up leaving money on the table. Value betting the river is revenue neutral much of the time. You bet and someone else calls, and it's not much different than it would be if your opponent came out betting and you called him. But by betting, you'll attract some calls from players who hold lesser hands and would have gladly checked it down on the river. On other occasions, you'll bet and an opponent will raise, and when that happens, you can usually toss your cards away. Because most opponents raise on the turn, a river raise is fairly uncommon and usually signifies a miracle card for the raiser.

• Draws and traps to avoid: Here are some of the draws you ought to avoid and some trap hands you need to be on the lookout for:

1. Top and bottom pair

2. Third-best flush

3. Second-best straight

4. Second-best low hand

5. K-Q-Q-X and similar holdings

6. J-J-10-X and similar holdings

7. 7-6-5-4 suited or unsuited

8. 6-5-4-3 suited or not

• Some miscellaneous tips: Here are some miscellaneous tips to improve your Omaha eight-or-better game. They are covered in more detail elsewhere in our book, but we've listed them here so that you can access all of them in one place.

1. If you're playing $10-$20 or lower, after the flop you should generally draw only to the nuts or have multiple high-quality draws.

2. If you've been dealt A-3 or 3-2 with nothing else of real quality, you ought to throw it away if you're in early position. In late position, A-3 is almost always playable, but 3-2 is not.

3. While late position allows you to play more hands, middle cards such as 9-8-7 – particularly hands with nines in them – should not be played.

4. When you've made the nut low on the flop and are sure you're going to be quartered, you have our permission to occasionally muck your hand, particularly when you have no backup to protect you against getting counterfeited, and no possibilities of making a high winning hand. If you're holding A-2-K-Q, it may look good if the flop is 6-5-4, but if you suspect that one of your opponents also has an A-2 in his hand, the best you can hope for if there are three others in the pot with you is that you'll get your money back. It's sort of like, "Heads they win, tails you tie," and that's not a rosy picture, is it?

5. On the river, you can usually raise if you're holding the nut low when it's fourhanded, but generally just call if you're playing threehanded.

6. When you're in the cutoff seat or on the button in a pot in which no one has come to play, either raise or release. Do not call.

7. In multiway pots, early-position strength should be bet because you'd like to attract paying customers. Deception is unimportant. When your opponents see the flop, many of them will find any possible excuse to call and see the turn – and the river, too.

8. If a player in early position bets into a raiser, do not call with anything other than the very best of flop fits. In this situation, it's really OK to throw your hand away.

9. An ace is the most important card in Omaha eight-or-better. Next in importance is a deuce. A 9 is the worst card, and if you hang around an Omaha eight-or-better table long enough, you'll find that nines, eights, and sevens appear in more losing hands than any other cards.

10. According to World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Omaha eight-or-better expert Linda Johnson, 6-5-4-3 is the worst starting hand combination that most Omaha eight-or-better players consider a good hand, and one they will play on a regular basis.

11. The flush factor: You'll be dealt a suited or double-suited hand the vast majority of the time. So will your opponents, so when you do draw to a flush, be certain it stands a good chance of winning the pot, or at least the high end of it, if you make it.

12. It takes a bigger hand to call a raise than it does to raise in the first place. And it takes a bigger hand to overcall than to be the first caller.

13. Although many players think of Omaha eight-or-better as a game of drawouts, it's worth remembering that seven-ninths, or 77 percent, of your hand is known on the flop.

14. The river card is the least important card in Omaha eight-or-better. All of the important action takes place prior to the river. If you have the best of it before the river, you'll win more often than not. Get your money into the pot when you have the best of it, and save your bets when you don't. While that sounds simple and obvious, many players do not follow that axiom.

15. High-stakes poker player Annie Duke's list of mistakes many players make in Omaha eight-or-better:

• Playing stranded pairs; hands like K-K-8-4 are unplayable, but hands like K K 2 3 and K-K-Q-Q can be played

• Overestimating the value of small pairs, deuces through eights, since these sets become very vulnerable when hit

• Overestimating the value of A-2

• Overestimating the value of A-A

• Underestimating the value of big connecting cards, because it is tougher to get trapped with them

That's it for our series on Omaha eight-or-better. If you're an Omaha eight-or-better player, we hope you picked up something of value from this series or at least reinforced some thoughts and concepts you hadn't considered for a while. If you're new to the game, or never played Omaha eight-or-better but are thinking of giving it a shot, we hope you found this series helpful. Now, just find a game and give it a go.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger, author of Poker for Dummies, at www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest book, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games, is available through Card Player and at www.ConJelCo.com, and all of his books can be found at major bookstores and online at www.Amazon.com.