Omaha Hold Em High/Low 8 or Better Advanced Strategies

The game has a nice long name. But many refer to it as Omaha H/L or Omaha 8. I posted a General Omaha High Low 8 or Better strategy quite some time ago. If you are unaware of the game, or just starting out, I suggest reading it first.

With the popularity of the game it has become now a much tougher game. You no longer get tables where 6 of the 9 players have no clue what they are doing. Now a days you get maybe 2 or 3 people at the table who don't understand the game very well. This has drastically reduced profits that can be ascertained from especially limit games any longer, the edge we once enjoyed is much smaller.

The new game now a days is to play Omaha 8 No Limit or Pot Limit. People still understand the game, but now your range of decisions multiplies. It can be played a lot like Hold Em now where you can steal the blinds and pressure the tight wads who wait for A2 every hand, and even when called you are rarely ever worse than a 40% underdog to even the best of hands. It often comes down to reading your opponent and the board, and deciding whether to bluff or hope to hit a huge hand.

Lets use an example, you are in Middle Position with a random hand, nothing great, but it's been folded to you and the rest of the players left to go after you play very tight poker. You decide to go on a pure bluff and raise it up 4 times the big blind. You get everyone to fold except the small blind. The flop comes K J 8 rainbow.

With a flop like this, without even looking at your cards you know you can probably bluff and chase the small blind off his hand, he checks to you and you bet out the pot. He thinks for a second, and decides to fold. He probably had the A2 and was chasing the low, he read your strength as having a high only hand and you hit the flop nicely. A high flop like this is going to happen a lot and it is sometimes well worth it to bluff at it when you know your opponents are playing straightforward tight poker.

The same is true with flops with A or 2 or both in it. This often counterfeits someone's low draw and will throw many kinks into their plans, often again a big bet will drive these players off their hands, allowing you to scoop up an uncontested pot.

Select aggression is key in this kind of game. You need to spice the game up with aggression, people will pick up on it, defend their hands more, start to chase more often, push back with bets. This is when you change gears a bit, slow down the loose play, wait for either premium high or low hands and continue to bet them like you bet your bluffs. Continue to bluff but with less frequency. Suddenly you will begin to get paid off on your made hands by those trying to keep you honest and you've successfully made a profitable table.

These are keys to winning at NL and PL Omaha 8. It's much like changing from limit hold 'em to no limit hold 'em. It's more a game about bet sizes than it is about the cards, you no longer are a machine at the table calculating everything out perfectly. You analyze your players and bet or fold accordingly. One will also notice these games are much more prevalent than the limit games now a days, it feeds to the action player, they feel they can play more hands, they can bluff more often and can risk more money.

Remember every game takes some time to learn and understand. If you've never played Omaha 8 before, then I am sorry to say that it's going to be a hard road. I became skilled at the game at the very end of the heyday of Omaha 8 Limit. I was winning tons of money playing calculated poker, playing like a machine. By the time the fish hole dried up and everyone understood how to play the game correctly I was well versed in the game and could plunge into the PL and NL arenas. If you want to learn now, you have to grind it out in the low limit games where some fishes still reside. It won't be as profitable and not as addicting as it was for me. You can jump into NL and PL Omaha 8 but be prepared for a roller coaster of a ride. You can start out playing just straight forward poker, make a little profit and diversify your strategy from there.