OMAHA & OMAHA (HI\LO) - GOLDEN RULES TO LIVE BY!!
In our opinion Hi\Lo games are the ideal games for Internet playing. They are the hardest games to learn, but the easiest to play. The advantage to them is they are games where the cards do all the talking. In hold-em it is essential to bluff at pots from time to time. Bluffing is not easy; you have to have the heart to put all your chips on the line with a weak hand. Stud (Hi\Lo) and Omaha (Hi\Lo) games allow players to 'bet your hand' (meaning bet when you have the winner), and often enough you will have callers.
There are 3 GOLDEN RULES to Hi\Lo games. These 3 rules make the difference between the winners and losers.
They are easy to learn … hard to apply.
- Only open with a solid hand.
- Never call hands one-on-one for half pots.
- Never draw for a card that may not win – even if it comes.
A short explanation about each rule:
- OPENING HANDS: a solid hand is a hand that allows feasible options of winning both the high and the low. Most often this would be a hand that includes low cards with flush or straight options.
- CALLING FOR HALF A POT: many hands break down to two player games (meaning all the rest have folded) after the flop (in Omaha, or 4th street in Stud). If your only option is making the low, without many options for out beating your opponent for the high hand – YOU FOLD ( not easy if there was pre-flop raising, or betting on 3rd street ). The math is easy here: if all the money you are putting in the pot is in prayer that you make it back – LET IT GO!
- DRAWING FOR A CARD: is most common when you have a flush option and there is already a pair on board (Omaha), or a player with a low and a player with a pair on board are raising and re-raising. You may be stuck in the middle of one player with a full house, and one with a low. Even if you get your flush … You lose anyway. A situation to be avoided at all cost.