So, I'm in the bookstore tonight, looking at the poker section (of course), and notice that while there are probably hundreds of book related to Texas Hold 'Em, there were exactly 2 books devoted to Omaha. I started browsing through one of them, and it piqued my interest.

So, when I got home I hopped on a $.50/$1 O8 table on Check-N-Raise for a couple of orbits, and felt like a complete fish out of water. I did actually finish the session in the black when I get a runner-runner flush at the end (maybe I should just quit now so I can say I've never lost a session of Omaha), but it just felt different.

So, how does a Hold-Em player successfully make the transition to Omaha? I've read the articles on here and other sites (I actually had Hutchinson's point count system open on one tab while reading the BTP article on the downsides of point count systems), but I'm still not sure how to proceed. Any suggestions beyond what's in the articles?

Ok, it looks like it was only 1 orbit tonight, as PTO imported 10 hands for me.

Here's what I had, and how I played -

,[8s],[Kh],[Th] in BB - folded pre-flop to raise from SB

,[4d],[6s],[Qd] in SB - folded pre-flop

,[5d],[2c],[Qs] in button - folded pre-flop to raise from CO

,[Kd],[6c],[7h] in CO - folded pre-flop to raise from you-know-who...

,[6d],[8h],[4s] - folded pre-flop to a raise from our new friend.

,[7d],[Qd],[Jc] - limped (our friend actually folded), flop ,[9d],[3d] in a 5-way pot, checked around to me, I bet, everyone else folds. My first Omaha pot!!

,[9s],[3d],[3s] - folded pre-flop, as I'm totally unsure if pocket pairs are as playable here as they are in HE

,[Tc],[8h],[3d] - folded pre-flop, just didn't look like a good starting hand.

,[As],[Th],[4h] - limped in, final board was ,[4d],[8c],[Ks],[5s] for the nut flush for me. There was another person being aggressive on the river, and I guessed he had the low hand. There was one player trapped between us, so I just kept raising and won the high pot.

,[6c],[5s],[3c] - limped in, folded on a ,[Td],[3d] flop


And that's my first-ever session of real money Omaha hi/lo. Would you more knowledgable Omaha experts have played any of those starting hands differently?

ok, first my suggestion would be to start with plo high only and learn how to play that first. Once you get some experience, then move to plo08 if you want. Its easier to learn how to play a one way game first than to have to play a 2 way game while learning both sides.

I assume the hands you posted are O8 hands. I can't comment too much about them but I will do my best with my plo high experience to tell you what you think of the hands for plo high, or even limit high.

78TK, playable if folded to sb and he only raised. If not, good fold as its a marginal hand and don't want to play it as it will just put you in bad situations.

8764 is def playable in high only, even for a raise against a maniac. Adds variance but you are looking for a big draw flop as you can catch him when you have many outs and you might be ahead with the best draw.

small pocket pairs are not good. Even if you flop a set, I equate it to bottom two in limit. decently strong but vunerable and you don't want a lot of resistence. I pretty much play JJ-AA from any position but TT and lower must have good side cards. even big pocket pairs with NO side features can be folded from ep even for limp. Unless they have good features, most are folds for significant raises.

My suggestion is keep the limits low while you learn. At low limits, look to the nuts (a little looser in limit than plo) and don't slowplay much. Read posts here as I find them the most informative and post hands!



KQJ7ss not too bad for limp in lp but be careful. In ep, don't try it because you need position and position is most important in omaha, more so than hold em.

pretty much. I don't like limit, especially for omaha, because there is so much chasing you need to make big bets. People chase marginal hands so if you sit back and look for nut peddling hands (nut flushes, nut straight wraps, top sets) you can make a killing as people cannot drop their hands. I would tell you to try plo25 if you can. If you just want me experience at first learning how to hand select and such, start at the lowest limit tables and be selective. My VP$IP is about 16% and about low 20% with the blinds. You can easily make a killing for 8+ptbb/100 simply nutpeddling and more once you learn how to play postflop and push draws and play an occasional bluff.

I'l give you my opinion on your other q's in more detail this evening, but certainly you need to stay away from KQJ7 as it's a nothing hand in PLO8 (might be marginally limpable on button or SB in PLO high, esp with some suited features). Three-legged dogs (hands with one garbage card) are rarely good in omaha (there are some exceptions) when the three connecting cards aren't that strong. If you play a high-only hand in hi/lo games, it needs to be a strong high only hand like KKTT, QJT9, KKJ9ds etc.

Some early observations -

A77x in your hand on a A7x flop does NOT make a full house.

KKxx rainbow is not a good starting hand - coming from hold-em, it feels really weird to muck this, but I'm getting used to it.

Flopping top pair is pretty much useless. I don't think I've seen top pair take down a single pot.

You learn very quickly the difference between the nut straight and your straight.

Another observation -

the fish who will play A-rag, K-rag, any two suited, and any connectors are going to be hard-pressed to find a reason to fold pre-flop - which means bigger pots for me when I get the nuts.

like this -

Omaha Hi $0.25-$0.50 (real money), hand #1,607,913,585
Table Zagreb, 19 Dec 2005 9:49 AM ET

Seat 2: Figger0
Seat 3: Kroys
Seat 5: pinecone
Seat 6: BIFNR1
Seat 7: stickdude [ JS,3S,7S,3H ]
Seat 8: Crazy Stacks
Seat 9: chips away
Seat 10: dawkarpl1
ANTES/BLINDS
BIFNR1 posts blind ($0.15), stickdude posts blind ($0.25), Kroys posts blind ($0.25).

PRE-FLOP
Crazy Stacks calls $0.25, chips away folds, dawkarpl1 calls $0.25, Figger0 calls $0.25, Kroys checks, pinecone calls $0.25, BIFNR1 calls $0.10, stickdude checks.

FLOP [board cards 3D,3C,QS ]
BIFNR1 checks, stickdude checks, Crazy Stacks checks, dawkarpl1 checks, Figger0 checks, Kroys checks, pinecone checks.

well, that's a nice flop. Let's hope that someone has a pair of Queens (and that another Queen doesn't hit).

TURN [board cards 3D,3C,QS,4C ]
BIFNR1 checks, stickdude checks, Crazy Stacks checks, dawkarpl1 bets $0.50, Figger0 folds, Kroys folds, pinecone folds, BIFNR1 folds, stickdude bets $1, Crazy Stacks folds, dawkarpl1 bets $1, stickdude calls $0.50.

hmmm... looks like we might have a second-best hand here. I didn't cap it here because I didn't want him to think I had the quads. Let him think he still has the best hand.

RIVER [board cards 3D,3C,QS,4C,9C ]
stickdude bets $0.50, dawkarpl1 bets $1, stickdude bets $1, dawkarpl1 bets $1, stickdude calls $0.50.

And let the bloodbath commence. Anybody think I don't stack this guy in a PL game?

SHOWDOWN
dawkarpl1 shows [ QH,6C,4D,QD ]
stickdude shows [ JS,3S,7S,3H ]
stickdude wins $8.50.

SUMMARY
Dealer: pinecone
Pot: $8.75 | Rake: $0.25
Figger0 loses $0.25
Kroys loses $0.25
pinecone loses $0.25
BIFNR1 loses $0.25
stickdude bets $3.75, collects $8.50, net $4.75
Crazy Stacks loses $0.25
chips away loses $0
dawkarpl1 loses $3.75

two pair is also not good unless its top two pair on a draw free board and it should always be played with caution.

Only draw to the nuts and never draw on a paired board for a straight or flush.

I do play JJ-AA no matter the side cards for a limp from anywhere which can def be marginal in ep with no real side cards but I've gotten better at reading people's hands and know how to get away from a set, even top one. Learning to fold second set or top set on a board that has a straight possible is also difficult to do but definitely gets easier as you play.