Global Sports: Some Tips For Players Interested In Omaha 8

Friday, October 22, 2010

Some Tips For Players Interested In Omaha 8

By Thomas Kearns

The games of Omaha 8 and Omaha High-Low are interchangeable and both are on the weird side because the high hand winner and low hand winner split the pot. Should the same player be so fortunate as to hold both, he gets 100% of the pot all to himself. This combination of high and low hands in one player is the rule that makes for singular strategies as the players vie to optimize their betting odds. With a lone betting structure, it is not unusual for a player to be going after the highest or lowest hand or both right in step with their opponents. As is any poker variant, the nuts (best hand) gets the pot.

As a beginner to Omaha 8, it will behoove you to watch many games to absorb the complex strategies involved. As in all poker games, the betting in Omaha 8 is an elaborate conglomeration of aggression, bluffing, and value betting and a comprehension of just how this amalgam of strategies is influenced by dual pots demands a clear understanding of what goes into making a winner. Your foremost efforts at learning Omaha 8 should be placed in a thorough study of the rules and then go on to join some beginner games and proceed on up the levels to master the possible game strategies. By the time you get to the really high levels with pot limit games, do not forget that high stakes mean multiple raises and high bets, so don't go into one of these games empty handed. Make sure you are funded sufficiently to cover yourself for a long potentially expensive night at the tables.

How Omaha 8 Play Works

The highest hand in Omaha follows the rules for the highest hand in standard poker types like Holdem and Omaha. However, there are differences when it comes to the criteria making up the lowest hand. An Omaha 8 low hand will pass muster only if it includes the following conditions:

The very name of Omaha 8 means that the low hand demands a player to play a card at or under the value of 8. And because the rules state that the players must play both of their hole cards, there must be in their hand two cards under this value to meet the criteria for the low hand.

Should no one hold a low hand for the low pot, the highest hand will take the entire pot much like the regular rules of Omaha. The cards that go into the winning Omaha 8 hand are Ace-two, with ace being low. Any card can make up the high hand and a player is allowed a combination of high and low hands to get his paws on the complete pot.

Omaha 8 generally keeps with the standard pot limit rules, but limit and no limit forms can be found depending on house rules. Split pots at high and low levels are the usual features of Omaha 8 which means a player must have significant comprehension of what makes up a potentially winning hand to get to his best betting strategy.

Of significance is that hands with three or four of a kind render it almost impossible for a player to snatch either pot because of the rule that they must use two hole cards, which leaves them with a pair. The suited Ace-two is the supreme hand in Omaha 8 as any number of high hands can be produced and it is in itself the lowest ranking low pot hand. The player holding the wheel or an A-2-3-4-5 arrangement is the ultimate low hand winner. The highest hand is a Royal flush comprised of three community cards.

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