Omaha Hi
Lo Flop Strategy
Moving into a more advanced Omaha
Hi/Lo Strategy, you must be able to take a solid
pre-flop strategy and
convert it to work out a good Flop Strategy. If
you have made the right decisions and made
proper moves before the flop, you will be on
cruise control throughout the Flop, Turn and
River. The most important aspect of this game is
Hand Selection and Pre Flop Strategy. Focus on
those first, and the rest will flow very well
for you.
In Omaha Hi/Lo the goal is to win
both the low and the high hand. Just as good, if
there is no low hand, you would be happy to win
the high hand. Either way, winning the entire
pot is the goal during each hand. You have to
keep in mind that in Omaha Hi/Lo, you will
rarely win a hand because of a bluff or a good
play. The main objective to win is going to be
to get as much money in as possible when you
have the best hand. Therefore, your Flop
Strategy is fairly simple. If you hit; raise it
up and keep on raising. If you miss; get out as
soon as possible.
Example:
The best starting hand in Omaha
Hi/Lo is AA23 double suited. If you have played
it right you would have raised as much as
possible before the flop. When the first three
cards come up you will have a simple decision.
It should involve either raising or folding.
Either you hit big, or you did not hit at all.
Figure 1:
Board = A 4 5 (all different
suits)
Now this is pretty much the best
case scenario. You have both the highest and the
lowest possible hands at this point. Not only do
you have the straight for the high, but you also
have three aces and a good chance to catch a
full house. As for the low, you have the lowest
possible hand as well with your 2 3. Now, all
you need to do is get as much money into the pot
as possible. It is up to you to know how much to
bet and what moves to make based on the
information you know about your opponents. What
ever you do, it should cause for a lot of money
to enter into that pot.
Figure 2:
Board = K K 10 (different suits)
This is where it gets difficult,
but really…it is very simple. When something
like this comes up, you have your pocket Aces
and that is all. They are worthless as this
point and you completely missed. No matter how
much you bet before the flop, you still need to
fold in this situation.
Figure 3:
Board = K 4 6 (different suits)
In this example, you are really
going to need to do some math and think things
through. All you need is one more low card and
you will have the low hand rapped up. At the
same time, you have two Aces and some other
possibilities as well. It will not be worth a
huge amount of money, but a few big blind bets
will be well worth the call, especially if you
are up against a couple of different players.
Just keep in mind that you do not want to base
your decision solely on the low hand, because
you can still lose a lot of money if you have to
split the low pot with another player.
Overall, playing Omaha Hi/Lo on
the flop is all about whether you hit or miss.
You will have to also read your opponents and
get as much information as you can on them. This
is a really hard game because you never know if
your opponent is really strong or not because so
many people think they have good hands in this
game when they really do not. Even if they do
know what they are doing, it is hard to tell if
they have a strong high hand or a strong low
hand. Sometimes they may even have both. You
have to do your best to get that kind of
information and use it to make good decisions.
Omaha Hi/Lo comes down to good
decision making. You have to make more good
decisions than bad decisions. If you can do
that, the idea is to hopefully make more money
in the end than you lose. If you have gotten
past the flop, chances are you are not going
anywhere after. Keep that in mind when you are
making your decisions. Sometimes it is better to
just take your losses and get out, instead of
losing even more. There will always be another
hand that will be just as exciting, especially
in Omaha Hi/Lo. |
