Omaha8 Low Hand Draws
Generally when players stay into see the flop, they will give themselves an opportunity to flop the nut low hand. If you are being selective enough with your preflop playable hands, you will usually have at least 2 cards from A-4. As a consequence of players investing in the pot with quality low cards, there will be far more nut low hands than nut high hands.
As you gain experience, you should start to mix your play up a bit to confuse the opposition. This means that you wont become too predictable. You wont always land on the flop but you don't have to give the signal to the other players that you missed.
When you miss on the flop you have three options, raise, call or fold. You can throw in a quick raise to indicate strength. it will also give you a good indication as to how strong the other players cards are, and whether you will be allowed the opportunity to go for a cheap draw.
Omaha is a wild and varied game. You need to have a good look at your cards, and the board before deciding your course of action. Do you take the passive/cautious approach or do you attack the game. To decide this, you need to look at your hand's potential.
What are the chances a card will come out to improve your hand?
Weaken your hand?
Strengthen you hand but offer the opportunity for others to have an even stronger hand? An example of this is when you make a straight but the straight card gives your opponent the flush card they were waiting for.
In Omaha8, it is always good to have a backup card incase one of your low cards get paired off, effectively canceling out your low hand opportunities. Good backup cards can be when you are holding the ace with flush opportunities on the board.
Maybe you are holding A-3-5-J
The board is 2-4-K
You have the 5 incase one of your low cards are paired off, but will still give you the nut low. You have the flush draw for the nuts high hand draw.
Any paired card might kill of your nut high but any non paired low card on the board with guarantee you the nut low. You also have the backup that if no more low cards come out and you land your nut high flush, you will scoop the entire pot.
In the example above, play aggressively.
If you are playing solely for the low pot and do not have a backup card, proceed with caution. If it is paired before the river, you are sunk. In a multiway pot, you should check and call. If you are in a heads up situation, take extreme card. Your opponent may also be chasing the nut low with a strong claim to the high hand. It may be too much of a risk to invest too much money into the pot for a draw that will probably only give you a quarter share of the pot. This is one occasion when you should probably discard your nut low draw.
Drawing for the second best low hand can become a costly campaign for many. In a multiway pot, if you keep landing the 2nd best low and high hands, you are going to lose heavily over the course of a session. You will find yourself calling raises and reraises, only to walk away with the duck egg. If you suspect another player is drawing for the nut low, save your chips for a better opportunity. The only time I will stay in a hand like this is when I am also chasing the nut high flush, otherwise I will only stay in the pot when there are one or two players. Even then, I proceed with caution.
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