Omaha H/L Hand Selection Strategies
- By Theodore Bogin
- Published 05/29/2008
- Omaha
- Unrated
Hand selection is probably
the single most important factor in Omaha H/L winning formula. You should
choose hands that have the potential to have the high and the low. For
example, the best hand is A-A-2-3, because of the potential to form sets if an
A flops or to form the nut low if a 4-, 3-, 2, or A- low flops. But how
to select a hand when you are just playing run-of-the-mill cards, like
A-K-J-3? All of these sub-standard hands should be discarded. You
should only play the hands that have potential to be the nuts. With
A-K-J-3, even if it is double-suited, what can you hope for? A low might
give you the second-best low in a multi-way pot and end up costing you a HUGE
amount of poker chips and consequently, lots of money.
Thus, it is best to stay away
from most of these hands. You should confine you hand selection mostly to
low cards, like A, 2, 3, 4 etc. In fact, one Omaha H/L pundit, John
"
One other important subtlety in hand selection first originated by Omaha H/L aficionado and expert poker player Mike Matusow is to read players for their hand selection based on betting. For example, if a player double bets it, then the player behind him three-bets it, and a fourth player four-bets it, you can probably surmise that they have all the Aces out of the deck, as well as a lot of the wheel cards, and thus you would be advised to play a high hand because the deck is rich in high cards. Thus, with all of the Aces and wheels gone, the deck will mostly flop three high cards, and there may be no qualifying low, and you may end up scooping a huge pot with your high-only hand. This is a sophisticated tournament reading strategy invented by Mike Matusow and referenced in his article "You Can’t Really Do These Kinds of Things in Hold’em" from the FullTilt.com Players Archive. Thus, the above strategies should turn the average Omaha HL player into a terrific one in no time.

