During the 2019 World Series of Poker held at the Rio my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting an outstanding professional whom I consider one of the top female players, Jennifer Harmen.
In a recent article appearing on the Vegas Slots Online, Jennifer discussed and offered some advice on playing “Omaha-8”.
Unfortunately, I do not concur with some of the advice given.
When I started to write these articles I decided to always let the numbers speak for themselves as opposed to offering opinions.
I also write these articles because I believe the average playing public, given the complexities of the game, has formed many erroneous conclusions on strategy.
In the opening paragraph, Jennifer states “I encourage players to look for hands that have the possibility of scooping the entire pot” Winning the entire pot is always nice.
No argument there.
I, on the other hand, encourage players to play hands that have the highest “Net Win”.
To be clear, “Net Win” is the difference between the amounts wagered less the amounts returned, (won) divided by the number of hands played with that particular holding.
The number of hands played should be large enough to ensure a statistically random distribution where the limits and other factors are kept constant.
In a previous article, I ranked the players at an average table by the percentage of times they scooped the pot and showed how each player fared after 10,000,000 hands.
I reproduce that chart to the right for your inspection.
Please note that the two top money winners only scooped the pot 6.9% of the time.
The largest money loser exceeded that by 10%.
I should also point out the loose player, played more than twice as many hands as did the two top winning tight players.
One should try to “take every chip from a big pot” or every pot regardless of size by playing the best hands.
One should definitely bet more aggressively when holding the nut high that has little chance of being converted to the second-best hand or worse regardless of any low potential.
There is one simple yet very important fact in Omaha H/L and that is: there will always be a high winner!
Jennifer states “The best Omaha- 8 hands have four cards that work together.
Something like [Ad]-[Ks]-[8c]-[4s] is a terrific hand.”
I recently wrote several articles regarding 4 cards working together.
I would appreciate any reader emailing me an explanation of, accompanied by an example of, 4 cards working together.
Let’s look at the example that Jennifer states are a terrific hand and offer straight and flush possibilities in addition to being able to make a winning low.
No question this is a good hand.
At a tight table, this hand returns a net of $23.03 while at an average table it is $25.71.
It will win the low on average 51% of the time and will scoop on average 17%.
There are however 121 hands with better returns than this hand which is less than 50% of the net of the best hand AA23 double suited.
Let’s take a look at what high hands win with this particular hand.
The numbers seem fairly consistent across both types of tables with the exception of 2 Pair.
You will lose more with [Ad]-[Ks]-[8c]-[4s] when holding 2 pairs at an average table than a tight table.
Interestingly you will win more with 2 pairs than either a straight or flush.
In fact, 2 pair has the highest win percentage as well as the highest losing percent as a percentage of hands dealt.
You will win the high only with these hands 5.8% to 6.3% of the time.
You will win the low only, almost twice as frequently.
Jennifer then goes on to mention “You also want to play hands like …” those listed below.
She goes on to say that you should play these less aggressively because they “don’t have as many opportunities to make great highs” Let’s look at these hands and their potential.
Certainly, these hands are playable and profitable.
Should you play them aggressively before the flop?
Well, that depends on a number of factors.
Are you playing in a tournament or a ring game?
Are your opponents easily intimidated?
Will they call with marginal hands and chase?
If you’re in a tournament you need to take into consideration what stage of the tournament you are in as well as your chip position.
Personally, I tend to be more aggressive after the flop in an attempt to make my opponents pay to draw out on me.
I will be extremely aggressive with the nut high where there is little chance of splitting the high.
Before the flop, I will be aggressive with the top 75 money winning hands by the net and very aggressive with the top 25 money winning hands.
Those hands will have nets over $30.00 per hand.
Here is a tip: They all contain a pair of Aces! Remember, the best hands in Omaha H/L all have excellent low potential.
Because of counterfeiting, the best and most profitable low hand, AA23 double suited which has a net of $44.06 may be devastated by a flop of A, 2, 3, or J, Q, K rainbow.
So what have we learned?
High hands are good. Low hands are good.
Hand that can win both the high and low are good.
The best hands are still the hands that win the most money on average.
Next time I will further address some of the points in this article.
