| Once you play enough Texas
Hold’em you start to look for other action. Many players will try out other games
like 7-Card Stud or Omaha. One favorite that many try is Omaha Hi/Low Split, or also known
as Omaha 8 or Better. This is a split pot game where the winning high hand and the winning
low hand each get half of the pot. There has to be three cards eight or smaller for a low
hand to be possible, otherwise the high hand wins the entire pot. Because of this basic rule of the game, it’s important to play
hands that give you an opportunity to win both halves of the pot. That will increase your
chances of winning half, and more importantly the opportunity to win both halves, called
scooping the pot. That means you want to play hands like A-K-2-Q, or A-2-3-Q. They are
much better than 10-10-5-5 or Q-Q-Q-10. Suited aces, especially with a 2 or 3, are good
hands because they can win the low hand and the big hand with the nut flush.
Stay away from hands with three suited cards or
three-of-a-kind. You can only use two cards from your hand to form a hand with, and you
have to get the other three from the board cards. Playing hands with three-of-a-kind or
three suited cards just lowers the chances of making a big hand. Three or four cards to a
straight are good hands because it gives you more opportunity to make a straight.
This game is not a bluffing game, so playing poor starting
hands in the hopes of bluffing off opponents later in the hand is not the way to go. With
so many cards in play, someone always has something. Bluffing opportunities are few and
far between; and only occur after all the board cards are out and there is no possible low
hand. |
