Omaha 8: play on the flop
Apr 28, 2008By: Aaron Hendrix In my previous article, I laid out for you how to handle pre-flop play in Omaha 8 games. In this part, I am going to expand on that and go over play on the flop. The flop is the most important part of any Omaha 8 pot. It is when you have the most information and the betting limits are the cheapest (in a limit cash game). There are two key concepts with flop play... the flop texture (how the flop matches up with your hand)... and the odds that your hand will improve to win at least half the pot. In the first part, I listed four types of hands that you should be playing. In this part, I will be going over how to play and bet hands that have flopped low only hands, high only hands, multi-way hands, draws, and runner-runner draws.
Low only hands
These are hands where you have flopped a complete low hand (for example you have A-3 and the flop comes 2-5-6 giving you an A-2-3-5-6 low). Ideally in a multi-way pot you want to have the nut low as most people in Omaha 8 games are playing any combination of low cards and the 2nd nut low is often exactly that... second... which as most of you know is no good in poker. Heads up or three handed, it can be ok to play 2nd or 3rd best low hands as long as the action isn't fast and furious, but it usually helps to have some backup in the form of a possible high hand or draw to a high hand.
One of the problems with these hands is that you will often be sharing the low with someone else. There is nothing worse than having the nut low and the pot being jammed on every street only to find out that you are only getting 1/4th of the pot. If you are in a 3 handed pot that had 4 bets in it pre-flop, 4 bets on the flop, turn, and river you are going to end up losing money, not winning it, if you are sharing the low. Thus, it is important to play these hands cautiously unless there are five or more people in the hand. With five or more people in the hand, getting quartered is still profitable. That being said, however, the correct play on the flop is to get as many bets as possible in with the nut low. It is on the turn and river that you might have to slow down and I will discuss that in more depth in the next part of this series.
High only hands
These are hands where you have no low and are trying to solely win the high hand. A good example would be having a hand like K-Q-J-10 on an A-J-10 flop. Unlike a low only hand, with this hand you want to get as much money as possible in the pot on every street. Understand, however, that Omaha is a drawing game and people are going to chase their draws and more times than not someone will improve. This is where knowing what the texture of the board is and the likelihood that someone will improve is important. If you have the nut straight on a two flush board and the third flush card comes, your hand is probably not good any more. This is an important difference that Hold'em players have a hard time adjusting to. The same thing applies if the board pairs. It can be ok to call a single bet on the river in these instances given the size of the pot, but don't get into a raising war with anything but the nuts or something close to it.
Slow playing in any version of Omaha 8 is a mistake most of the time. Even if you flop a hand like quads, you are going to want to come out firing as people will tend to chase any draw they have or call bets with a 2nd or 3rd best hand. In fact, by playing it fast you will often get extra bets in as someone will believe their hand is best. For example, if you have A-3-K-K and the flop comes K-4-4, you are going to get any person with a 4 and even people with low draws to join in on the action. Bet and raise with all of these hands as if your life depended on it.
One last point on high only hands. While there will be times one pair will be good, more often than not you are going to need a minimum of two pair or a straight in order to win. Don't get married to your A-A-x-x hand if you don't have anything else to go with it.
Multi-way (high and low) hands
These are the monsters... the hands you dream of in Omaha 8. Having a hand like A-A-5-6 on a 2-3-4 flop is like flopping quads in hold 'em. You have no fear. You aren't worried about getting quartered. You aren't worried about someone drawing out on you because no matter what happens, you know you are going to be getting at least ½ the pot. The correct course of action with these hands is to bet until you can't bet anymore.
I know I said earlier that slow playing in Omaha 8 is a mistake... and it is... but with hands like these you might want to just call a bet in early position rather than raising. Your reason for doing this is because people are likely to fold drawing hands for two bets on the flop but they will call one bet. If you have A-3-7-7 on a 2-6-7 board, you don't want people with two pair or A-4 folding. By just calling a bet in early position, you will keep them in the pot. If you are in late position you definitely want to be raising. If people have called one bet, the odds are they are going to call a 2nd bet and you might even get the good fortune of a re-raise.
Draws
The above hands are fairly straight forward to play on the flop as your hand has been defined already. You merely have to get money in the pot and hope to punish the draws. What if you are the one with the draw though? When do you call bets? When do you raise? When do you fold? These hands will make up the majority of your hands in Omaha 8 and understanding what to do on the flop with a drawing hand will be the difference between being a winning and losing player.
What kind of hands am I talking about here? Let's say you have A-2-9-10 and the flop is 3-8-J. This is a fairly powerful draw as you have the nut low draw and the nut straight draw. At the moment you have nothing but the odds are that you will have at least one half of the pot by the end of the hand. With this kind of draw (to the high and low), you should treat it as if you have a multi-way made hand and put as much money in the pot as you can. It is with the high or low only draws that you need to be more careful. Say you have A-2-4-5 and the flop is 3-8-9. The only potential you have here is to have the nut low. Many people will bet or raise in these instances and end up costing themselves numerous extra bets as a result. Do you really want to call 3 bets on the flop only to see another high card come on the turn, and face the possibility of calling multiple bets on that street, and have to fold on the river when no low comes? With these kinds of draws you want to keep the pots as small as possible on the flop so revert to check/calling.
One of the big problems players face in Omaha 8 is the play of runner-runner low draws. They will call bets on the flop with A-2-3-4 on a 5-Q-K flop because if a low card comes on the turn they will have a draw to the nut low. There are times this is a valid play. If there are 15 bets in the pot and it is only one bet for you to see the turn and there are four people in the pot, drawing to the runner-runner low is mathematically correct. If there are only six bets in the pot, however, it is not. The rule of thumb you should follow on determining whether you should call with nothing but a runner-runner draw is that you should be getting a minimum of 8:1 on your money.
Missed hands
If you have a hand like A-2-3-10 and the flop comes Q-9-9, your action is simple. Fold. You have no outs to the win and bluffing seldom works in Omaha 8, especially on the flop (I will talk about bluffing the river in the next part).
Raise it up
As you can tell from each of the four types of flops you will potentially get, in almost every instance the correct course of action is to bet and raise as much as possible. By limiting your hands pre-flop and playing the ones you flop strong aggressive and correct, you will be setting yourself up for the turn and river and maximizing your profit. In my next article, I'll show you exactly how to do that.
