Is there a place to discuss Limit 4-8 Omaha Hi live? I recently busted out at my old regular card room and noticed the board had nearly a full table for this game so I signed up and sat in. My only experience is with 2-100 spread limit Omaha Hi that seemed to be much looser than online PLO.

Early in the session I saw hands bet to the river where two pair (not even top two pair) often won the hand, so I waited for top two (depending on board texture), sets and better and called to river unless I had close to the nuts. Pretty straight forward, I ran well and my stack multiplied several times.

Then a maniac sat to my right. Another player who didn't like being pushed around started reraising and other players, instead of calling with strong hands preflop CAPPED the betting.

How should I have dealt with this? My instinct was to leave as the variance of putting $20 in preflop was so high. But the potential payoff was so strong.

I ended up staying in hands far to long and lost 1/3 of my stack before cashing out with a nice profit.

How do you adjust to such high variance play? I have the same difficulty in 2-100 HE when the average pf raise is 6x bb. I prefer to get in cheap preflop with strong hands (except AA, KK) and see flops.

I guess here, this forum, but I don't think you'll find many players with much experience to discuss it.

My guess is 2-100 spread limit Omaha Hi would play much like no-limit Omaha Hi (however that plays)... but I imagine that depends on the individuals seated at the table.

Sounds right.

Congratulations.

I think mainly you can't be intimidated. If you're going to play with gamblers, then you have to gamble too.

Sounds right.

Meh.

I think the main thing is to not be playing for so much that you're intimidated.

I do too, playing Omaha-8, but you don't always get what you prefer. I think you just have to accept that there will be higher variance and play poker.

Buzz

Hey inmyrav,

I'd love to discuss limit Omaha high with you anytime. I have been playing in higher limit LOH games for the past few years and really enjoy them.

In situations where it's going to be capped preflop, I only enter with premium starting hands that are drawing to the nuts. My rationale is two fold: first, you're going to be paying a high price initially, so your implied odds are dimininished relative to your preflop investment. Second, the extra money in the pot is going to provide huge pot odds where lots of players will be getting a good price to draw, so you want hands that can draw (preferably multiway hands) to the nuts when you make it.

Entering with less than premium hands in this type of game is a disaster because the reverse implied odds will be very costly in the long run. A lot of loose players play too many hands and pay too much to see flops and then get in trouble drawing to non-nut draws. This is where a lot of your overlay in these types of games will come from.

The variance can be quite high in this type of game though, so if you find yourself unable to think rationally while downswinging, it probably best to find a game with a different texture. I've seen plenty of LOH games where pots are limped multiway 80-90% of the time, when there are raises, they rarely go over two bets.