My home game structure is a .25/.25 cash NLHE cash game. Almost all of the players have only played Holdem exclusively.
I would like to introduce Omaha, but want to at least start off in an easier to digest format than Pot limit. I don't want people losing their stacks the first orbit then swearing off the game. So I am thinking a Limit format.
What would be a good compliment in a round by round with the .25/.25 NLHE?
You can do Fixed Limit Omaha. Betting limits are predetermined. Not 100% on the bet limits if the SB/BB are the same, but you could do .25/.25 blinds and .50 total to see a flop. Then betting limits would be .75, 1.00, 1.25 for each round of betting. Again, i cant really remember how fixed limit works but I think thats pretty close to the structure.
I think you are wise to take baby steps. Omaha is a high variance game. When you add on the mistakes hold'em only players commonly make when learning Omaha, it is easy to see how things can go really wrong for the new players.
I host an occasional $0.25 / $0.50 Omaha night with $0.50 to $4.00 spread limit betting. The goal is to introduce players to the game and get their feet wet in a safer environment.
There is a lot of "reading the board" and unsolicited help happening while the hand is in progress. Much of this is targeted to people that might forget you have to play two cards from your hand - so a four card flush or straight on the board is not a made hand playing only one card from the hand; same thing with a double paired board not being a full house.
The host has to be laser focused on protecting the new players from themselves enough that they have a good time. The game can not turn into a killing ground where the veteran players carve up the new guys/gals.
Start small. make it fun and don't get too caught up with "one player to a hand" -=- DrStrange
We started introducing PLO as part of our game rotation the last two years or so. At first it was a bloodbath for most of us and a lot of money was lost and won by folks who mostly did not know what they were doing. Slowly folks began to figure it out, some faster than others. Now it is a fixture and most players handle the swings OK. I think our low stakes .25-.50 helps keep it from getting out of hand.
We may have been just lucky that jumping into it at the same stakes as our NLH rotation used did not drive away some folks. So I totally agree that some kind of limit stakes is the way to start out for certain. Later on , as your group gets more "PLO Sohisticated" , maybe you can go to Pot Limit with less pain. Good Luck to you.
You could do pot limit preflop, spread limit after, or the lesser of pot limit or some amount. For a .25/.25 game I would do the lesser of pot limit (to introduce the idea of pot limit) or $10.
The blinds for PLO should probably be half of what they are in a NL round to make it the equivalent stakes. If you have dime chips I would do .10/.25 or even .10/.10.
^ agree with this. lower the stakes to .5 / .10 while everyone is learning and play pot limit. PLO is so addictive that it will go back up to your regular stakes naturally once everyone is hooked!
