Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Question about Omama high starting hands

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Question about Omama high starting hands

I posted this in the beginner's forum, but didn't get any responses, so this is now my first post in the Omaha forum.

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I played Omaha for the first time last night. I am almost exclusively a NLHE tournament player. I have played a little LHE.

I didn't know much about Ohmaha except that you use three cards from the board and two from your hand. I found a site online with a few basic strategy tips, and scanned that a few times while I was playing, until I got the feel of it.

It was a PokerStars freeroll tournament, and I placed 65 of 2,794.

I couldn't get a sense of what percentage of starting hands I should be playing. I saw the flop 50% of the time, but even so, I was playing fewer hands than almost anyone (9 players per table). It was not a turbo.

I was often the only one to fold after seeing the flop, and at least three times I was the only one at my table that didn't see the flop.

Were these players just nuts? Was I too loose? Are both true?

Even after the first hour, I sat at tables where 7-8 players were seeing every flop.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

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Since I first posted the above, I thought of a related question.

During the second and third hours of the tournament, I started playing fewer one-dimensional hands (such as a pair of jacks with two unconnected and unsuited low cards), and more hands that had more than one possibility, let's call them two dimensional hands.

Examples: Hands such as 2358 that have more than one way to make a straight, two-suited hands, or hands with both straight and flush draws such as Ad Kd 7c 6h.

It just seemed logical to me that with all the draw chasing that goes on in Omaha, it's best to have a hand that give you more than one option.

Am I looking at this correctly?

Thanks for your help.

Re: Question about Omama high starting hands

You are on the right path. The critical item in omaha is NUT outs. low flush draws and non nut straights tend to earn less chips in loose tourneys because with 6+ ppl to a pot the likelihood of the nuts increases. Robert Ciaffone has on his website a short introduction to omaha hi starting hands.

Re: Question about Omama high starting hands

[ QUOTE ]
I was often the only one to fold after seeing the flop, and at least three times I was the only one at my table that didn't see the flop.

Were these players just nuts? Was I too loose? Are both true?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was a FREEROLL. I'll bet most players didn't even know how to play and many probably never looked at their hands.

Re: Question about Omama high starting hands

[ QUOTE ]
Since I first posted the above, I thought of a related question.

During the second and third hours of the tournament, I started playing fewer one-dimensional hands (such as a pair of jacks with two unconnected and unsuited low cards), and more hands that had more than one possibility, let's call them two dimensional hands.

Examples: Hands such as 2358 that have more than one way to make a straight, two-suited hands, or hands with both straight and flush draws such as Ad Kd 7c 6h.

It just seemed logical to me that with all the draw chasing that goes on in Omaha, it's best to have a hand that give you more than one option.

Am I looking at this correctly?

Thanks for your help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. You are.

Re: Question about Omama high starting hands

Hands like 2358, and Ad Kd 7c 6h, are kinda weak borderline hands imo.. 2358 is maybe worth a limp in LP in an unraised multiway-pot.. you could flop good, but even if you do you will have a hand vulnerable to redraws.. and AdKd6c7h, you basically have 2 2-card combinations only (you want 3-6.. 89TJ double suited f.eks is a killer, with 6 relevant 2-card comcos), AKs and 67 even if you hit a flop of 345 rainbow and get lots of action, you can easily get stacked by a hand like 6789.. you would be in there looking to flop x45 with 2-hearts or that unlikely broadway, with no 3-flush, and that's not gonna happen very often.. point is, it's very hard to flop good and get good action when you are not in a bad/borderline spot.. and never do the mistake of entering pots with like AKs6s7 (that hand spells trouble, and I consider it junk or even worse), unless you have a damn strong post flop play.. even then I wouldn't do it...