[RustyBrooks]

Nah, I play 1/2.

Find and read Ray Zee's book. Its good. Don't go overboard, though, his book assumes that your opponents have reasonable starting hand requirements, they definitely don't. PS is a good place to play because you get to see your opponent's cards in order, a big help in reading hands.

A23s is a fine hand but not the best, I don't think. I'd probably rather have 345s because it has more ways to make a high hand (it develops straight draws more often). Rolled up starters are good also, Ray Zees top hand group is 3 card low straight flush cards and rolled up hands. The *best* high hand is often quite good. The second best high hand with no chance for low is garbage.

My tight requirements are therefore things like:
* trips
* almost all 3 card 6s, many 3 card 7s, few 3 card 8s. For the 7s and 8s it's more likely I'll play if I can limp late without fear of a raise, and I prefer it if I have some reasonable straight or flush potential - I play any 3 card 8 that is also a 3 straight or 3 flush, and often will play a 2 straight or 2 flush, or 2str/2flush.
* aces with wheel kickers - these can develop into low hands and are almost always best on 3rd.
* high pairs - if they are likely to be the highest pair, an A has not already entered the pot, if I can raise and limit the field, and if I understand my opponents' tendencies - I dump KK all the time if conditions are not favorable. I raise TT if I think it's the best high hand and I can get the hand down to, say, a low draw and a worse high. Big pairs are sometimes better disguised, with a low door card, and sometimes better obvious, with a high door card.
* I play some small pairs, with small kickers, if there's a 2 flush or 2 straight, like 445 or 226 with a 2 flush, something like that. These are probably pretty marginal hands.

Playing more speculative hands, to me, means playing more rough 7s, a few more 8s, and more hands that are small pairs with a 8 or under kicker. I'm looking to make trips on 4th, or maybe a low 2 pair, or maybe pick up a low card, something like that. I might also limp some big pairs that I think might not be the best high hand. On pokerstars you can limp in for .25sb, so you're often getting like 10:1 or 12:1 on that call, and if you make big trips on 4th you can probably rake in some more dough, especially if you can sandwich losing highs and lows between you and the winning low, catching them for multiple bets.


The *biggest* consideration in hi/low is getting out of a hand early when you are not a favorite to win "your" side of the pot, and you are not drawing to the other side, either. This is not such a big deal if your opponents don't ram and jam the big streets, but if they do, drop it. Never forget that you are often playing for 1/2 the pot, so you are NOT getting the pot odds you might think you are. Be careful against people who might be freerolling you (they have one side locked up with a draw to beat the other side). Anyway, read Zee's book for way more info on that kind of thing. His book covers O8 also.