Are there ever situations where you would bet a low hand aggressively?

[KSOT]

Or should I always just be calling?

It there a basic formula to it, like you'd want x people still in the pot in order to make betting/raising a low hand profitable? Would you be more likely to bet a nut low hand holding 34 than if you were holding A2?

I ask because it seems like I end up costing myself every time I bet low hands on the river.

[Bruce_Wayne]

Alot of this kind of decision making is read-dependant. However an easy formula to use is if there are 3 players in the pot you break even if you get quartered, 4 or more and you make money even when you're quartered.

Of course you have to decide if a raise will knock out anyone behind you (which you don't want), or if it will simply increase your half or quarter share of the pot. Like I said, read-dependant.

[Buzz]

[ QUOTE ]
Are there ever situations where you would bet a low hand aggressively?

[/ QUOTE ]KSOT – Absolutely.

Mainly, in my humble opinion, you don’t bet the nut low as much for value as to promote a mediocre or even feeble high. You thus change a hand that might have otherwise won half into a scooper. Similarly, you change a hand that might have otherwise won a quarter into a three-quarters-of-the-pot hand. You obviously have to be playing against opponents who will fold certain non-nut hands. The idea is an opponent might have a mediocre high hand that is better than your own mediocre high hand, and you bet in such a way as to seem to have a high hand, or at least not telegraph your nut low holding.

[ QUOTE ]
It there a basic formula to it, like you'd want x people still in the pot in order to make betting/raising a low hand profitable?

[/ QUOTE ]Not that I know of.

You'll hear that you need at least three opponents to bet the low, but that's nonsense. There are a lot of nonsense myths about Omaha-8, and that's one of them.

But you do need to have some poker sense.

Some individuals have an ear for music while others are tone deaf. Some of those with a musical ear are more talented than others. And so it is with poker, even Omaha-8.

[ QUOTE ]
Would you be more likely to bet a nut low hand holding 34 than if you were holding A2?

[/ QUOTE ]Sure, since everybody is going to see the flop with A2XY, but not everyone is going to see the flop with 34XY. However, I’d be very likely to bet either of them.

[ QUOTE ]
I ask because it seems like I end up costing myself every time I bet low hands on the river.

[/ QUOTE ]Then you haven’t played enough hands. (Saying you always seem to lose money when you bet the low is equivalent to saying every time you flip a fair coin, it seems to come up heads). You figure to get quartered or sixthed for low in a full, loose game roughly two times out of five. And about one time in a thousand, you figure to get eighthed. But roughly three times out of every five, you should have sole possession of the nut low – and that’s in a full loose game. Short handed, or in a very tight game, you’ll get quartered or sixthed even less than forty per cent. It’s very improbable, assuming you have enough trials, you will get quartered or sixthed for low almost every time you bet the nut low.

Buzz

[Fiasco]

There are many times.

If im heads up on the river, and I have a half decent hi to go with my nut low, i may raise and reraise, hoping that the other guy is on the nut low and i will quarter him.

Theres always the rule about 4 players in the pot keep you safe from getting quartered, but this isnt that strong a guidline, especially when you have A2, because you may often get sixthed.

Be more likely to raise the nut low if there are loose players still in who may call with worse lows (try to avoid making them face two bets though).

Another time you might raise the nut lo is if you are heads up or maybe threehanded on the end, and a scare card comes up, this may let you take the whole pot and risks very little.

And yes, id be much more likely to raise a nut low that was anything other than A2, the farther from A2 the better (I suppose that this really just applies to 34 as 25 35 and 45 will give you the wheel with a nut low).

one last thought: be more willing to bet or raise the nut low if you have two of one of the cards in your hand (like if you hold A22x)