High Only Hands Preflop: SHORTHANDED

[Reckless_Abandon]

What's the consensus on playing these? I'm talking about hands with 4 high cards. Games are generally taggy, with most pots being open raise. Most hands contested 2-3 handed.

Does it change anything if there is one or two limpers in front of us? Does it change anything if one of the cards is an ace?

[MaLiik]

AA-hi ds is a good hand to play in Omaha/8, some players only play for the low hand and hope to win the high with 2-par, trips, low str8, etc.

But the pot hasto be decent and you need to lay the hand down if you miss...

[flavius]

Ill play any 4 card combination higher than Ten every time, especially if they are DS. I think 9TJQ is playable as well.

[chaos]

With this type of hand you are looking for a flop that contains one low card or none. Flops with at most one low card will occur about 1/4 of the time.

If you do not flop two or three high cards it should be an easy hand to get away from.

An Ace adds value, mainly by giving you the ability to make an Ace high straight without putting another low card on board. You want to be playing for the whole pot. A flop of 6TK is much better than a flop of 6TA even is both flops give you the same number of outs to make the nut straight. With the former flop you are more likely to scoop.

Having a suited Ace adds more value. Other suited cards add some value but you have to be able to get away from a second best flush.

I would play these hands.

- chaos

[Reckless_Abandon]

So since it's so hard to scoop with these hands, are we looking to play it multiway behind a limp or two only? Are we open raising this in position and looking cbet okish flops? It seems to me like there are so many bad low flops that I just give up on when I open.

Mainly I'd like a way to keep my opponents from playing back at me anytime they catch a piece of an all high flop, but I'm not sure that's enough to open these types of hands.

[predator06]

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So since it's so hard to scoop with these hands

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I totally disagree. With 40 point hands, you typically either lose a small pot by folding postflop, or scoop a big pot, by getting your money in as a huge favorite with a wrap.

[Reckless_Abandon]

Talking about limit. Does that change anything?

[chaos]

I normally just limp with high-only type hands. If the game is normally tight and aggressive you may only be able to play these hands in position when you see it will be a multiway pot. If the game is more passive you can limp from up front knowing you are likely to get three or more opponents.

If you are playing with observant opponents you will need to occasionally raise with high-only hands to keep your opponents off balance when you raise. If you only raise with AA or A2 type hands, observant opponents will make moves to take the pot away from you if you raised preflop when a high flop comes, whether they have hit or not.

- chaos

[jschell]

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I normally just limp with high-only type hands. If the game is normally tight and aggressive you may only be able to play these hands in position when you see it will be a multiway pot. If the game is more passive you can limp from up front knowing you are likely to get three or more opponents.

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Admitedly, I'm kind of a L08 n00b, but this seems completely wrong to me. Why do you want a multiway pot with a high-only hand? Shouldn't you be raising to try to eliminate other high-only and mediocre high/low hands? Plus, when you limp you'll have little idea of where you're at on the flop, even if it only has zero or one low card.

[MaLiik]

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I normally just limp with high-only type hands. If the game is normally tight and aggressive you may only be able to play these hands in position when you see it will be a multiway pot. If the game is more passive you can limp from up front knowing you are likely to get three or more opponents.

[/ QUOTE ]

Admitedly, I'm kind of a L08 n00b, but this seems completely wrong to me. Why do you want a multiway pot with a high-only hand? Shouldn't you be raising to try to eliminate other high-only and mediocre high/low hands? Plus, when you limp you'll have little idea of where you're at on the flop, even if it only has zero or one low card.

[/ QUOTE ]You seldom have a Hi hand against you when you play since moste players are trying to scoop with a A-low suited hand. You'r high cards could be the only cards over ten in play!

The best thing about the hand is that you can fold it without hesitation if you miss the flop, a A-low hand will often have draw, which could be dead.