The Future Of Omaha 8's Popularity?

[steamboatin]

As much as I hate to say it, I believe O/8 is currently losing ground. I have only been playing poker 5 years but when I am standing around talking to the guys that have played there since day one, they all talk about how $10/20 O/8 with a half kill used to be the big game when the boat first opened.

Now they rarely spread an O/8 game of any kind. When Argosy recently reopened a poker room, they spread O/8 almost every day. It is my understanding that it rarely goes now. I am told there will be a full list but no tables available to start the game.

[Mendacious]

The reason 08 is popular with the older set is simple. There are often two "winners" per hand, which means there are more opportunities to rake part of a pot towards you, which makes wasting away the time more fun. Not to mention because the low often gives you an unbreakable hand, there is a level of comfort and security that you can get regularly in Omaha with a low hand that you can't get in most other games, where you never know where you stand and cards can always come and screw you on the end.

[T50_Omaha8]

[ QUOTE ]
One thing T50_Omaha8 - the Taj weekly O8 tourney is now Pot Limit, and the Trump Classic $300+40 was also pot limit. The dealers do a surprisingly decent job with it too, so I think that might start to take off a little. There were 144 for the $340 at the Trump Classic, and there are typically 25-30 at the weekly ($80+20) tourney.

The cash games are still limit though - does anyone know where they spread PLO8 live for cash games?

[/ QUOTE ]Tunica maybe?

But the PL format doesn't make too much sense to be spread live on a large scale since it takes a huge volume of hands to have a decent session. In tourneys, though, with forced action PL is great, better than limit IMO (and I play limit). If O8 has room to grow, it will probably be in PLO8 tourneys.

[cts]

This is why the world series of poker is decided over a no limit poker tournament. Players... pros even... can't handle the pressure of the game. They consider no limit cap omaha eight or better the only pure game left.

[Johnny#5]

IMO full ring LO8 is a miserable game to play. I don't really care that much for full ring anything but full LO8, especially live, is so damn boring. LO8 is a game that's, IMO, more fun to play HU than any other game. Shorthanded up to about 5 players it is still pretty fun. You start getting more players and the game starts to get boring. Since most live games are full ring those that are forced to play LO8, say, as part of a mixed format quickly grow to despise the game if they are action junkies at all. Unfortunately they will probably never play the game HU or SH and won't appreciate how fun it can be.

I think there is a lot to be said for the "money moves around slowly, if at all, in this game" line of reasoning. LO8 will never have the mass appeal that some other types of poker have enjoyed. Plus, if you're going to play well (which I don't claim to do) you have to be able to perform much more complex odds calculations tham in hold'em (one of the most dummied-down forms of poker there is) which doesn't appeal to the numbskulls who can barely multiply 8X7 but can get away with memorizing a few common situations and counting outs and be well off enough to play LHE. These people short circuit when you ask them about an O8 hand because it's too complicated for their little pea brains. In short O8 isn't a lowest common denominator game like hold'em ... it will always be sort of a niche game.

I can only speak for minbet O8, I find PL/NL games in general to be more boring than (SH) limit games, with the exception of PLO High.

[Purple Eyes]

I think PLO8 online is a lot of fun and far preferable to NLHE on a cash game basis. PLO8 doesn't lend itself as well to live play because the complexity of pot size and split is going to slow the game down; obviously, the computer handles it flawlessly. NLHE is a better tourney game, but PLO8 and PLO are great tourney games as well.

It takes some ability and smarts to analyze PLO8 hand values, more so than NLHE. It's not splitting the atom, but there are enough variables to give you an edge if you are good. There is less pre-flop psychology and intimidation than NLHE. PLO8 presents more situations where it's correct to jam flop or turn on a draw, even though your opponent is leading. So you will have more big pot wins and losses than in NLHE, but you'll also have a better feel before the jam in terms of where you stand. A good player frequently goes to the river hoping the board won't pair, because so many people drive sets too hard. Lose a few of these and it stings. The art of pot control is at least as pronounced in PLO8 as in NLHE. By the turn, PLO8 reads are probably clearer than in NLHE.

The nature of the 10/20 PLO8 game is markedly different than the 1/2 game. You are probably a little better off taking an underfunded bankroll shot at the high PLO8 game than an underfunded shot at NLHE, but you're more likely to bust out or double up at PLO8, if you take the shot.

As I see it.