High hands shorthanded/heads up

[Jimbotbs]

Hi,
I am trying to learn Omaha Hi-Low and I am reading Zee's book at the moment. On page 210/211 he says that high hands play well shorthanded, which confused me a bit.
In his example he flops a sets of kings and his opponent has the nut low draw with no chance for high. Of course, this is a good situation because he wins definitely the high side and scoops if no low can be made or his opponent gets counterfeited.

But if the flop comes mainly with low or middle cards, you have to fold your high hand most of the time. In my opinion it is better to have a hand that has two-way-potential (for example 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]) because shorthanded/heads up most of the time you wont need the nuts to win.

Where is my mistake?

[Buzz]

Hi Jim - In the middle of a paragraph Ray Zee asserts that if the action is not multi-way, don't worry if you have a high hand because high hands play well short-handed. Then he goes on to explain his reasoning. I don't see anything wrong with either his assertion or his reasoning.

I don't see anything wrong with your preferring hands with both high and low potential either, except that I don't much like the example hand you have chosen,
2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].

When there are three low cards of different ranks on the five card board on the river, the most common distribution on the river, and when you have 23QK, you'll be counterfeited for low more often than not, about 56.4% of the time. Most of that will happen on the flop - and then how much do you like your example hand?

Would I play the hand short-handed? Well, sure, but (rightly or wrongly) I'll play all sorts of stuff short-handed. But I like
A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] or A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] better as examples of good two-way hands.

In truth, most of the starting hands I voluntarily play in a full game contain an ace or two. But short handed there are entirely different considerations.

I think you'll do better if you stick to full games while you're learning. And keep studying Ray Zee's book. Good stuff there.

Buzz

[Olrik]

can we add a LO8 sh starting hands article to the 2+2 o8 series wishlist?

[Jimbotbs]

Thanks Buzz.