A Preflop Strategy

[Pyschoplasmatics]

About me for a sec: I'm a fairly successful HE player who used to play 2000nl, but ran into a swing that drained my confidence so I cashed everything out(on stars). After a slightly painful process, I was able to put some money back in. So now I'm currently in the rebuilding stage of my bankroll. In this stage, I've realized the oh so wonderful game of omaha. I have been pretty successful so far, so I thought I'd share my approach to the game and see what I might be doing wrong. Feedback is much appreciated.

OKAY. Within the time that I have been playing, I noticed that I play VERY tightly. I see about 15% of the flops. The range of hands I play go as follows:

4 connecting cards double suited in ep, can be rainbow in lp
Double suited cards with king or ace high
A2/A3 only when I have something else to back it up
Usually pot with AA if I have decent draws behind, otherwise limp or fold to another raise(something pretty sketchy like AA79 rainbow)
3 cards of the wheel with an ace high flush draw

Sometimes I play tighter than this in the early stages of the tournament. I figure that most of the time, the flop won't go your way, so why risk it when the reward will likely only be ~200 chips? As the tournament progresses I do loosen up. I usually become a pretty big lag 4 handed or less(player dependent).

I guess that's it for now. Am I approaching this game the right way?

[Fiasco]

dont think so. Focus a little more on potential nut low holdings and a little less on on potential nut high holdings. Suitedness is not as valuable as you might think if its not suited to the ace.

Middle cards, especially middle connecting cards arent very good as you will rarely win the high without a low being possible. Broadway cards are much better as they will allow you to scoop pots when the board comes high.

AA should usualy be played pretty strongly, the better your low side cards and the smaller the stacks in comparison to the blinds, the stronger you should play it.

[Cooker]

In my opinion, your starting hand strategy is only important in that it keeps you out of situations that are going to be hard for you later in the hand. For instance, if you play 6789 ds (which is a pretty much worthless starting hand in O8) you better be able to play near perfectly post flop with and be against very bad opponents that will give too much action with weird holdings. If both of these conditions are not met, you are giving money away by playing the hand.

If you flop a straight with this hand and all the money goes in, you are going to be way behind most of the time. Even if the flop comes a real nice 567 rainbow you are going to be a mild equity dog against an A2 with any running hand to be your straight. However, if he is going to get the money all in he will usually have the nut low + flush draw (or even worse the same straight with any low) which will have you putting it all in as nearly a 2 to 1 dog.

Also, you will often make non nut straights that will be hard to get off of without losing money when you are beaten.

I try to play hands that can scoop. Ones that are capable of making strong 2 way hands or if they make a strong high only hand a low won't be very likely. KQJT doesn't contain the defects I discussed with 6789 since it will be more likely to flop a nut straight and when it flops a straight it is less likely that low hands will be made.

[rando]

OP what do you do in MP with KQ32 suited to the K in the middle stages of a tourney with one limp to you and two loose players in the blinds? What about KK32 everything else the same?

Scooping for sure must be the central focus. I've winnowed out maybe half of the one way hands I used to play regularly. Does anyone have an Rx for the other half??

[Pyschoplasmatics]

I would fold it. The counterfeitable 3rd nut low isn't really all that great, and being suited to one KING high flush doesn't hold much worth either. Unless you flop top two or get a JTx flop, you usually aren't going anywhere in the hand.

Also, thanks for the input guys. I'm still learning and trying to win the battle of mistakes. I might start playing omaha regularly, because I feel that good players have a HUGE edge over weaker ones, much moreso than HE.