My first ring game

[HoldingFolding]

Prologue
After a fun home game or two I decided to try my hand at O8. My background is in high buy-in SnGs, so a couple of my questions may be relevant to any low level ring games. I’ve played 12 sessions of single table $1/$0.5 6-max O8 & I guess because I’m used to playing SnGs my target is usually to double my ($25) buy-in – this usually takes between 40 & 50 minutes - ideal for a game at lunchtime.

Observations
Hardly anyone folds preflop
Hardly anyone folds postflop
Don’t get clever: bet for value, bet the nuts, never bluff

Still getting to grips with
When to release high pairs
What to do with draws on the turn
Finding resources on the net

A Few Hands
They aren’t exactly random, but close to it – be gentle

Party Poker
Limit Omaha Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
5 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
UTG folds, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises</font>, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (4SB, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, <font color="#cc0000">Button bets</font>, SB calls, BB calls, Hero calls.

Turn: 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (4BB, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, <font color="#cc0000">Button bets</font>, SB calls, BB folds, Hero calls.

River: T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (7BB, 3 players)
SB checks, <font color="#cc0000">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Button raises</font>, SB folds, <font color="#cc0000">Hero 3-bets</font>, Button calls.

Results:
Final pot: 13BB

Party Poker
Limit Omaha Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
4 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
2 folds, SB calls, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises</font>, SB calls.

Flop: A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (4SB, 2 players)
SB checks, <font color="#cc0000">Hero bets</font>, SB calls.

Turn: 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (3BB, 2 players)
SB checks, <font color="#cc0000">Hero bets</font>, SB calls.

River: 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (5BB, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">SB bets</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#cc0000">SB 3-bets</font>, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: 11BB


Party Poker
Limit Omaha Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
6 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is CO with K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, Hero calls, Button calls, <font color="#cc0000">SB raises all-in $0.66</font>, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (10.92SB, 5 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: 10.92SB)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero checks, Button checks.

Turn: 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (5.46BB, 5 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: 5.46BB)
BB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets</font>, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls, Button calls, BB calls.

River: T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (9.46BB, 4 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: 5.46BB, Sidepot 1: 4BB)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, Button checks.

Results:
Final pot: 9.46BB

Party Poker
Limit Omaha Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
6 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (5SB, 5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets</font>, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB folds.

Turn: 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (4.5BB, 4 players)
SB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets</font>, CO calls, Hero folds, SB calls.

River: 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (7.5BB, 3 players)
SB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets</font>, CO calls, SB folds.

Results:
Final pot: 9.5BB

[Split Suit]

Hand 1: fold flop

Hand 2: dont raise river. pure spew

Hand 3: i fold turn

Hand 4: looks ok. flop seems marginal, tho depending on table, i prob fold flop

[T50_Omaha8]

All I play is 6-max at the lower stakes, so I'll tell you what I would have done.

Hand 1: Raise preflop, fold flop. Nice river, but I bet it doesn't feel as good to draw out when you only win half the pot. That's why you should have folded the flop.

Hnad 2: Bet flop, maybe lead turn, check/call river. Your top two are by no means the nuts here, and you don't want to put multiple big bets down with zero fold equity when you are very marginal.

Hand 3: Depends on table looseness. I'd tend to call preflop into a loose table or raise into a tight one. That hand isn't great though. Postflop I think this is a spot to either be aggressive or shut down. Since I'm not a big fan of overpairs (because every card can two pair an opponent and your redraw outs are usually hidden) I don't like calling down here. This is not where the profit is in SH Omaha/8.

Hand 4 is tough. I don't mind the limp, but your hand on the flop isn't huge. You should make a quick judgement of whether your low is good and decide accordingly about whether to stick around. If you decide it's good on the flop, you'd better be willing to showdown though. You don't want to call bets then wuss out on the river.

Generally I think you're missing the profit in the game based on your example hands. The type of hands that are profitable in 6-max are hands like

2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

on a board of

Flop: 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
Turn: 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Which you should be playing very aggressively on the flop and turn, getting bottom two pair and such to fold and getting heads up with the only really good hand out there, which will usually only have you beat one way, and you have outs to scoop in both directions. Note that this is not a very desireable spot for full ring, however.