Online Poker Forum - Going for high only at 08

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

Played some live $3-6 O8 last night in a card room. I wonder if I need to open up my starting hand requiremnts like I have at LHE. I ended folding a lot of hands like usual. Never even saw any A2xx or A3xx hand in more than 2 hours. There was one guy at the table who was a good player but he was only playing for the high and he was scooping some monster pots. Most of the players in the pots had really weak lows and marginal highs(typical with loose players in 08). I know I was pretty card dead for the session but I am wondering if I should play a lot more hands that have a good high potential and at least some kind of a low. I see more and more scooping pots when they are obviously high only types of players. I have read books and articles on the game and I am not expecting to get AA23 etc all the time and I know that scooping is the name of the game in split pot games, but how many of you play high hands with marg low holdings successfully? It was pretty boring folding all night kind of waiting for some sort of Axxx hands to materialize. Thanks for any help

DJ Ninjah · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:33 am Post subject:

There is nothing wrong with playing high only hands, I get just as excited about KQJT as a suited A2xx. Look at the thread on how often there is a low and you'll see on average, about 60%. Which, honestly, is a lot less than people think. Simply put, the easiest way to scoop is to hit the high, and have no one hit a low. The only reason they don't get the respect they deserve is that they hit a lot less.

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

I think that maybe I need to start seeing more flops in Omaha. I am good enough to know when I don't get any of the flop and don't have draws or redraws. It is the people who stay in too far who lost a lot of money the other night with just marginal highs. REBUy CITY for them. at 3-6 it is amazing how fast you can lose a $100 jsut by misplaying a few hands. I only lost $10 for the session but I hardly played a hand all night.

gogzy · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:44 pm Post subject:

ideally in hilo omaha i like to have a starting hand that covers both high and low possibilities

but i usually watch the table for a while and find out if there is any players playing for low all the time

if they enter the pot for a raise i will throw low hands and just play for high

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

Gogzy, that would be me right now as far as playing jsut coming in with good low hands. I think that is a good tip-Checking the table and see who is playing for what. I am sure that by folding so many hands that I was way to easy for most to read. Those really good A2xx hands are good in this game but I think that I am going to give it a go and play more high hands and see what happens. Not all high hands, but stronger ones. I kind of feel like in the longer run of things that the really strong scoop hands with both low and highs will probably see the most profit. Am I right?

gogzy · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:52 pm Post subject:

im not saying dont call your ace duece or a,3's

but if you got a loose table with a lot of ppl playing for low then you should be trying to play for high ( with low possibilities if possible).

if a player that has been plaing mostly for low raises the pot you can be pretty sure he has the nut low draw or already has the nut low.

i find it very profitable to play against theese types of players because they are more than willing to commit to a pot they can only win half of.

but it also can be flipped around. lets say you have flopped set with no flush draw and no low draw possibilities. but there are already 3 low cards on flop.

if the crazy low raiser is betting is it really worth calling him down to win just half the pot, i dont think so ( unless there are a few other players in the pot as well.

good luck at the tables

gogzy

p.s. i am no hilo guru but i do o.k. ( it would be a good idea to wiat and see what others have to say also)

laikos · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject:

I welcome a good high hand in an O/8 game, like KQJ10, but you have to be willing to dump it if you don't see 2 high cards on the flop. What's been said on this thread so far I agree with. The most profitable pots I've won with hands like this have been with A2X (high card) on the flop, and no low coming on the turn or the river. You have to be really really disciplined about not playing 3 card high hands though. Hands like K-J-10-7 are not good high hands. They're -EV hands and especially in limit cash games, you will find yourself chipping away lots of cash if you limp in with them.

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

I have been playing more "High only" hands lately in my O8 play. They are just too profitable not to when you have so many chasing lows and esp. marginal lows. Question-Do most of you fold your high only starting hands to any raises behind you or do you tend to play the high only hands in LP's? At most tables I have played in live(only up to 3-6) there were very few pf raises so it was fairly safe to play strong high hands to start, but releasing them on flops where there are 2 low cards. Perhaps it depends on who is raising if you hae been paying attention as to what types of hands they like to play.

dmoore1998 · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:15 pm Post subject:

The typical "rule" for split games is that you want to go for the opposite of everyone else if possible. You don't want to play the A23 and have 4 other people chasing low also. If you think everyone at the table is waiting for low cards and playign them there's nothign wrong with playing big cards. It's definitely the easiest way to scoop the pot but you do have to have a lot of discipline in mucking them if you don't hit a great flop.

Steamed Rice · Message Board Junkie Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 1433

you should only play high only hands when you can

1. get in for cheap
2. play against a lot of opponents

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

Yea I agree, it is pretty easy to dump the high only hands after the flop(for me anyways).

So how do some of you face raises with high hands? If there are a lot in on the hand do you call a raise from a LP or dump them to a PF raise?

Steamed Rice · Message Board Junkie Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 1433

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

Yea, makes sense there to stay in. Thanks mate.

Steamed Rice · Message Board Junkie Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 1433

Paprika · Full House Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 194

Well, played a bit 3-6 wkill live today and started out pretty well. Scooped back to back pots with high only hands. It was pretty easy to get into the pots with strong high only hands with little if any PF raising going on. Fairly loose passive table for the most part. At times it would get very tight with only 2-3 people in but for the most part anywhere from 4-6 players seeing the flop. I def. opened up my starting hand requierments a bit and it paid off. First scoop was with a boat that I turned on the turn against a few players. 2nd one was a hand that I was bit proud of how I played it. I ended up turning a K high flush against one guy who was pretty loose and I knew that he had a lower flush by his actions and talk. He had something like a 9 high flush. Just the right kind of player in this game. I usually can get away from the non-nut flushes really easily but I knew I had him in this one. Even though I opened up my hand requirements a bit, I still ended up folding most of my hands PF. I jsut cannot see calling PF with 3489 etc. like a lot of the guys did at the table. It was mostly an older table with 4 of the guys playing together all the time here. Nice guys and they are pretty good players at times but they play way too many hands which is nice for TAGs like me.

I did make a mistake though of playing an A4xx ss hand way too far. I think I was in one of the blinds. Flop came AA7, 5 of us in the pot, turn came a 4, River a high card. The other lone guy scooped it with a higher boat of A's full of 7's and he also got the nut low. Can't recall his exact cards(A237?) but he scooped a nice one there. Just an example of not getting away from a hand when I could have and not drawing and or having the nuts on both ends. Other than this one, I didn't make any other mistakes that I can recall. It does get rather boring folding hand after hand though but I know that it is the correct way to play this game. Just think(9 handed $3-6) if I called PF every hand when I wasn't in one of the blinds, that it would cost me $21 in a single orbit, then add the 2 blinds a poss kill call of $6 onto that, maybe 1 PF raise and you can be tapped for more than $36 in a single orbit if you don't hit any flops at all, and that was just to see the flop. Possibly even more. If you are buying in for let's say $100 for the session to start with, you call every hand PF like stated above. miss most of your flops, you can be down half your $. Pretty dumb in my book. More likely what will happen is that you will maybe win a few half pots etc or get lucjky and scoop one but it is costing way tto much to see so many flops. This is typically what happens at any 3-6 table that Ihave seen. A few players start out with a fitty or a hundy and rebuy in a few orbits. For the better players(I think I am one)this is a great thing because like in a loose LHE game it adds so much dead money to the pot.

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