Omaha H/L Starting hands

New to Omaha. Playing conservatively. Wondering what sort of starting hands I should be looking for?

Folded J J K 4 rainbow pre flop. Good or bad play?

So far ... started at table with $2.00. Currently $4.41.

I don't know much about Omaha, but here's a nice recent post from GLWorden...H/L Omaha: My treatise

Thanks. Interesting reading. At the moment I am not worrying about percentages at all. It's a nice change from hold em.

Stacks:
DGSJR with $0.68
BTN with $1.10
SB with $0.34
BB with $0.35
UTG with $0.83
UTG+1 with $0.40
MP1 with $1.67
MP2 with $2.09
MP3 with $1.95

Blinds: $0.01/$0.02
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to MP3:Q♦ 4♥ A♥ 9♥
Preflop:
UTG calls [$0.02]
UTG+1 calls [$0.02]
MP1 calls [$0.02]
1 players fold.
Hero calls [$0.02]
1 players fold.
BTN calls [$0.02]
SB calls [$0.01]
BB checks
Total folds this street: 2
Potsize: $0.14
Flop: 4♣ K♠ 5♥
SB checks
BB checks
UTG checks
UTG+1 checks
MP1 checks Hero checks BTN checks
Potsize: $0.14
Turn: 3♣
SB checks
BB checks
UTG checks
UTG+1 checks
MP1 checks Hero checks BTN checks
Potsize: $0.14
River: 6♦
SB checks
BB bets [$0.02]
UTG raises to $0.10

I folded here as I was expecting to chop the low less rake (cheaper to fold) ... Was this a bad play? Hindsight says yes ... lol

Sammy Farha says in H/L you want to get in with at least 3 good starting hands.

Your biggest problem was preflop. You had no business being in that hand from the very beginning.

Played 1 table for 30 minutes then 2 tables for an hour. Finished $1.50 up. Not a very good hourly rate so I should not quit my day job.

Great game. Will need some more work. Was playing pot limit.

Brett, how about you post any hand histories you have questions about in ring game hand analysis. Only post up to the point you have a question though, not the results (as I edited it) The results of one hand doesn't make a play an overall winner/loser and you didn't have that information at the time, so we shouldn't either.

In that hand there was no pot built, you didn't have the nut low, you had no chance of the high and multiple players in. That's a fold. Chasing lows or getting quartered are money losers.

I agree with you there but as it was only 1/2 cent I was trying to play a lot more hands so I could learn more about the game. Up until the point where I folded it had only cost me 2 cents.

I tried the free chips games but they are just crazy.

Yes, a JJK4 rainbow is pure trash in HL. It's even close to trash in Omaha hi, but not as much.

On the low hand you showed us, it's kind of a coin flip. While you did not have the nut low, you have to look at the entire texture of the board. There was already a low before the river, and there was no betting. So it's fairly safe to assume no one had an A2. When the river brings a 3456 it is very safe to assume at LEAST 1 person has a straight, especially with everyone checking and still in the hand. So safe to assume they are betting the high.

The problem with you calling for a low is this... Before the 3 hit, anyone with a 23 or A3 might have been wary of betting. When the 3 hits, after it was previously checked all around, anyone else with an ace plus 3 4 5 or 6 (A3, A4, A5, A6) ties you for the low (as said before, safe to assume no A2). So you would quarter the pot, and with everyone else folding, you have bad pot odds and would have LOST money in the hand. So you can look at hindsight all day, but you made a decent call by folding, IMO.

P.S. Silver is right, terrible hand to start with, especially UTG+2. No chance for straight, suited once with a 3rd heart gone, gutshot chance at a low.

at least your smart enough not to get in over your head, playing the micros is a good idea for practicing.
i think you can read all you want on the good starters and how to play omaha. but the fact remains that practice is what you mostly benefit from.
just like any other game you know the rules and work with them and adjust to your own style. if everyone played the same the games wouldn't be that appealing, they'd become too machanical and mundane.
peace and good luck.

I don't play Omaha, I play Omaha H/L. A hand of JJK2 is trash in Omaha H/L. The key to Omaha H/L or Stud H/L is to scoop. How well do all four cards work together? This is why the ace is key to a H/L game. It works in both directions. It is almost like having 5 cards. If you can't scoop, you need to take a real hard look at your hand. In this case, you are really playing for the high side only - half the pot. Your hand has only 3 high cards. Other players might have all four of their cards working in various combinations to make a high hand.

Are you really want to play a hand where you get to work with three cards for half the pot against other people that get to work with four cards for the entire pot?

If so, let's arrange a game. I'll be the one with 4 cards.

Unlike hold em, a pocket pair is not worth a lot in Omaha (or Omaha H/L). Better hands are often flush and straight draws, preferably both. I agree with dmarch's comment. You should be playing hands that have the potential to scoop the pot.

Dmarch & Santefe make great points here on the scoop. One quick comment though. It's fine, IMHO, to play hands that have potential for only the hi or the lo, not both. But they need to be very powerful (i.e. for hi, AKQT or KQT9 suited once, for low A235 suited or not), and like bmarch says, with all 4 cards doing a potential job. Had your 9 been of diamonds, it would've been doing something, still not a nut flush, but as it stood, it was worthless.

I hope this thread keeps evolving - I was going to write one of my own on Omaha Hi/Lo but instead I'd thought I'd put my comments in here. I have now switched mainly to playing Omaha because I was having a big problem of being quartered whether it's for the low or the high. Generally, I was heading to the showdown with more than one opponent and the one going for the lo or hi with me was raising pot and then another was raising pot and I was bleeding chips. Anyway here are my ideas - may be stating the "blinking obvious" but they were lessons hard learned - comment as you think fit...

Omaha Hi/lo pot limit

Good hands to play

1) Suited Ace especially if coordinated either with other high cards or 2 or 3 - not really worthwhile if you have 4 of the same suit

2) All low cards under 7

3) Straight forming hands where top 2 cards are consecutive - includes one pair e.g JJT8 is a reasonable hand if you know what you are doing.

4) 2 cards lower than 6 and a 6 - often you have nut low and also a crack at the high straight.

Hands that often spell trouble

1) high pairs even if AA if not played aggressively exception is a corodinated hand such as Ac5cAd2s where there are other obvious possibilities.

2) showdown flushes against strong betting other than Ax or Kx

Watch The table - betting

1) who raises preflop and with what cards - A2xx and AAxx are the common hand combos but see whether any thought goes into the other cards. Any other preflop initial raises should be noted. I saw one player raising pf with TTxx in a multiway pot!

2) betting patterns after the flop - who bets; who checks when should bet; who bets the nut low draw. All this info can be used against the opponent(s).

3) whose calling the flop, turn or river with bad odds; they will call you when you have the pot wrapped.

Paired Boards

When the board pairs be aware that the complexity has gone up an order of magnitude, especially if the pair is higher than your pair. say you have 77 and the board pairs on 5th : 8 7 J Q J. This looks good but there are many hands that beat you JJ, QQ, QJ, 88, J8, J7 . If you have QQ in that situation only JJ beats you.

Redraws
You may be winning but be wary of betting without redraws e.g. A2KJ and board is 368K. You currently have the nut low but an ace or 2 defeats this. Caution is really needed here.

Avoid

1) drawing to the second best hand.
2) re-raising (or even calling) with the second best hand in a multiway pot


Luck
Always have good luck

Good point. Especially on high hands, because there is not an eligible low on every hand. Thus, a high hand can scoop the pot, whereas a low only hand can't.
Also, a good book that deals a lot with hand selection "How to win at Omaha high-lo poker" by Mike Cappelletti.

I agree that the following books are very good:
"How to win at Omaha high-lo poker" by Mike Cappelletti.
Spuer System 2 section on Omaha high-lo
Winning Omaha 8 by Tenner & Krieger
When you start to hear the same advise over and over again, it starts to make you think they are right. Each one is slightly different. But the main concepts are very much the same.
BTW - is anyone going to play in the Omaha 8 or better (H/L) event #3 at the WSOP?

I think you should just stick to the hands containing atleast A2 and anything else with them which is connected or suited or paired..its very important not to play non-low hands