Pot Limit Omaha, BR and game type question

hey guys,

I've started to play a lot of PL Omaha lately after being talked into learning by a friend, i'm currently playing the 0.05/0.10 $10Max PL games on pokerstars with about $150 in my account, is this enough to be playing at this level?? I've been doing well and can't see myself going broke playing at these levels but i've never played PL before and don't know if the BR management is the same as for NLHE which i normally play.

Secondly, is it better to be playin Omaha Hi/Lo?? I don't really understand it at the min because i only read up on reg Omaha when i decided to learn, is there a huge difference??

Thanks for any advice, gotta say i am absolutely loving omaha at the min, plenty of fishies chasing non-nuts draws and pushing with AA on any board, i'm regularly leaving a table with between 25 and 30 dolllars after sitting down with 10!

well here is my take on it
with respect to bankroll management, for nlhe, u should have atleast 20* the buyin so for 10nl u should have 200$, but i think u should have atleast 250$ to play 10 PLO as plo is a game which involves more swings that no limit holdem

huge difference between omaha hi and omaha hi/lo, hi/lo has a completely different strategy (becuase of the low factor) and idealy u would like to have hands that can go both ways, high and low so hands like AAK2 double suited have great value in HI/LO while in omaha hi it is still a good hand but has less drawing possiblility

PLO8 is the lowest varience poker game. PLO is one of the higest varience poker games. NLHE is somewhere in the middle.

i say 30 buyins

thanks for the advice guys,

i've dropped down to $5 PLO to keep within my bankroll, which is now at the mighty sum of $159.41!!, going to go with the 25* buyin rule and see how i go, mainly because i dont see me encountering any problems at this level but obv when i move up i might think about the 30* rule.

When building a roll is it ok to take a shot at the next level for one session, as like i said in my original post i was having success at $10 PLO before i read your advice and dropped down?? Just thinking of maybe once i've doubled up on $5 taking a stab at $10 for one buy ins worth, that way even if i lose i'll only be losing what i sat down at the $5 table with in the first place?

I gotta say omaha has given me a much needed new direction in poker, for some reason i'm not very good at cg NL, more a sng and tourny player, but i seem to be doing well playin cg omaha, hopefully it'll turn out to be a profitable side game for me away from NL tournys (obv in a few months/years as $5 PLO is never going to fill anyones pockets)

Once again thanks for the advice, much appreciated

im not a fan of taking stabs with ur roll like that but what u can do when uve reached around 250-300 in ur roll, u can start mixing in some 10$ tables with the 5$ tables just to get the feel of the game

i just lost 50% of my roll taking stabs. needs discipline

"i just lost 50% of my roll taking stabs. needs discipline"

Ok maybe wont be taking stabs!

I usually use pokertracker to track my progress play NLHE, how do you go about keeping records when playing omaha?? I'm guessing you do it the old fashioned way and i'm going to go through my hand historys when i get a spare few hours and figure out my stats!

There is Pokertracker for Omaha.

Edit: here a links PokerTracker - Online Poker Tracking & Analysis Software Tool

yea i have PTO. You can take stabs but you have to be super discipkined about it.

man I don't think that can be put any better, and thats why I HATE hi/lo, because people will play you solely for the low, and its scooping (picking up the high/low pots) isn't something that happens often, especially at the low levels, so people will bail out by playing the low. In PL omaha hi, there is no bailout, so aint no room for mistake

man omaha is a crazy game and as you go up the ironic thing is, the amount of people that tilt really don't subside much for a while. with a 150 account, I think your MORE THAN READY to at least play .10/.20 if PokerStars has something like that. What I used to do at this level, and I've seen plenty other people do this. I'd play tight on a 10 ring with a 5 dollar buy in until I hit a flop with the best possible draw or top 2 or anything good and check raise it all in. If its a draw and you don't hit its a win win either way because than people will continue not to believe you. so I'd be getting in 20 dollar pots sitting down with 5-6 with strong draws (you may look pretty reckless while doing this). and I'd rebuy up to about 4 times, but when I say a strong draw I mean straight and flush, or flush and boat. usually if you do that at some point your going to win a hand 15-25$ worth, at that point you tighten up and play smarter.

with those small buyins I used to checkraise preflop at the start of buyins with hands like 9qj10, because everyones gonna call, and those hands are like the best hands to "lotto". All the while you look extra reckless while doing this so people think your willing to lose your money without even seeing cards, in that case when u get lucky its good, when u dont it doesnt matter as much because its more about the reckless image you create. thing about this is, someone said discipline, well it takes discipline to purposely look reckless without literally becoming reckless to a point where you are becoming a problem to your bankroll

all in all I say your ready for at least .10/.2, just start buying in for 5-6, even if you lost $100 (which is like the worst case scenario) u still have plenty of space to go back to .05/.10. Your gonna need experience at that level so y ou miswell prepare to move up now. also, just stay away from the people that will make plays at you with nothing until you know how to handle them

I m not a expert of omaha cash games, but play a lot of omaha tournaments

In my point of view omaha Hi/low is better for making cash with lower skilled players. You can earn more money because is even more complex than omaha hi.

For the bankroll: I m not a fan of that bankroll politics.
You have to decide how much money you want to play with
and when you get broke you have to check your skills

If it was only a downswing - start with new money - otherwise end up the game

i say the 20 buyin rule applies. If you fall to 10 buyins, drop a level.

younghova, it's funny that you HATE hi-lo for the exact reason that I LOVE it! Sure, people chasing low only are going to get lucky once in a while, but when they don't is when you can make a freaking killing! As you or someone else stated, the way to be profitable in that game is to try to be a break-even player taking split-pots until you can get some good scoops and really rake it in.
I've messed around with a lot of diff O8 games on PokerStars... $1.75 to $5.50 tourneys, $1 and $.50 limit cash full ring games, etc. What I have finally settled on is .10/.25 NL and PL full ring cash games. Initially I did this in order to make sure I racked up enough FPPs to convert 2 PokerStars bonusses, but now I think this is the game for me. Just by looking at the VP$IP %, this level seems to get the most donks while still enabling you to make some real cash and rack up good FPPs along the way. I think the other thing that has helped me is that my PTO database is becoming quite large so I've got good data on a lot more players than I used to.
It's freaking amazing how some poeple play that game... the other night I was at a table with 4 people at over 80% VP$IP and one was at 98%! That 98% guy was also throwing 40%+ PFR... simply a freaking hyper-maniac, but I LOVE to see that kind of ring. Those guys may get lucky here and there, but if they stay at the table long enough you can wipe them out. At this table I took my largest pot ever... about $55 (not much I know but for me it's a lot. Started with a really good 2-way hand and after the flop, had nut low and a ton of outs to nut high. 3 other people went all in after flop so I called. 4th street didnt help me but I hit nut flush on the river and scooped the pot.
The funny thing is, when I started, I also used to chase nut low and bet agressively when I had it. That's probably why I lost a couple of hundred in my first few months. Now, when I have a hand like A-2-7-J rainbowed, I will only call small amounts to get in. Even if I hit nut low on the flop (with no decent hi) I will be really carefull. If I see 1 or 2 others betting heavily, I usually try to get out because this almost always ends up with getting quartered (or worse). I made a mistake last night and called all-in with just and A2 low. Turned out 2 other people also had A2 so I ended up getting only 1/6th of the pot. Luckily, the loss only amounted to a few $ but it could have been much worse. I think laying down nut low is one of the toughest things to learn how to do, but a must if you don't want to get clocked sometimes.

Omaha is a full sensational game of draws mainly to play cash games that exactly being my fort I do not go to give one taken a walk and to mainly make some sessions in omaha hi/lo

Hey guys, sorry for no replies but ive been busy lately, thanks for all the advice, some very good points comin accross.

I've started playin the mixed HA games on full tilt, where you have 10 hands of holdem and 10 of omaha hi, i'm lovin them at the minute, seems to be a prime area for people who are learning omaha because as soon as the O round comes about you just know you'll finish those ten hands up, even in the hold em round theres some amazingly donkish play, you'd think that people would put all their efforts into really learning one of them rather than sucking at both lol

Also started playing a lot of Stud Hi as well, learning omaha has really opened my eyes to the rest of the poker world away from hold em, haven't really tried any lo games yet as i just cannot get my head around the hand ranking system at all, any good places to find advice on the lo side of omaha???

Once again cardschat doesn't dissappoint when it comes to getting good advice, cheers guys

Interesting. That`s pretty much how I play PLO too. LAG it up with a short stack, double up, change gears, and then do them again with a real hand while they are fooled by your manic table image.

The money comes faster in PLO, thats prolly why I like it better, plus its easier to bluff someone off of a pot. I think if you try to bluff someone out in hi/lo and they have any type of low and you get them heads up they'll think they can call you down and split and possibly make a move on you with their low being like a failsafe. lo/hi games are really different from the ones without it.

I gotta play on PokerStars, if thats how the ring tables you mentioned sound nice. You could probably just buy in full there and make smart moves and thats easy money.

You should have 30+ buy-ins for PLO. The variance is greater than hold 'em. PLO and O8 (omaha hi low) are completely different but center around drawing to the nuts and not chasing non-nut draws.

I play a LOT of PLO (50max usually) and O8 (3/6 usually but occ. 5/10)