Why pro prefer omaha?

A small question I pose for several days without having the answer.

Looking at the high limits on fulltilt I realize that many play omha high but nobody on 8 or better;

why?

bigger pots and no overbetting in limit. Horse is also popular, keep in mind just because of the popularity of hold em, in larger cash games such as the big game they play all sorts of different poker games. I think Omaha is going to see a huge increase in popularity as people grow weary of holdem online.

well said, omaha is for talented players. Some players, like Gus Hansen prefer Omaha because they are not actually that good at hold em. In Omaha you can see a flop very cheap because its often pot limit, and with 4 hole cards, you have a good chance of making a hand. Play it. It's very fun

in my oppinion, i play better while playing omaha. ive won several tournaments and its better because after a while of playing you understand what hands could be very good and which hands to fold. i like playing any pairs and there has been quite a few times where i actually caught four of a kind. holdem got very popular and after it starts to die down i think omaha is going to take its place.

Omaha hi is going to grow, people are already getting bored with holdem. I know I am one of them. However I prefer razz to anything. It seems like you can make more money at razz than you can anything else. I don't know much about omaha I do know that it is easy to make money, and even easier to lose money if you don't know what your doing. You have to realize what the odds are of winning, just like any other game. It can suck if someone with pocket pairs hits their set, and someone else hits a higher set, and others hit their str8's and flushes. To me this gets to confusing. I like to stick with the simpler things in life..lol

i like razz but its a streak game to me. its either i am on and i go far into tournaments or i struggle to win hands because i am just not getting the cards. in razz, it seems like your playing the cards instead of the people at the table. id rather put my money into other games where i am more consistent

fewer people know omaha as well as people know hold'em which gives them larger edges over their opponents.

omaha won't grow nearly as fast because its not as simple of a game as hold'em is. i honestly dont believe that omaha will ever be as big as hold'em, and i like it that way.

your question should be

How come noone in this thread read your question properly?

I don't know the exact answer but i assume the high stakes players prefer omaha high over 8 or better because they would get raped by the rake due to splitting pots playing 8 or better

Oops, your right lol. I actually don't know why pro's don't like H/L. Probably because they dont like split pots(and who does?). Or maybe because they prefer to play it more like a 4 card hold'em.

I doubt Rake has much to do with the high stakes players (it's pretty much 50 cents regardless of the pot on Tilt).

To the OP: I prefer Omaha Hi because I don't have to worry about splitting the pot with my quads to a guy who has A2.

the answer is not much about splitting pot i think. i think 8 or better is an easy game, maybe easiest of horse. u dont need much talent or read. but if you are good at omaha hi ( that is also very hard to be good, harder than holdem ) you can win more.

I'd suggest you check out Hansen's record on Wikipedia before you say he's not that good at hold 'em. (I admit, I'm a fan.) Chip Reese, considered by many to be among the best before his death last Dec., was a major fan of Hansen's hold 'em play.

Just wish I had the guy's stones.

Brann

I figure most pros that prefer Omaha Hi play it because it is often big pots and they can get alot of loose action from inexperienced players trying to draw out the nuts hand. Obviously there are alot of come from behind wins in omaha but over a long period of time the wins will certainly offset any bad beats.

I prefer hi/lo myself because the players often seem more skilled and any scoops u get are usually big pots.

Wow, really????

There are very very very few world class omaha 8 or better players in the world. Mike matusow and Dave Ulliot are the only real good ones i know of. The game is incredibly hard, if not the hardest of all poker types to master.

There was also a time where devilfish folded quads with no low in 8 or better and the villain flipped over a straight flush with 3rd nut low. Although i can't find the vid on youtube anymore so it may very well and probably was fake

I've moved down in my limits to try to get a better grasp for hand ranges in PLO. This is one hand from my session, and I honestly have no clue what the optimal play is on nearly all streets.

.10-.20 6-max table on Cake. I have 110bbs, but effective stacks are about 60bbs. The villian in this hand just sat, so no reads at all. Villian posts his BB from MP(cutoff here) and checks. SB completes. I am dealt A 8 K 7 in the BB. Flop is Q 9 6 .

I have an open-ended straight draw and second-nut flush draw. SB checks. I lead about 3/4 of pot. Villian calls. SB folds. Heads up pot now. Is this lead okay or should I be check-calling or check-raising?

Turn the 10 . Gives me a straight. I check, with the intention of checkcalling. I didn't want to get raised off my hand if he had KJ, especially considering I still had the second nut flush draw. He bets about half the pot. I call. Should I be leading again? Checkraising?

River is a queen. I check, mostly because I didn't know what to do. He bets about 2/3 of the pot. I folded. I didn't see what I could beat that he would bet the river with. Is this a call? Should I just lead?

Please critique all streets. I was basically lost throughout the entire hand, so any comments are helpful. I'd like to get good at omaha, so I maybe posting a lot more hands here in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance.

i am not an expert. those were my thoughts. and i still claim same thing. hi lo has more math in it than omaha hi and lets you go on just because u have more open ways to go. because roads stuck; u can become more easily paranoid in omaha hi than hi lo also much more possibilities means itis harder than holdem too. at least i can say that i play hi lo better.

also in no way i fold quads because people may be sure they have best hand with high fullhouse and raise and raise. if i was beaten by straight flush, i let it be : )

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edit : omaha hi is harder than hi lo. i think of best hands. AAKK can easily be beaten by 8765. even i have aces and kings, if everybody calls, what is my chance but omaha hi lo AA23 is great, i want everybody be in.

ok omaha is not maybe very easy game but easier than all i think. omaha is but very very hard to play.





i would do same as u did in the flop. and as turn card showed up, i would check again as you did but i would re raise to see his determination to his cards. after queen showed up, most likely he can have a full house - and we dont know his play- so it may be a good decision at the end.

people play this game very differently. he may have had two pair and agrresive style may have kicked you out. possible.