Omaha Hi-Low
Starting out as a novice at Omaha Hi-Low I quickly realized that my skills were lacking when it came to racing against the fish to a showdown. Because of this I modified my style to be more of a TIGHT LUFF strategy.
With a hand like 8d 5d you can’t afford ANY mistakes. Folding a hand like Q-6 to an over bet seems pretty dumb to me, but learning to handle raising and betting is really the name of the game.
Keeping the following hands in your arsenal is viable, but the point is that this is a very loose, very aggressive game. Do not call a raise, unless you want to see a discount. If you see a discount, you can call with 1 hand for free, but I wouldn’t rely on that too much.
As a novice you want to play extremely LIGHTLY. Your only targets are deep stacked opponent’s with chips, or huge raises. When you play deep stacked you should be so confident that you are going to win that is it’s not worth it for them to call you. When you’re small stack in the blinds and early positions, you can play a wider range of hands but DO NOT chase draws.
The other extremely important aspect to playing LAG is position. Obviously playing from late positions is much riskier than in earlier positions, but even still, if you have the right cards and know your pot odds correctly, you can take a risk and limp. By doing this you can lure out opponents looking to steal with a raise, or create a trap.
As far as tactics are concerned, the best thing to do is to read your opponents. Ask yourself what hand they would raise with from various positions, and understand their save for a flop. Then, counter with a raise of your own, either when you have the lead or secondary. This action will make the players aware of your hand, and your presence in depo 50 bonus 30.
This is also the case with a lot of hands. Some people love to raise with hands like Ace Queen and does terribly on the button. When J-7 is on the button, raise Ace Queen and you will usually get a raise out of them. Try it again, and again, and you will see why I say that this is one of the best tactics to use. Once you’ve done this, they will think you weak and not-so-tight.
The other thing to remember is that you do not want to become too predictable. If you have a huge chip stack in the early levels, try to use it to steal the pots of the players with the smaller stacks. If you have a short stack in the early levels, use that to your advantage and try to bully the players with more chips into submission. Remember, being a chip leader early is better than being a chip loser late, so learn to use your chips as weapons.
As easy as it may be to learn LAG, it is almost impossible to implement into a game without making it obvious at times. If you raise with Ace Queen, and your opponent calls you, you better not keep doing it every single hand or you will be outplayed. People will remember your little Pretty Bluff and as a result, will likely call you again. If you change it up and bluff often, they may lose their focus and go back to calling with their favorite hand. Want them to call again, just change it up again. They are likely to call if you’re bluffing but not if you’re not bluffing.
These are the types of hands that you want to build a image for yourself that you will be a man to bet on and beat. The other way to do this is to make other players think your image or the other players’ focus is too strong. If your bets are known to bite into weak hands, you can get paid off by other players betting into you, creating a situation where you can earn more money from them than you might by betting strong. If you are known to be a tight player, you can earn more money by being aggressive.