Poker News

Sam Mudaro the Omaha Guru

Today we will look at a little known fact of Omaha H/L split. What happens to the value of our hand when we enter a pot and the pot is raised and re-raised and ultimately capped? Let me set the stag for you. You are first to act and are holding the very powerful A-2-3-K double suitedor A-2-K-K suited with net wins of $26.41 and $24.82 respectively. You throw in a raise and before it gets back to you the pot is capped. What should you do with your hand?

In Omaha H/L, low hands dominate. Most players will only raise with a low hand or a hand that can work both ways. It should be pretty obvious that you are up against 2 or 3 other low hands especially if you play in a game that allows a bet and 4 raises. You are probably up against the nut low. Does you hand go down in value in these situations or does it go up? How much change, if any can you expect? Can it turn a winning hand into a losing one? To test out what happens I set five players up with the following hands; A-A-2-3, A-2-3-K, A-2-K-K, 2-3-4-5 and TJ- Q-K and dealt 5 million hands with each player playing one of the hands one million times. I then compared the results to how the hands performed when they were played separately. The results are presented below.

In those hands containing pairs, the ace is suited to the deuce. The others 3 hands are double suited with the two highest cards suited to the two lowest cards. This allows the player to make the two highest flushes he is capable of with his hand.

Under the “Base Hands” caption I have the hands ranked by their single net performance, which ranges from $44.06 down to $1.23 for a non-low hand. Under the “Multiple” caption we see what happens to the net when all the listed hands face each other. The “% Change” represents the percentage change in the net either up or down. It ranges from a positive change of 817% to a decrease of 979%. All the changes are drastic and well over 100%. The best starting hand improves it’s net by more than double. The worst starting hand of the group, the high only hand improves over 9 fold.

Is there a pattern to these results or are they simply haphazard? It should be obvious that the high hands improved. Is the best starting hand a high hand? It sure is. The pair of aces may alone win the pot when the low doesn’t get there. Remember, we have two nut flush draws in addition to a straight draw. The 2-3-4-5 has very little high potential, a poor flush and limited straight potential. It lost the most at -979.44%. The other hands are a little less obvious. The A-2-3-K is similar to the AA- 2-3, or is it? First there is only one nut flush draw and with all that action you can assume the Ace is out there. Second it does not have the pair of aces. If the flop is a total bust it will lose to the aces. The same may be said of the A-2-K-K. The A-2-3-K has a better low draw and some counterfeit protection.

So what have we learned? A-A-2-3 is still the best. High hands go up in value when there are a number of lows vying for position. This also reduces the chance of making a low and/or the chance of the lows splitting while the high enjoys half the pot. You may want to consider folding some lows, especially when not connected with the best of high draws.

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