omaha high low tournaments

[Blink20 0]

Recently I've been playing extremely small buy in tournaments on poker stars and I find I move well past the bulk of players in those. Granted, they are only like dollar and three dollar tournaments but I can usually hold my own until about the final fifty players. At this point in time, the blinds are always extremely large and I play a really tight game because I always figure that playing premium starting hands is the most important aspect of the game. I guess my question is what do any of you think the correct strategy is when it gets further along in the tournament when the blinds move up? It always seems if I'm going to play a hand, I'll have to play it all the way pushing to the river almost no matter what because just entering the pot takes a decent amount of tournament chips because of the blinds. It also becomes less appropriate to wait for A A 2's and other power hands because the blinds are eating up too many chips, but the table is still 9 handed. I just cannot seem to move past 30-2oth place in like a 1000 person entry tournament. How do I make it to a final table? Oh, another question, is this also a recurring theme among larger buy in tournaments too? In any tournament, how do you get past the blinds moving up so large and still being able to play decent starting hands?

[Erik67 0]

Blink,I'd like to know how you get that far. I love Omaha, in fact I like it alot better than HE below 5/10. I absolutely suck in tourneys. O8 starting hands are much more tight than HE, so it's hard for me to get chips early. In cash games I don't mind, because the blinds are not going up.I have the same style in HE, %10-15 of flops, but I still get pretty far in the tourneys.How do you overcomr this in O8Thanks,ErikP.S.- I may look for you on those Stars tables soon :wink:

[Blink20 0]

For one, I completely agree that high/low omaha is better at the lower limits, less variance, and people drawing dead is always a nice thing.I've just played the $1-$3 tournaments with like 1200 entrants usually, and I can usually find my way in the top 100.. even top 50. I just play extremely tight, but when I get a big hand, I push it big. That's pretty much my strategy in all those tourny's... holdem, limit, no limit, omaha, whatever. I don't like to waste any chips on marginal hands. Then, usually before i get too killed by the blinds, I find an A A 2 or something similar and am able to play it. THe problem is, I never find myself even near the chip leader so when it gets down to the top 30, I find myself a little below average stack with huge blinds. Ofcourse, a dollar tournament if you don't make the final table isn't worth that much.. usually like $5 or so, so I probably need to adjust my strategy. Maybe after reading the "Tournament Poker" book I just bought by Sklansky, will help me figure some things out. Keep me posted on anything you know because I would like to see some good Omaha high low discussion

[Spidurman 0]

When you are playing a split pot tournament - you have to remember one very subtle point - you can't bust someone with a low only hand. For the bulk of the tournament - I'm content to just accumulate chips via whatever means present themselves. Once its getting late and I have chips to manuever, I start identifying scoop hands (its fairly obvious what a scoop hand is) try to bust people.The most important part to the game is starting hands - absolutely. However, there is only one hand (AAxx - and that's only heads up) that I consider good enough to stand on its own merits. You need to see flops to know if you even have a chance of being good. Stick to playing solid values cheaply preflop and make your money postflop. I'm a regular in the Stars 10 and 20 Omaha H/L tournies. The play is a bit better in them - which makes life easier since you're less likely to be up against the oddball hands that are unreadable.Any further questions shout away, I'll do what I can to answer.

[Blink20 0]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'm sure I'll run across multiple scenarios and I'll become confused, when that occurs, I'll be expecting you to have a good response. :-) .. Thanks again.

[ahosang 0]

Blink, maybe you need to see a few more flops in the middle part of the tourny when you have an average stack. Remember you can't wait on AA23, Try raising with stuff like Axs and any 2 prime cards, also, limping with a few high hands in position. You may hit a few flops well and take down a few pots.

[PokerfaceNJ 0]

I play exclusively at Pokerstars and Omaha h/l is my favorite game. I also prefer the SNG games and rarely play ring games. Shoot me a hello if you see me at the tables...Pokerface65...look for the cookie monster.