Low Starters in Omaha

Strictly speaking, the “clean” low-starters do not exist, since under certain conditions, low-starters can form a high combination – for example, “the wheel”, so the use of such term is conditional. The most difficult problem for Omaha Hi-Lo is the dependence on the position of the way of playing the “clean” low starters on the pre–flop. Even more, many players consider it too ordinary and “solve” the problem in a very simple way – by raising with such a hand on pre-flop from any position, regardless of the actions of the opponents.

This is a very common mistake made because:

1. Most flops give the strongest “clean” low starters nuts low or nuts low draw.
2. In most cases this starter takes half of the pot.
3. During the distribution, such a starter can take the entire pot, besides, except for the nuts low he can have also and nuts high.

So, from the above mentioned we can make the following conclusion: on the pre-flop, you should raise the pot from any position and regardless of the actions of your opponents.
But these seemingly very logical arguments do not take into consideration two very important circumstances. They are as follows:

• If a player with a “clean” low starter has a nuts draw on the flop, it does not mean that on the turn he will have nuts low. The turn may be a paired or a high card. In this way, in turn, the nuts low may remain just the same. Then it will be necessary to decide whether you need to play the river or not. But in order to make the right decision, you need to consider the position and the actions of your opponents before that.
• The half of the pot which is to be taken by the nuts low (supposedly), shall be split with the opponent with a similar nuts low. And information that the players actually fight to get a quarter of the pot and not the half, you can get in case you have a good position. In case you don’t have it, you may lose much more than this quarter of the pot you are fighting for.