Analysis

What will happen if the opponent in the middle position hasn’t got a set of 5s but he has nuts low? What are the right actions in this case? Just imagine that you are with your hand in the same situation but in the middle position. How to answer the aggressive opponent in an early position who has placed a bet on the flop? First, you should not raise. Having nuts low and one more opponent, who called on the flop, you should only call. This is the right thing to do and it is very important since in Omaha Hi /Lo you pay a lot for your mistakes. Having nuts low in the middle position, you absolutely need to keep the third opponent in the pot. If you re-raise, you either make him fold, or you fill the pot with your own money for the opponent who has nuts high and bet on the flop and turn. That’s why to re-raise is a big mistake. If you just call, you’ll do your best no matter what combination has the opponent in the last position. The advantages are as follows:

• If he also has nuts low, you will save your money without making unnecessary investments in the pot from which you are going to take just one fourth.
• If he hasn’t got one, you will get an additional half profit from his call.
• In case he leaves the pot, you will just take your half pot formed during the pre –flop and the flop.

So, what are the common approaches to the “clean” low starters during the pre-flop depending on the position? From early positions, these starters are to be played aggressively, since half of the pot needs to be formed by the player with such starters in early position because he has not yet information about the opponents’ hands or about their future actions.  In case you are in a middle position with such starters, you will have the opportunity to take into account the actions of the players before you.

In case one of your opponents acted aggressively in an early position, the best thing to do is to call. That will most probably help you to keep in the pot some of your opponents who are to act after you. If the bets were raised during the pre-flop, that would suit you, since you need a bigger pot but increased for someone else’s expense. You need it first, in order to decrease your loss in case someone else has the same nuts low (it is possible that someone from the pre-flop – raisers also had a strong low starter). And second, you need it in order to increase the probabilities for the next streets in case, that from the flop you need to decide on the optimal playing of the nuts low draw.

And finally, if we have a “clean” low-starter in a late position, it becomes very important to consider not only the level of aggression before us but the number of limpers as well. The best action is inversely proportional to these two factors. The more aggression and limpers are there before you, the better for you is to limp this hand during the pre-flop. The less aggression and fewer limpers are there before you, the more aggressive you need to play during the pre-flop. It will be probably not exaggerated to say that actually, the basis of understanding the game, in general, is to understand how to play a “clean” low-starter in a late position.