Limit Omaha eight sit n go tournaments are about the only type of Omaha 8 that I don’t play. It isn’t that I haven’t played them in the past; it is just that I don’t play them because I don’t like them. The blinds escalate at a fairly quick rate and the tournament tends to be won by the player who ends up with the best cards. In other words, unlike in most forms of poker, even the best player has an almost impossible time competing in a limit Omaha high low split game without decent cards. With all of that being said, here are a few tips that will help you when you decide to play a limit Omaha 8 single table tournament.
In the first few rounds of the tournament, the blinds are very small in relationship to your stack. This means you can wait for above average hands at this point. There is no reason to enter a pot without a hand that offers great scoop potential, as the pot just won’t get big enough to make a huge difference. Once the blinds start advancing, you need to start relaxing your staring hand requirements somewhat. This does not mean to start playing below average starting hands though. Don’t start taking chances with marginal hands until your chip stack forces you to do so.
If you are able to build your stack in the early and middle rounds of the tournament, do not become to anxious and start playing too many hands. Let the other players with dwindling chip stacks play poor hands and gamble.
As the tournament enters the later stages with four or fewer players, realize that starting hand values change. Hands with high pairs are much more valuable as well as hands with even poor low draws, like 2 5 or A 7 have a good chance to stand up at the showdown. This is because there are fewer opportunities for an opponent to have a better hand. Any two way hand is very valuable at this point of the tournament, and should be played very aggressively. Any low draw at all in combination with a decent high draw is very likely to be the best hand pre flop.
If you play very many limit Omaha eight single table tournaments, you will find that once you reach the money places, usually the top three, it becomes quite a crap shoot as to who finally wins. Use this to your advantage and let the other two players fight it out with any hand. You can afford to fold truly terrible starting hands at this point unless you are very low stacked.
