Answering some questions about O8

A member of a forum asked me:

Happy to see someone who loves Hi/Lo game here.

What is your basic approach for the game? It might be flawed, but I have been using "holding nut low to draw for a good high" is a good strategy. For starting hands, I discount all the hands without the A, 4 baby cards being the exception. Suited A is a huge plus. I was using this basic approach to play limit Omaha 8 and had good results. For PLO8 or even NLO8 I am not sure. For big bet poker, we will need to put opponents on ranges a lot more. What are your tips for putting people of ranges in Hi/Lo games?

"Play two-way hands" is the basic rule for beginners especially in big bet O8, even more in NLO8 than PLO8. A premium hand has features that give it potential to win both halves of a split pot, and high value is especially needed because many boards do not enable a low on the river, or your low draw might be counterfeited.

Low- or high-oriented hands can be played but are best when there are many other players (4+) OR if the preflop bets are small and stacks remaining are still deep enough, and best when in late postion: for example calling in position for 3.5 bb with effective stacks of 80 bb, then you may call with hands like 2345/2346/234X and weaker unsuited A34X, A35X for the low end, and KQJT/KKJT/AQQJ/AKQJ/KKXX if going for high.

It's important to have good hand selection even if you intend to play loose and bluff a lot of pots, because it can be difficult to steal pots from some types of players. The best bluff plays use blockers in your hand, cards that you hold that remove combinations from your opponents' hands.

Almost all premium hands have a suited ace. Propokertools has a ranking of hands in O8 as simulated for different table sizes. You can use it as a rough guide for putting people on ranges in reference to their percentage numbers. Observing your opponents will give you better reads on how they tend to play different types of hands.

Let me try adding a few high only hands when I am in position. If there is a low possible already on the flop, what are the usual consideration to proceed with a high-only hand?
Say with QJT9ds hero calls in position. On a 873 two tone board (assuming we have the flush draw too), would it be wise to call a cbet in position when there are two opponents in the pot? With this hand, hero has only 6 clean outs to the nut high. When flush comes in we have reverse implied odds, and the likely A2 is claiming half the pot already. Is this a call or fold (or unlikely I guess, raise)? What are the main considerations for whether to value bet when the flush comes in (say K and flush comes in)? Is hero only betting for half the pot? Is A4 likely to fold for the 2nd nut low?
Not experienced at all playing high only hand. What are the main clues to look for not value owning ourselves?

On a low-card board, your pot odds are divided by two with a non-low hand. On a two-low board, you still discount your pot odds especially if your outs are non-pairing low cards, which would cut the odds in half if they hit.

Besides discounting pot odds, you have to consider reverse implied odds because you could make your hand and still face a freeroll if they can draw to a better high hand. You can't add implied odds at all; if you have no low hand then you are playing for half the pot always and it has to be big and multi-way to get any value.

On the 873 board there's no reason to call with a straight draw unless you're getting amazing pot odds and there are bad players who will put in money with very weak hands. If you do make your draw, your best play is to be passive and let others build the pot until the river, then try to get as many callers as possible at the end. Of course you could also tie with the nut straight, so you can't be too aggressive with it.

As a general rule, with very rare exceptions, when you have a high hand with no low and a low is possible, you should try to create a multi-way pot that gets to the river and then extract as much as possible from more than one opponent. If you can't get to the river with those conditions, then fold your hand or just check and call. With the right opponents, you can make low hands fold on the river or earlier if you have good reads.

Most of the money made with high hands in split pots comes from two or more people who have low, so you get half of a big pot. Even then, with equal stacks, you can only increase your stack by about 50% (half of a three-handed pot) or if you're very lucky get double your stack (half of a four-handed pot). This is much less than what you get for scooping high with no low or both high and low.