Common Omaha 8 Errors and Traps

There is a lot of information to know before you get involved with Omaha 8. There are also a lot of errors and traps that many run into when they first start playing Omaha 8. With just a brief description of the game and no strategy it can be easy to get false impressions about the game. The biggest mistake people make is to play many hands and think every hand is a good starting hand. That will cause a lot of errors and traps by itself. If you add up all the rest of the problems that one could encounter; you would see that Omaha 8 could be a disaster for many people.

The most common error is playing too many hands and not understanding hands. In Omaha 8 (or any Omaha game for that matter) you must use two cards and you cannot use any more then 2 cards. There have been people that have chased down a flush because they have the ace; only to find out that they lost their whole stack because they had no idea what they were doing. In order to qualify for a flush, you must have two flush cards. You cannot have a flush with only one flush card in your hand. Even if there is a completed flush on the board, you still must have 2 of that suit in your hand to qualify for a flush.

For those who do know how to play the game; a more common mistake is playing way too much. There are only a handful of valuable starting hands in Omaha 8. Playing anything more then good starting hands will only cause a loss in money very fast. There is much more to the game then starting hands; but that is probably one of the most important aspects and many make errors from playing bad hands.

The Counterfeit

Another error that many run into is getting counterfeited. Some players do not realize that you cannot qualify for a low hand if that card is already on the board.

Your hand = A2KK

The board = A 3 4 10 Q

This is called a counterfeit because the board counterfeited your ace. Even though you have the two lowest possible cards; you still wouldn’t qualify for a low hand. The lowest possible hand in this situation would be a 2 5, Also the highest possible hand in the situation. So the player with 25 will scoop the pot. One of the biggest mistakes is assuming that you cannot lose if you have Ace 2 in your hand. Not only is there the possibility of getting counterfeited but you also need the board to have cards lower then 9 to qualify for a low hand in the first place.

Some of the biggest and most common errors and traps that people fall into are, just simply not knowing the rules to the game. There are a lot of strange and unpredictable rules in Omaha 8, especially if you are used to playing Texas Hold’em. If you are careful and learn the game along with some practice then you should have no problem avoiding these simple errors and traps in Omaha 8.