Playing Against Steamers
Since they take numerous tough beats in Omaha eight-or-better, some of the high-stakes players will turn into steamers and start raising a lot.
When steaming, the fairly good players will steam early in the hand.
Before the flop – and to a lesser extent on the flop – is where they tend to raise or reraise when they shouldn’t.
However, late in the hand, although some of these players might call too much, they usually won’t be raising or putting a lot of action in the pot, because they are still aware that it is too easy though some players are steaming, if they bet later in the hand, they usually have the goods.
When players are steaming, their weaker low hands start to look better to them. This includes hands like
and
in multiway pots. ( By the way, these hands rarely should be played.)
In most poker games, when you notice someone steaming, you generally want to raise to isolate him so you can play heads up.
But in Omaha eight-or-better, this doesn’t always do you as much good, because what hurts a weak hand the most is having many online poker players against it.
By isolating an opponent, you are making his hand a lot closer in value to your hand, particularly if you hold a hand that can stand multiway action.
So it doesn’t pay to isolate a steamer who is a good player and who may now be playing basically high against you.
You are better off most of the time to not reraise and a let other players in.
This usually will devalue the steamer’s hand, unless he happens to hold a big hand.
Notice that you are getting quartered your equity (even though it may be more equity for you it you happen to have the best hand anyway.
This is especially true if you have several quality low cards.
If you hold a strictly high hand, you might be better off trying to isolate the steamer.
But here you have to be careful, since you can get into trouble when other players call behind you, which usually will be the case if the game is loose.
Introduction / Automatic Play / High Versus Low in Three-Handed Pots / Loose Games / Multiway pot Versus Short-Handed Play / Scare Cards / Getting Counterfeited / Getting Quartered / Playing Against Steamers / Playing Against Tight, Solid Players / Your Playing Style / Fluctuations / Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better / Afterthought
