Basic Strategy for Secondary Poker Variants

With that little poker boom known as Chris Moneymaker and the online explosion long past the age of 5, most players are dipping their poker toes into the non-Hold’em waters.

Some are even moving beyond Omaha.

So in the spirit of helping you prey on some poor fools trying to learn a new variant, or just for your own sense of adventure, here are some basic strategy points for a few secondary poker variants:

Omaha

Look to make your draws in Omaha. Here, we’re talking about straight Omaha rather than Hi-Lo split (which we’ll get into momentarily.) Look to make your draws in Omaha – that means that when you are deciding which of your pre-flop hands to ride into the jungle of Omaha, you should place heavy emphasis on hands with multiple draws. Particularly the infamous double-suited connectors (hands like Jh Qd Kh Ad) present players with oodles and oodles of draws for both straight and flush. Big hole pairs aren’t the same kind of killers in Omaha as they are in Hold’em.

Omaha Hi-Lo

For the best in Omaha Hi-Lo wisdom let us turn to the king of the Omaha Hi-Lo Split world, 2-time Split champion Thang Luu:

“This is Hi-Lo, not No Limit. Other players in this game wait for a big hand to come, but not me. I play every hand because every hand can win.”

Take it from the master, when it comes to Omaha Hi-Lo, you should be involved in a whole lot of hands.

Razz

Razz is perhaps the cruelest of all poker variants, so too must its maestros wield a certain meanness. The secret to Razz is in inflicting your opponent’s bad luck upon them, regardless of your own hole cards. Start rolled up? As long as you’ve got the door card to sell a decent hand and your opponent is sporting a face card, get to attacking.

Stud

Sometimes referred to as the “Race to Two Pair,” both the Seven card and Five card variants of Stud hold to a pretty similar winning pattern – bet from ahead, fold from behind. Stud is not the game to get deep into draws against boards that have already paired. Fold if you’re beat and bet if you’ve got the best hand – stud is in many ways, the most straight-forward of poker variants.

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, also known as Lowball or just plain Triple Draw can be one of the most lucrative poker endeavors you will ever undertake. While it can be a moderate hassle to hunt down online (PokerStars usually has the most Triple Draw action available,) the rewards for well-played Triple Draw are huge. First of all, Triple Draw is almost always played in a rotation or mixed game (like 8-game) and is usually the highest stakes of all the Limit Games played. The basic idea is to stay out of a lot of hands, thus avoiding the expensive temptation of draws. Generally speaking, you should never look to see the first draw unless you have 3 unpaired cards below 8 (or are attempting a bluff which we’ll get to momentarily.) You should be drawing with 4 unpaired cards 8 or lower going into the second draw and if you are drawing going into the third draw, you better have a whole lot of chips and even more pot odds. If your opponent is ever drawing going into the third draw, automatically bet as the odds of them picking up a good third draw are very slim. Any made low of 8 or lower is worth betting strong. When bluffing, look for players who have been involved in a lot of hands and are likely to pay to see a single draw. Don’t draw, no matter what you have, don’t draw – this puts the table on notice that you potentially have a very strong hand and sets you up to take the pot with a bet before the second or third draws. Another route towards a successful bluff is a flat call pre-draw, drawing a single card (no matter what your hand actually looks like) then betting strong without drawing any further cards. This sells the notion that you’ve made your draw.

Stud Eight or Better

Stud Eight or Better can be a frustratingly equitable game as many pots end up in splits. Consequently, the first piece of advice is to focus on opportunities to scoop the pot (scooping is when you win both the high and low portions of the same pot.) This means that not only are you looking to follow low draws, but more importantly, looking to pick off low draws. You will find yourself in heads up hands where your opponent is obviously looking to make a low draw without any real high hand (recognize these situations by paying attention to your opponents’ boards.) In these situations, it behooves you to bet strong as it is unlikely that your opponent will successfully make their low draw and will likely fold before getting too deep into an improbable draw. Take it easy with Two Pair in a family pot, particularly when you see multiple low draws. Not only can a low draw split the pot, it can back itself into a well-disguised straight which will rain on your Two Pair parade.