With two months to go I've got 68% of the points needed for Supernova VIP.
Here are some questions and answers:
what exactly qualifies as low? and for the same matter high?
You need five different ranks of cards using two from your hand and three on the board. The wheel is the best possible low: 5432A.
The '8 or better' qualifier means your five cards must all be 8 or lower. Cards 9 to K are called 'high' cards, and a board that has two or fewer unpaired low cards means low is not possible. If a flop contains three high cards, low is not possible. A flop with one low rank enables a backdoor low draw, and a flop with two low ranks enables a low draw needing one more distinct low card. Straights and flushes are ignored for the low hand.
High hands are exactly the same as in Omaha high. Two from your hand, three from the board, best hand. You win the high half of the pot if there is a low, and you scoop the pot if there is no low.
Ranking of low hands is the same as Razz. You can easily compare hands by converting to a 5-digit number from highest to lowest, with aces low.
Examples, with the hand on the left of the < lower (better low) than the hand on the right:
87632 < 87654
These hands are tied in the first three digits, and the lower hand is 87632, so it wins low.
65432 < 7432A
The 6 gives the hand on the left a 6 low. The hand on the right has a 'smooth' bottom of 432A, but the high card of 7 loses to the 6-high hand.
6532A < 6542A
The third digit here is the difference.
In a loose game it's very common for the nut low to win part of the pot. The best hands to have for making the nut low include A2 plus 'wheel' cards for backup.
Example, on a flop of 478:
The nut low is any hand with A2xx.
The 2nd nut low is any hand with A3xx, which can make the nut low if a 2 comes on the turn or river.
The unbreakable 'no-bust' low is A235, which always has at least a tie for low even if it pairs twice on the next two streets.
Any hand with A23x has 'counterfeit protection' which means it can pair one of its hole cards and still have the nut low. It's also possible to consider A25x as protected with a 2nd nut backup low.
what are basic premium hands for the game? How do you avoid committing with 2nd nut lows, and highs?
PREMIUM HANDS
There are lists of hands in many places around the net. Basically, you want these kinds of hands:
A-A-2-3 double suited: Strongest in both directions; dominating hand.
A-A-w-w (two wheel cards 2-5): A pair of aces with low potential is always good, especially heads up. If you can get all-in before the flop then you're almost certainly a favorite to win against one or two opponents.
A-K-3-2 suited: With a suited ace you have nut high potential and the two wheel cards give you excellent low potential. The A-K high lets you outkick other A23 hands without pairs. Similar hands are A-K-4-2, A-Q-3-2, etc.
A-K-K-2, A-Q-Q-2, A-K-K-3, etc: A big pair with A-2 or A-3 is a strong hand especially against another hand with weaker high features.
A-2-3-4, A-2-3-5, A-3-4-5: Low hands with several wheel cards are good in multi-way pots, and not as strong heads up. Usually very good in fixed-limit full ring games.
PLAYING THE 2ND NUTS
Generally you want to have a lock in one direction and some strength in the other direction, if not nut-nut. When you have the 2nd nuts for low, if you think your high side is the best hand, then you could be drawing live against the nut low. Otherwise you don't want to put a lot of money in the pot with a 2nd nut low. You can usually call a bet or make a bet on the river with the 2nd nut low if the pot is small or the action indicates you're the best for half, but even then you can be tied with someone. If you tie for low and lose high, then you lose money when the betting is heads up.
When you are in fixed-limit and shorthanded games, the 2nd nut low can be good especially if there is an A or 2 on the board. Be careful when you could be tied and win only 1/4 or 1/6 of the pot. Sometimes the pot is big relative to the bet and you can call down even if you know you're probably getting 1/4.
High hands can be bet aggressively when there are only two low cards on the board on the flop or turn, but you have to use caution and get reads on opponents who show aggression, especially when a low comes and there is a draw that can beat your hand (freerolling for high).
On the river, sometimes you want to bet to get a low out of the hand so you can get the whole pot; sometimes you want to control the pot and let multiple people call for the low so you have half of a pot and put in only a third of the money or less. Just be careful and limit the damage if you have a strong hand that isn't the nuts. Non-nut high hands win more often than non-nut low hands, but still it's not hard for someone to have the nuts in many situations. Experience will help to improve your hand reading.
