Omaha Poker, Read More!

[TheMrLegendary]

Omaha poker, sure most of us are familiar with the name and some people know the rules pretty well. I find that Hi/Low split is the most popular variation on the game but a couple of months ago. I was getting into a spot in holdem where it became more robotic than I wanted it to be. I relyed on creative and imaginative play to really stay ahead of the competition. So when things started to turn automatic I became worried for my success.

I was playing on PokerStars that night and at 2am EST they were holding a 10+1 Pot Limit Omaha Event (PLO). I told my wife, I know very little about this game but it sounded like fun. I hoped it might help me get out of that grind mode in NLHE. So I anted up my 11 bucks and went to the tables. 140+ people joined that event and amazingly I made the final table and took home like 60 bucks. I felt really pretty good and thought heck I might do this more often. So I did the next time they held the event which is about every other night. I played and out lasted about 150 people to make final table again taking 8th to follow my 7th place victory.

Then last night I joined this event again saying heck why not! 161 people joined and I took 6th place. Though 6th place was disappointing to me because when we were down to 20 or so players I had about 43K in chips and 2-4 had 23K 21K 18K in chips. I had 2 rather unlucky hands in the final table. I flopped top set of kings with the board K72. I rammed and jammed the hand and was chased by AA52 and he caught the Ace on the river after his whole stack was commited. Then a flush was caught via the river against my flopped nut straight and that gentlemen had his whole stack commited.

I felt I made all the right plays at all the right times and just got unlucky in the wrong spot. I took down 84 bucks for my 2 hour 20 minute effort. which isn't bad I have to say. I picked up a book on Omaha poker today at a local bookstore and found there to be only 2 on Omaha. So I started to skim over it and found that so many ideas in the book where the exact thought processes I had during those tournaments. I used one piece of advice in my first PLO tournaments. " Amateurs look for reasons to play hands, professionals look for reasons not to play hands." I don't know who said it but I took it to heart and just with that, some pot odds calculation and a few timed bluffs. I found myself to be doing very well at Omaha.

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience. It has shown me to open up from Hold'em to other games and events. If I had to really look at my successes and failures in poker I think my best games are:
Pot Limit Omaha
No Limit Holdem
Pot Limit Holdem
Limit Omaha
Limit Holdem
**Crazy Pineapple**<<I love this game

I can play 7stud, 5draw, A-5 triple draw, No-Limit Deuce to Seven.

I haven't ever played Razz poker but I kind of know the rules. It seems a little weird to me. Kinda like a drunk guy thought it up one night at the table. I also dont play High-Low Split games well like Omaha 8/B though I am sure that will come in time.

After mixing it up with some Omaha I have found that my Holdem game has taken on new form and depth. I think it is well advised to mix up your game a little even if its for just play money. Helps you see corners of the poker spectrum you might have missed sticking to just Holdem or Stud or Omaha.

[ballbp]

I had to vote for pineapple. You're right, it is a fun game. I can't really give much feedback on Omaha cause I don't play it but it does seem like it would be something different. When I've said in other posts that I play at Paradise sometimes, that was always pineapple.

[snoogins47]

This is a real toughie.

I've definitely got a lot more experience playing hold'em than any other game.

However, I find myself drawn more and more to Omaha 8/b as time goes on. It's very much impossible for me to pick a clear favorite.

I think one of the reasons I tend to be drawn to Omaha is that it tends to be PL, which I'd have to say is probably my favorite betting structure. That's even hard to say for sure, because I have things that I like, and things I dislike, about limit, NL, and PL.

Man, why do I have to like all poker so much? I think life was much better and more simple back when I could say "I only play hold'em" ;P

My vote is gonna have to go to Omaha 8/b though.

[wEbMaStEr]

Yeah I like Omaha H/L I fell into it by accident 1 day thought i was joining a NLHE tourney.
I like the action generated on Omaha, especially early on when you are more than likely to get a few people wondering what the hell a low hand is (I must admit i was like this 1st time i played also)
It's a very good strategic game, I can't claim to be very good at it tho
great going on your final tables.

[Leo]

i like omaha. in my poker-gang, hold'em is what we play seriously but when drunk we play omaha. alot of fun

[snoogins47]

A bunch of drunk hold'em players playing omaha?

Sign me up!

"What do you mean I don't have a flush?? I have the Ace of Spades, and there's four spades on the board!"

"There's a straight on the board, we split the pot!"

"I have Ace Two, I automatically take low, right?"

[snoogins47]

Oooh, new addition to the hold'em players playing omaha thing...

Playin a freeroll, omaha 8/b, and I see somebody call for his whole stack after the flop.

His high? Ace high. His low? A-2... but oh wait, there weren't any low cards on the flop, so his hand couldn't play that way.

No flush draw to speak of, though he could've gone runner-runner to catch an ace-high flush on a paired board.

He's GOTTA be a Hold'em Player ;P

(I hope I don't come off as contributing to a negative stereotype, I'm as much of a hold'em player as the next guy... but with the huge influx of people playing hold'em that don't understand the game, and half of them wandering over and trying omaha.... Makes for some interesting phenomena ;P)

I feel for these guys though, because I was once in that very same position... though I understood the concept of a playable low hand pretty quickly hehe

[golddog]

Two and only two...

In our group, we play a lot of variations of Omaha to mix things up.

Lowmaha: we keep turning cards until there is a possible low. Sometimes stops right after the flop, sometimes we've had up to 12-13 cards out there.

Tic-tac-toe-maha: Put nine cards out there, use any of the normal tic-tac-toe ways to make your hand.

Irwin: two rows of flop/turn/river. After the deal but before the flop, you designate one row as being the high row, one as being the low row. No minimum low, and (of course) the low row is usually the one you'd have a killer full house with if they were reversed.

A bunch of others that I can't think of right now, and we usually make at least one up on the fly each month.

[BeerWench13]

(I hope I don't come off as contributing to a negative stereotype, I'm as much of a hold'em player as the next guy... but with the huge influx of people playing hold'em that don't understand the game, and half of them wandering over and trying omaha.... Makes for some interesting phenomena ;P)

I probably fit into that profile. I understand Omaha for the most part, but don't play it enough to be a contender. Everyone in the poker group in which I usually play all play either no limit or low limit hold 'em. I've gotten them to branch out to pineapple occasionally, but that's usually before the whole group gets there for the hold 'em game. I like Omaha (at least the few times I've played it), but I much prefer pineapple or 7 card stud as an alternate to hold 'em.

[Always_Bored]

Ive never heard of this pineapple game. What is it?

[ballbp]

Pineapple is an off-shoot of hold-em. The only difference is that you are dealt three cards down to start. You then bet like in hold-em and the flop comes out. After betting the flop, you then have to discard one of your hole-cards and then it just proceeds like hold-em.

[snoogins47]

Pineapple, if I'm not mistaken...

Get three hole cards. Flop comes, betting round, you discard one hole card, and then the rest of the hand plays like straight Hold'Em.


Pineapple Hi/Lo would be legitimately insane... I think I need to do that tonight, at my friendly poker night...

Two-Flop Pineapple Hi/Lo

I'll have to wait until everybody is hammered before I suggest that though hehe

[Always_Bored]

That sounds fun. I think I will bring that up to my friends this sunday when we play.

[groton]

pinapple is nice so is NLHoldem well any holdem.

I can play Draw and Stud prety well

but put me on a omeha table and i start to get lost and high low no way


now LOWBALL THATS A GAME

[PuckJunkieNY]

I've played Omaha a bit, but not too much. 7 stud but, not near as much as in the past.

I've recently been getting into Triple Draw A-5 & 2-7 at UB. It's fun for me and has some interesting strategies/bluffing involved. I will likely study up more on that game. Last night I tried to jump on a Trip Draw (2-7) 3/6 table that Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and I believe Devilfish were on, just to play for a short time, but I was beat out in the chair race. Usually I only see Phil on the 30/60 tables for TD and have always wanted to play agianst him for the novelty of it. Oh well, maybe it was better I didn't get on it i time.