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Omaha: Holdem on Steroids - No Limit Holdem is of course the leading power in today's poker world. Psychology, analyzing tells, betting (and the discretion of not betting) are all elements that make it as complex as it is. But sometimes, playing any type of Hold Em is merely going through the motions so to speak. Check-raising an aggressive player on a 9 4 2 rainbow board, calculating pot odds, and making big laydowns can almost seem like you're playing on auto-pilot. The game doesn't seem fresh or you may be burned out because you feel that you've hit a plateau to your game. Try as you might, it seems you can't get beyond that threshold. "What's a player to do?" you ask. There are multiple answers to that. However, in order to make one variation of poker seem new and exciting to you again, the best solution is to learn a new game. I used to scorn Omaha vigorously. "What's the point of the game?" I argued with some players. "You have a nut flush and get busted by a full house. Or your straight falls to a higher straight. At least in Hold Em, if you have a big hand, you're likely to get paid off if your opponent has one too!" Then it finally hit me. If large hands get paid off by other large hands in Hold Em, then surely it would be even more prevalent in Omaha! I tried the game out at the casino where I work now for the first time back in March of 2005. I just came off a bad session at 5/10 Limit and decided to sink my last $100 at the 5/10 Omaha Hi/Lo table just to prove how terrible my cards were. By the end of one orbit, I had already tripled up. I'll admit that most of it was beginner's luck, but one hand in particular keeps coming back to me that showed me I knew what I was doing after just a few hours. I was dealt K Q J 10 rainbow in the small blind in a kill pot. I elected to just call the kill of $10 and five of us went to the flop. It was a dynamite flop for me: 10 K 8 rainbow. This gave me top two pair, a total wrap-around straight draw, and 4 outs to a full house! I bet out $10 and immediately got raised by the big blind to $20, to which, my surprise, the other 3 players called cold! Thinking that any one of them could have a set or perhaps a draw to the straight(s) as well, I elected to call. The turn brought me the joker in the form of the Ace of Spades. This did put two spades on the board, but it was remote that spade draws were still hanging around. I elected to check based on that information. The big blind fired out $20 to which two players folded and the final flop cold-caller raised to $40! Needless to say, I was singing Broadway show tunes in my head. But then, I had a thought. "Why should I raise with the nuts now? I want to lure the big blind in. If my straight still is the best hand on the river, then I'll play hard." I called the $40 to which the big blind responded with a three-bet to $60! To my disgust, the third player flat called and it was back to me. Again, I merely called the extra $20 to see if my hand would stand up. The river brought me the best card possible, the 9 of diamonds. No low draws were completed, flush draws didn't make it, and not a full house was in sight. With almost $350 staring at me in the pot, I knew I'd be perfectly happy taking this pot down even if I bet and my two opponents folded. I fired $20 to which the big blind yet again raised to $40! The third player mucked and was grumbling about how he never hits his draws. I of course three-bet to $60 and the big blind capped it at $80. I called and turned over the nuts. The big blind reluctantly showed me his hand, 7 6 3 2 rainbow. He did pick up the nut low draw on the turn and got "lucky" in his own mind by catching a straight (albeit a sucker straight) on the river. The dealer then pushed an over $500 pot to me. By the end of the night, I had made almost $1,000. This is a great example of how and why playing a different game can give you better perspective on your poker game as a whole. When you observe and practice in a different game, you can pick up new pieces of information that you couldn't while playing just one type of poker. This allows you to get a better idea of how you function as a player when different variables are thrown at you. It's not necessarily who can adapt the fastest (I admit, Omaha was a pretty easy adjustment for me.) but who can take different concepts from several games and apply them into one, coherent strategy. Not only that, but another great benefit from playing a lot of Omaha, is that when you sit down to Hold Em again, the game looks a LOT simpler with only having two hole cards instead of four. You'll also be able to think in even more thorough ways due to your exposure and playing of Omaha. It's not something that may be able to explained tangibly, but your mind just seems to operate at a higher level. When the game was done at 4 a.m., the remaining players and I collected our chips and headed to the cashier. Woody, an older gentleman who's played Omaha for probably longer than I've been on this planet, asked me a question. "Are you still hating Omaha now?" I simply replied, "If
my wallet likes it Woody, I do too!" -------------------
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