Roy The Boy says...

Omaha Poker makes you think...

Thursday 13 Mar 2008

Omaha is a brilliantly tactical poker game so similar to Hold’em with a three card flop, four rounds of betting and five community cards, but so vastly different with four hole cards always offering the potential to make a monster hand.

It’s the most popular game amongst so many respected professionals, yet card rooms such as the one found in the fabled Las Vegas Bellagio seem hell-bent on doing away with it. Just take a look at their forthcoming Five Star World Classic Poker Classic which has over three weeks of Hold’em tournaments supporting their feature WPT World Championship.

Nearly a full month of Hold’em tournaments, day-in day-out, nothing more nothing less. I’m guessing the Bellagio don’t have dealers competent enough, capable, or trained to deal pot limit games. If I’m right they should be taught, as the shunning of the game is foolhardy.

Regardless, pros like Omaha because they believe they have a huge advantage against their inferiorly-skilled opponents. That may sound a little rich but it is a fact that people, some very accomplished Hold’em players, struggle to understand all the variables and strategic differences between the two games.

They progress from Hold’em to Omaha, employ all their Hold’em plays and moves and get buried in the process. In short, if you rely on your Hold’em experience to guide you in Omaha, you're in for a lot of trouble. It is no coincidence that the player with the best Omaha poker strategy usually wins but compiling and perfecting a successful play book takes a lot of time and re-programming.

The biggest piece of the Omaha jigsaw puzzle is starting hands. An Ace-King suited may be mighty in Hold’em but if it is accompanied by something like a 3-7, the hand is fit only for the shredder in Omaha. All four of your hole cards need to be working together (preferably with flush potential added to straight potential) in this game. Successful players do not look at their hand as two Hold’em Hands with the possible exception of a pair of Aces amongst their cards.

Secondly betting is an integral part of the game, those pocket Aces may be a favourite against just one opponent but carry this hand into a multi-way pot and not only are you the outsider, you can also flop an Ace and easily find someone has flopped a straight, flush or an almighty drawing hand.

Therein it is prudent to raise with big hands in order to narrow the field and limit the chances of an opponent being allowed into the pot cheaply with garbage and flop something massive.

Similarly, never give away a free card when you have flopped a big hand yourself. In Hold’em after flopping top-set you may choose to give away a free turn card but in Omaha things change very quickly and there is a strong likelihood that an opponent could make a small straight or flush courtesy of you not betting your hand when you knew you had the best of it. Quite simply if you have a made hand you need to bet aggressively as your best hand on the flop could be third best by the river.

Even position works differently in Omaha. In Hold'em position is hugely important, hands that are not playable in early position can be worth a call or a raise in late position. In Omaha, position still matters, but far less. The pure value of your cards is more important and, in an un-raised pot, the likes of 4-5-6-9 is call material in mid-to-late position.

Common sense dictates if you get dealt trips you should fold them as their chances of improving are slim to none. Likewise, if you are dealt quads you cannot improve. The best hand you will ultimately have is a pair or two-pairs.

As a beginner this is a game you have to experiment with, practice for small stakes. You will learn all the time and consider factors that you have never priced into your Hold’em game before. For example and A-K-Q-J may seem mighty but how many straights can it make as opposed to an 8-9-T-J?

Moving away from my favourite game and on to another… The Irish Open is almost underway and once again it’s going to be gigantic. Amazing to think that when Ladbrokes sponsored Ireland’s Winter Festival in October 2003, (now the Dublin EPT) the event was the first commercially-sponsored tournament in Europe and boasted a record-breaking field of 125(!) players.

If I should jump from a cliff following a bad beat of some outrageous proportions hopefully they will put on my grave: "Here lay the man who played his part in the first commercial sponsorship of a poker tournament which went on to be the biggest poker tournament in Europe." Some epitaph!

Of course it was a Ladbrokes regular who claimed the title last year: Marty "Macedonia" Smyth. This time around fifteen Ladbrokes players will be amongst the 1,000-strong field, not a great percentage so the probability of a ‘laddies t-shirt’ hoisting the trophy is obviously remote but there is a strong line-up of in-form regulars including James "james666" Sudworth, who did well in the main event of the cruise (narrowly missing out on the final table) and Trevor "bigTR" Reardon, who is in fine form recently claiming his second weekly final win and therefore choosing Dublin as well as Las Vegas amongst the Ladbrokes tour events.

The Annual leader-board guys are using up their well earned credits for the Irish Open too. Richard "daddymac" Sinclair was the winner of that leader-board and he is being joined in Dublin by runner-up Brian "Girlwonder" Antoniotti. Good luck to one and all!

Roy "The Boy" Brindley - Ladbrokes-sponsored professional