Getting into Omaha

If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got. I’m pretty sure I saw that on a beer mat somewhere. However recently that hasn’t been true when I’ve played. The online games have been becoming steadily tougher and less profitable and, whisper it quietly, I’d been getting worse.

If I’m honest the three or four months leading up to Vegas were some of my worst playing months. I was rarely arriving ready to play and had become lazy, unfocussed and was generally going through the motions. In fact going into Vegas I was considering taking a long break from playing (by the way I’m not sure what my plan was for this column if I had – maybe a pithy byline on the many bar-b-ques I’ve attended this month..). The fact was I’d lost my poker mojo and was desperate to get it back.

Now if going to Vegas and living like you’re 14 on a centre parks vacation for a month has taught us anything it’s that mojo may come and go but an addiction to poker will always find a way. As it is on a yearly basis my passion for the game was re-stoked by visiting the series but I’m not sure that would have been enough on it’s own. Something more radical was needed to make my poker wings take flight again. And something is a game called pot limit Omaha. The credit for this idea for my poker future has to go poker guru Brian Townsend and after talking to him and other people in the know it seemed like a no brainer. The case was simple – Omaha is a more interesting game, it’s more fun and, far more crucially the game is much less exposed in terms of coverage and knowledge so players are making much more errors on a regular basis. Or to put it simply players are worse so you can make more money at it.

Now when I’m asked why I play poker I usually try and spin some pseudo pop psychology about it being the game being a reflection of life and an endlessly fascinating battle to control the fates. All of that may be true (it’s not) but as we all know the real reason for playing is to be better than the other fella and take all his cash. This coupled with the excitement of playing a new game and my mojo-ometer (which is definitely a real thing) was running on full again.

Given that Omaha has been around the whole time I’ve been playing I’ve been wondering why this idea hasn’t appealed before. Omaha can be intimidating; there’s nowhere near as much information on the game as Holdem and it’s rarely covered by the media. If you do jump in the fog is more likely to thicken than clear as every hand looks playable pre-flop and it’s almost impossible to miss the flop completely with all those card combinations. A few buy ins later most players, me included, retreat to the safety of Holdem. It’s taken a real plateau in my Holdem game and some pretty clear evidence that there’s money to be made over the fence in the Omaha games for me to make the jump. I know I’m not alone in the poker community; my challenge will be to learn faster than the other Holdem players looking to hover up the dead money.

I’ve also managed to find a way to make the whole Omaha adventure a little bit more exciting. Regular readers of this column will know that not playing the WSOP main event has become a real bugbear with me. Well thanks to the good people at Virgin poker and my ability to incessantly nag people until they do stuff I have a chance to change that. Starting from the low stakes I need to make $5,000 dollars or more playing Omaha by next series and they’ll match it to finally get me that elusive main event entry. Of course I’m aiming to make far more but it’s nice to have a goal beyond not misreading my hand on a regular basis.

I’d only played it a few times in home games so I’m basically starting from scratch. Two weeks in my magnificent adventure but here are some things I’ve learned about Omaha so far:-

- Pointing at the screen or using your fingers to count your outs is acceptable for the first week of play if you’re still doing it after that it may not be the game for you

- There’s almost always a possible straight and if you can’t see it, you’re just not looking hard enough.

- Playing Omaha is big and clever and makes you look really cool and hard but with a sensitive side

- It is very very, life swallowingly addictive

- Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. Knowing this will not make you any more popular at dinner parties or help you’re win rate when playing the game of Omaha

- There’s almost always a possible straight and if someone keeps raising when you have top set they have it and you’re screwed.

- Explaining the difference between Holdem and Omaha to people who don’t even play poker is -ev in life terms

- A lot of hands are like ladies – they look really really pretty but this may or may not translate to them being worth playing with.

- I suck at it …. So far.

Originally published in Poker Player magazine.

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