In order to be a consistant winner at Omaha or any form of poker, probably the most important decision that you make is what game you choose to play in. This subject is discussed to some extent in my book. Here are some recent additional thoughts. (more…)

There has been some controversy lately about the true value of low wrap hands - more specifically the 7,6,5,4 unsuited. A “wrap hand” in Omaha is a hand with either four consecutive cards (eg. Q,J,10,9, also called a “quartet”), or four nearly consecutive cards (eg. Q,J,9,8). (more…)

Several articles back we discussed that “brickology”, the science of counting the “bricks” (that is, cards that do not rate to improve others) that might appear on fifth street, is often the key to making close raises on fourth street. Now I will offer a simple rule-of-thumb, that the appearance of a brick on fifth street is often the key to making “thin” bets on the last card. (more…)

Time out from Omaha. Instead let’s join the hue and cry. I was reading Steve Fox’s article about the “Scary Death of Colorado Poker”, and I couldn’t help thinking of Matt Goerning’s bumper sticker, “Life’s a bitch and then you die?”. Most of us “Poker Players of America” have generally had to put up with a lot of hassle during this past century. But things do seem to be looking up for the next century. (more…)

In four card high Omaha, when certain flops hit the table, you actually need a computer and some time to accurately evaluate your hand. Since this is impractical (impossible?), we have to do the best we can at estimating our various equities in order to decide whether we belong in this pot or not. Just about everyone plays the usual “good comes” (eg. four flushes, multi-way straights). But relatively few players are able to accurately add up the winning potential of some of the lesser holdings. (more…)

Good poker players try to avoid “fishing in”, that is, calling (”chasing”) with inferior cards. Calling is often perceived as reluctantly fishing along, wasting money, contributing to a bettor who is driving a winning hand. Some offensive purists subscribe to the theory that calling is unsound, and that if a hand is good enough to call, it should be good enough to raise. (more…)