Friday Omaha

Another Friday, another game of Omaha with the boys at PKR. My original goal was to play solid, and wait for good cards. I thought I showed considerable restraint by waiting a good 8-10 minutes before abandoning the plan. The night started rough – I just simply couldn’t hit a flop, and when I did, someone else improved on the turn or river to win the hand. I had one interesting stretch of three hands in a row where I held A-2-3-X, with the ace suited, only to have all high cards come on the flop. Oh well, such is poker in general, and definitely Omaha. I was down $600 before turning the ship around.

One of the intriguing things (and one of the things I really like) about poker is that no two nights seem to be the same. Though I won a lot of money Tuesday, I won no really big pots. I just plugged along winning small to medium pots, but won a large percentage of the pots I got involved in. On Friday, I won two or three decent pots, and one very large one. The big pot came when I flopped middle set, and two to the low and two to the flush were out there.

I’ve already forgotten the specifics of the hand, but I think I held 7-7-X-X with a flop of 9-7-2. A bet and a couple pot-sized raises later, half the table is all-in (for a moment I thought we were back at Dave’s!). Definitely not the action I wanted to see, but by then I was going along for the ride like everyone else. I think the turn paired the board with a 9, and the river paired it again with a 2. Two sweet cards for me, as the only hand I was really worried about someone having was a flopped two-pair with a redraw. Luckily, everyone had some combination of straight, flush, and low draws, and I end up scooping a monster pot. Thanks in large part to that one pot, I was able to cash out over $1,400 to the good

Omaha, much more so than Hold ‘em, is a drawing game. Most of the money gets in on the flop or turn, so you need to take a chance every now and then. Especially in pot-limit, multiple players will often be chasing draws, and if you have enough players chasing, they’re usually getting the right price (if not, they think they are!). Since half the table can be involved deep into a hand, this creates several moments of excitement throughout the evening that Hold ‘em just cannot match. Though I love Hold ‘em, I’d prefer a game of Omaha any day. To those stubborn ones of you who have not taken the time to learn or play the game, go read a book, then come out and play!

Dave, if you’re reading this, the above does not apply to you. You’re doing fine, and a book would just confuse you – please don’t learn any more…

See ya at the tables…Rick