CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Jan 04, 2008

What's With This Omaha?

For at least a year now I've been hearing faint rumblings that the popularity of Texas hold'em is on the downswing and that it (will, might, could be) is being replaced by Omaha, both the high only and the high-low version of this wild action game.

I think the assumption that Omaha is the game of the future might be more a preemptive life-line for the professional poker group. They've seen their cash-cow (hold'em) turn into a free-for-all luck match because all the newbies think any two cards are worth playing. Yes, they've seen too many cherry-picked hands played out on TV tournament poker to get the real skinny on how to play live poker, and that reaction has caused a lot of heartache in brick-and-mortar cardrooms as well as online venues for those who make their living with their gaming skills.

Omaha players can handle the kind of bad play that comes from those who learned how to bet via TV because this is a game that does make it appear as if any four cards can win.

Omaha, simplified for those who aren't familiar with it, gives the players four down cards before the flop, rather than a measly two received in hold'em. But the players can use only two cards in combination with the flop, turn and river to make a five-card winner. When played high-low, the player can use the same card for part of both the high and low hand.

Maybe there's something about seeing four cards that makes this game appear easier than it is and perhaps that's why poker pundits are holding out hope that it will overshadow hold'em and become the game of choice for the majority of the gaming crowd.

I say holding out hope because despite the predictions about the game, Omaha doesn't seem to be catching the fancy of players everywhere. Bob Ciaffone's Omaha Poker, written in the late 1980s, is still one of the best selling book on the subject. Sam Farha, presumably one of the best players in the world (he won the H.O.R.S.E event Ñ considered to be the standard bearer for the world's best poker player at this time - -at the World Series of Poker in 2007) released his Omaha book a few months ago but it saw very little movement. However, Jeff Hwang's entry in the field is causing a bit of a stir.

At Gambler's Book Shop in Las Vegas, the sales figures follow the same path.

A search for hold'em books on Amazon reveals 259 results, some of which are general poker titles that include sections on hold'em. A similar search for Omaha produces 137 hits, many of which are general poker books with sections on Omaha. Yet in the top 50 sellers on the site, only three books are devoted to Omaha poker. They are Ciaffone's title, Hwang's book and Rolf Slotboom's pot-limit specialty.

It appears as if Omaha has yet to reveal itself as the savior of poker (not that poker really needs a savior at this time). Either that or we have a whole extended population of players who don't think they need to read up on how to master this game.

If that's the case, then the poker pros can have a feeding frenzy when the game finally does capture a new fan base. Anyone who knows the game will tear these newcomers apart with their skill and it may be years before the babes in the woods figure out what hit them.

I can say this for a fact. I'm a mediocre poker player at best. I've won a few tournaments and cashed out winners in a lot of live action games but I play low stakes for fun, relaxation and profit. (There's always hope.) Yet I cannot get the hang of Omaha. If I need help, surely others in my skill level need it as well.

Just in case then that Omaha does become the game of choice, I'm firing up my Masque and Wilson software programs, taking home all the Omaha books, and beginning a crash course. I suggest readers do the same thing. Who knows, one of us could make it to the World Series, beat the pants off the current pros and become the best poker player in the world.