Fourth and Fifth Card The Zoo Parade

Whereas at straight high Omaha the last two rounds of betting (usually at the double size limit) present many opportunities for the expert to exercise his skill and judgment in reading the opponents and then perhaps making good percentage moves, at Omaha high-low, it is much more difficult to read the opponents correctly. Thus even the best players must proceed more on general principles (as do the medium good players) than on deep brilliant moves. However, general principles sometimes can be applied with considerable skill and psychology.

Just as all good Omaha high-low players know that they must avoid getting “squeezed” by the brutal and terribly expensive raising that sometimes occurs on the last two rounds (unless they have a lock in one direction), all good Omaha players also know that this is indeed one of the best times to make money. Although a lock low hand is often reluctant to cap out the betting in fear of getting “quartered” (that is, getting only one- quarter or one-sixth of the pot), when there is a known fish splashing around in the pot, sometimes the lock low will risk a raise or two (especially after the fourth card if he has some extra prospects). Many Omaha experts tend not to “over squeeze” a poor fish caught in the middle because it turns off the fish and sometimes resembles collusion (even if the good players do not know each other) — and there is always the possibility of getting quartered.

Less deep

There are also some occasions where an expert can make fairly safe assumptions (especially about the starting hands of other good players) which strongly affect the odds of a situation and allow the expert to make somewhat “offbeat” bets and raises on the last two rounds. But, all in all, Omaha high-low has much less “deep game” (a contract bridge concept) potential than straight high Omaha.

Biggest Loss

Poker is the game of luck where everyone comes with only thing in mind that is to raise their wealth as quickly as possible. But at the same time they all are aware that if the luck does not favor them they might have to go home empty handed. I too have suffered many losses during my journey. Here I am telling all Play poker lovers about my biggest loss.

I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to break. No matter what the gods of fortune spilled on me, I would survive. That’s what I told myself, but the agony grew inside me with every minute that Shirley stayed away. Finally she walked toward me. Richard ambled in the other direction, kind of smug, I thought.

Shirley sat down at the booth across from me. Probably a half hour had passed, but it seemed like a week or a month. My suspicion was that she was going to let me down easy. I mean, I could just feel it, and I thought, well, that’s the way it’s going to be, I’m just not supposed to win anything. There wasn’t any spirit left in me, no fight left, I was sapped. I couldn’t even make my eyes meet hers.

Finally, I said, “Would you like afresh drink?” Still, I didn’t look at her directly.

“No.” That made me think that maybe she was just going to break me the bad news softly and leave.

But the silence between us just went on and on while the band seemed oblivious to my agony. Rock n’ Roll.

Gradually, Shirley began to drum her fingers to the beat.

At last I got the nerve to ask, “Do you want to tell me anything about it?”

She said, sort of remotely, “Richard apologized. He wants me back...” So on and so forth.

You know, she never told me what she’d decided. But pretty soon I got to thinking, Well, hell, Bobby. She’s still Sitting here, and Richard, he’s across the room somewhere. I put it together. I didn’t ask her any more questions. We left the club together.

And when we got home, I said, “You know, I’d like to have Staci move in. She’d be like my own daughter, if

that’s what you want...”

So Staci came to live with us the next day.

High vs. High –Low

I am playing poker for past four years but when I first started playing poker I was really bad at it but now I have developed my skills but still I am unable to match my skills with the experts on the basis of my experience I am summarizing, the impact of the skill differential of experts over good players, is more financially significant in both hold ‘em and high Omaha than in high-low Omaha. Otherwise put, the expert wins over good players more consistently at hold ‘em and high Omaha than high-low (this is certainly one reason why many medium good players like high-low). Some poker “experts” have misevaluated the great skill potential in straight high Omaha — but high Omaha is clearly more complex and in some situations has a higher overall skill factor than hold ‘em. This subject will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 14 which compares hold ‘em and Omaha.

From the foregoing it should be clear that if you are a “medium level poker player” at Omaha high-low, as long as there are several fish in the game, you rate to make money. And if there are less good players in the Omaha game than at a typical hold ‘em table, so much the better!

Taking a pounding

But be forewarned! On a bad night, not only medium players, but even experts can take a pounding at Omaha high-low. The main reason is that at high-low, there is a much lesser predictability of results with non-lock hands; thus, you have less control. In high-low it is much harder to gauge the likelihood of losing, and it can be disastrously expensive when you are unlucky. And you win less when you win (unless you are lucky and scoop).

Even the staunchest of high-low aficionados will admit that, on a bad night, even all of their best “moves” can’t save them from the unholy bath waters. One helpful observation is that it is no amazing coincidence that most of your bad nights at high-low Omaha (everyone has some bad nights at high-low Omaha) correlate somewhat with the lack of bad players in the game.

Even if you are a die-hard high-low enthusiast, you should read about and master the straight-high concepts of seizing the initiative and driving (Chapters 9 and 10), since whenever the flop contains two or more high cards (nines through kings), you are essentially playing straight high Omaha.