Omaha Great for Winning Money

Most of my poker experience has been with Texas Hold'em, and I have been making decent, steady money.

Some time ago I tried to sign up for PokerStars.com but could not because I'm a US resident. Recently they sent out a free $5 credit to people who signed up but never funded their accounts, so I decided to use the credit to try my hand at Omaha.

In preparation I purchased Ken Warren's great book Winner's Guide to Omaha Poker. It provides all of the basic strategy you need to blow away low-limit competition. To put that to the test, I decided to take the $5 and hit the $0.01/$0.02 pot limit Omaha High/Low table.

So far I sat down to 5 play sessions with only $2 of my bankroll. All of the sessions were winning sessions, and my total is now up over $17.

In Texas Hold'em, starting card selection is important but there's much more to the game than that. In Omaha, the game is structurally different - starting card selection accounts for 90% of winning, while knowing when to bet hard or fold after the flop makes up most of the remaining 10%. Bluffing is almost impossible, so it's all about knowing what the best possible hand is for a given board and either having (or drawing) to it, or folding.

Best of all (if you're in it for the money), most Omaha players are in the game because they CAN play quite a few hands. Since Winner's Guide to Omaha Poker teaches you which hands you SHOULD play, you will have quite a large winning expectation each hand you play.

If you're looking for a straight forward game with little finesse and great winning potentials, Omaha is for you.

How to Fleece a Maniac

I had a bad run of cards today and was down about 25% of my stack. Then, a gentleman sat down two seats to my left. He raised the first hand he was dealt, then raised the flop. When he bet the turn, everyone folded. He did this a few more times, and his stack grew. After a few hands, I smiled on the inside and knew I would soon be back in the green. I had a maniac in the game, and I was in a great position to exploit him.

A maniac is a player who has loose starting requirements (will play many hands) and plays them very aggressively. Such players will experience wild swings in their chip stack, and will generally leave the table broke.

It's very easy to be the one they leave the majority of their chips with. Simply tighten up your play a bit, and play very aggressively when you get a good pocket and hit the flop. You will have to cut back on marginal hands because the maniac will raise many pots, making it expensive for you when the marginal hands don't come in. The last thing you want to do is lose your bankroll on random fluctuations before you have a chance to fleece your sheep.

When you do get a good pocket and/or hit a great flop, use your maniac to push your edge. He likes to bet, so let him. If you hit a great flop but it's vulnerable (for example you have top pair but there's possible straight or flush draws), check-raise. Maniacs by definition raise often, so there's a pretty good chance that he'll bet after you check. Best of all, if he's to your left, his initial bet won't be respected by other players in the hand, so they are likely to call and put more money in the pot before you raise.

If you hit a hand that's likely to stand up after the turn (e.g. you hit top pair or two pair with a rainbow flop with no straight on the board, or better yet you flop the nuts), you might consider check-calling the flop and waiting until the turn (when bets double) to pounce with the check-raise. Even that check-raise on the turn might not scare off your maniac. I played against one tonight who got check-raised on the turn AND on the river - some people never learn.

If you're sitting to the left of the maniac rather than to the right, the strategy is similar. Instead of check-raising your great hands, you'll raise and re-raise them.

One final word of caution - your maniac plays ALL hands aggressively. Usually he'll have an inferior hand, but sometimes he'll have a great hand. Be prepared for the times he either does have great starting cards or hits a miracle flop, turn or river. It will happen, but the odds will be with you. In the long run, his chips will end up in your stack.

Happy fleecing!

Playing the Ladies

No doubt, pocket Queens is a great hand! Play it wrong, though, and it can be very expensive.

About 69% of the time, the flop won't have an Ace or King in it. When the flop is good, your chances to win the pot are excellent. However, that 31% of the time that an overcard flops is when you stand to lose quite a bit of money if you don't pay careful attention to what's going on. I have seen quite a few players bet and raise with Queens after a bad flop. If the other player DOES hit an overcard, you realistically need another Queen to win. Since there are only two more in the deck, the chances of hitting one on the turn is just 2/47. If you miss the turn, you have a 2/46 chance of getting your third Queen on the river. If the other guy DOES have a paired King or Ace, he's going to make you pay quite a bit of chips to try and beat him. Even if you hit your third queen, there's about a 10% chance that the opponent had KK or AA and alraedy has you beat with better trips.

So how can you maximize your winnings with this hand?

First of all, it's important to chase A-anything hands out of the pot. Especially at low limits, many players will play any ace. Their A-6 offsuit could ruin your great hand if they get lucky. You raise. If you're in early position, this will hopefully knock out the bad hands since they have to call two bets. If you're in late position, pretty much everyone who already was in for one bet will call the second bet. However, since you're the favorite to win at this point, you're getting more money into a pot you can reasonably expect to win.

If the flop comes up all Queens or lower, bet and raise. Be careful though if you're re-raised. Someone could have hit two pair or trips. If that happens you will have to use your judgement and decide whether the re-raiser would play that aggressively without a great hand. Some players will, especially if they flop top pair with a great kicker.

If the flop comes up with an Ace, and there are still a few players in the game, watch out! Many players will see the flop with a wide range of pockets that include an Ace, even against a raise. If you're in early position, you can bet for information. If you're raised, you will have to fold unless you pickup a tell that the raiser is bluffing. If you're called, be very careful about betting the turn. It's probably best to check and fold the turn if you don't hit one of the other two Queens.

If the flop comes up with a King, it's less clear-cut how to proceed. Players who will stay in with hands like AJ, AT, A9 are much less likely to stay in with KJ, KT, K9 against your raise IF THEY WERE BEHIND YOU WHEN YOU RAISED and had to cold-call two bets. So if your raise was from early position, you're only really worried about hands like AK, KK - hands that probably would have raise during the first round of betting anyway, giving you a clue to their strength. Even if you raised in late position, and most players called your raise, it's less likely that hands with a King stayed in compared to hands with an Ace.

Queens are a great hand you would be glad to get over and over. You will make money with these cards in your pocket. Following the advice in this blog will help you avoid losing when the flop doesn't favor your great starting cards.

Low-Stakes Online Tournaments

When the stakes aren't huge, your opponents can become very unpredictable. Low-stakes online poker is a great example.

If you play in the smaller online tournaments, you're very familiar with the routine. In the first round, 2-4 people per table seem to go all-in. Sometims one of them will have a great hand, but often enough you see people with A6 or KJ risk their whole stack.

Is this a good strategy? The thinking seems to go "it's cheap anyhow, so I'll take a gamble and try to get ahead." In a game with 3000 or so players, risking everything to double- or triple-up really isn't wise. On average the final table players will have perhaps 300x their starting stack. An all-or-nothing ploy with so-so cards to get to 2x is just a bad bet.

So what is a good strategy?

First of all, realize that lots of players will take themselves out of the competition in the early-going at no risk to you. Then realize that an early chip lead doesn't matter very much, at least not if you take unnecessary chances to get it. Often the early leader gets to that point because he takes lots of risks and wins. Think about it, if you have 1500 players (half the field) taking lots of risks, SOME of them will have to win and end up with large stacks. What usually happens, though, is that the tight-aggressive players bide their time until they have a great hand, then they take monster-size bites out of the loose-aggressive players. Pretty soon many of the early leaders are gone.

What you should do:

Early On (2/3 or more of players still in)

• Almost never play a hand in the first few rounds of play (even your AA can get drawn out on, but I would still play that one, even all-in)
• Only play your very best cards from early position until 1/3 of the players have been eliminated. For me this means AA, KK, QQ and AKs.
• In later positions you can play a few more hands because the chance of someone going all-in behind you are smaller.
• Drawing hands like 87s or 66 will usually just cost you money early on because someone will overbet their hands and wreck the pot odds for you.
• Never bluff. Some fool will call you.

Mid Game (2/3 gone but not close to the money)

• Start to play more hands, especially drawing hands like 87s or 66 when you get the proper pot odds (lots of players in the hand without much raising).
• Bluff now and then.
• Try to steal the blinds now and then.

Late Game (close to the money)

• DON'T GET ELIMINATED. Nothing worse than making 102nd place in a tournament that pays the top 100.
• Play very tight poker. Play only your best hands, and only continue after the flop if you connect solidly.
• Use all time you are alotted to think about your hand - even if the decision is clear. Let some other guy get knocked out on another table while you "think".
• Some people will intentionally disconnect from the network because most sites will give some time to reconnect. I don't do this because I consider it cheating, but I want you to be aware so you'll know what's going on if it happens.

The Final Table

• If you have a large stack, try to push around the people with small stacks by betting at them and sealing their blinds.
• If you have a short stack, avoid going heads-up with a large stack. They will push you around.
• If you have lots of chips compared to the size of the blinds, wait for good cards.
• If you have few chips compared to the size of the blinds, you will have to take more chances.
• As the field gets smaller, you don't need as good of a hand to win. Heads-up, Ace-anything is favored to win.

Another Way to Play AA

Pretty much any poker book will say to raise or reraise on the initial betting round with pocket aces.

In my experience that's not always the best way to play.

Many of the games I have are full of people who play very marginal hands. That's where most of my profit comes from.

If I play the aces strongly right from the beginning, I'm likely to chase out many of those weak hands that would otherwise see the flop for one bet. Sometimes I play according to the books, but sometimes I simply call. Letting lots of players see the flop cheaply has a downside: They might hit a lucky flop and crack your aces... they might hit a lucky flop. However, the odds are way against them. Most of the time the flop will not improve them far enough to beat your aces, and there will be much more money in the pot so your probable win is much larger.

Here's an example of where I recently applied that strategy:

AA from middle position
Person to my right raised, I call.

Flop: AJ7

Looking good! Trips!

The other player bet the flop, I called.

The turn came

AJ7T

Oopps, there was a possible straight (or more likely straight draw) on the board. The first player bet, I raised. He called. Until now, there were several other players in the (now very large) pot.

Now for the river:

AJ7TA

Wow! I hit quad aces. Slow playing the aces left me with the absolute nuts in a huge pot. Lots of other players contributed to the pot without much chance of winning because I let them in with weak hands.

Don't follow this strategy against tight players because the odds will turn against you. Against typical loose, low-limit players, it can be a great way to mix up your play.

Finding a Good Casino Game

Casinos and card rooms are filled with sheep and sharks. Sitting down at the right table makes all the difference between getting cleaned out and going home a big winner. If you seek out the table with the best players, you might prove that you're a good player too, but you won't maximize your winnings. If you sit down at a table with the worst players, on average you can expect to take home a nice payday.

So how do you find the sheep?

The size of the blinds is certainly your first guide. Smaller blinds attract weaker players. Still, if the bets are smaller, potential winnings are smaller as well. The trick is to find the biggest game where you are significantly more skilled than the average at the table.

If you play in the same place often, you already have an advantage. Keep a notebook to track the players you play against. Really, I'm serious. This is one of the better investments you can make. Write down which players are calling stations, which play deceptively (check-raising, bluffing), which play aggressively, etc. Note who can be bluffed off of a pot and who will call to the river even with average cards. When you see a table with several non-deceptive calling stations it's time to sit down.

Some players come to the table to win, others just want to have fun. If you see a player (or better yet a group of players) who are drinking and laughing it up, that's a great sign that you found a good table. If they are playing as loose as they act, sit down and bring an extra rack to carry home their chips.

Some players just can't get enough, and will play all day and late into the night. Many of the best games can be found when the competition is beaten down from countless hours of play. If you're a night owl, consider showing up at the casino very late fresh and rested. Look for signs that players are weary and see if their play is as tired as they are.

When you find your sheep, remember to keep playing your A-Game. Don't be lulled into playing a loose game just because everyone else is. Wait for a really premium hand, and then play it hard.

A table full of sheep will certainly attract a few sharks (you're not the only one!) Unless you have great cards, it's probably wise to stay out of their way if they really go after a hand. After all, they are doing the same thing you are - waiting for a great hand and playing it hard.

PS - If you're playing at one table and see a better one, you can ask the dealer or the floor person to arrange a table change for you. They will seat you at your desired table as soon as there is an opening. If there's a board waiting for your game, the person on that wait list will get your old seat.

Finding a Good Online Game

Your profits don't depend on your skill... the depend on the DIFFERENCE between your skill and your opponent's skill. If you are a great player playing against world-class players, you will lose money. If you are a bad player playing against terrible players, you will make money.

The secret of making money in poker is finding "good" games - games where the average skill level is lower than yours. The bigger the difference, the more money you will make.

In a card room, it can be hard to figure out where the best game is (but see my next blog post for tips). Online, you have great tools at your disposal.

Most online poker websites let you observe a table. Further, they will show you the hand history of that table, whether or not you played in the game. At Full Tilt, I like to open up 4-5 tables at the stakes I want to play and just let them run. I can answer email, get a cup of coffee, or whatever for about 15 minutes while the tables are played. Then, I come back and look at the hands that played while I was away. Usually you'll get about 20 hands per game. Flip through the hand history, looking at:

• The cards people saw the flop with. Do they have the same high starting requirements you have? Pay attention to whether they were in the blinds. If they were big blind and played 5-2, that might not be a bad thing (you could look at the chat window in the hand history to see if they stayed in with a raised pot, but it's usually not worth that much effort).
• Watch how they played after the flop. If they won with 5's full of 2's, was the flop 5-5-2 (obviously good to stay in with 5-2) or A-K-2 (pretty stupid to stay in with 5-2)

With a tiny amount of up-front effort, you can find that really profitable game that can add a bunch to your bankroll.