Do You Fit the Profile of a Successful Omaha Hi-Lo Player?
Different forms of poker require different skill sets. Five Card Draw, for instance, is a great game for poker players who have guts that don't churn. Seven Card Stud, meanwhile, needs you to be patient beyond the patience levels of most ordinary human beings.
Omaha Hi-Lo may be the most demanding of all forms of poker. With so many combinations of winning hands and so many split pots, even professional Las Vegas poker dealers sometimes have trouble seeing who won an Omaha 8 hand.
Not to mention the difficulty of, after ascertaining the winner(s), dividing up the pot in a game where the pot is often split between one, two, three, or even four players. Yikes!
That being said, the complexity of Omaha 8 is also a source of incredible opportunity for the poker mind that is up to the challenge. And quite the challenge it can be.
How do you know if you fit the profile of a successful Omaha Hi-Lo player?
By reading this article, of course.
Pattern Recognition
Studies suggest that people who are legitimate geniuses are not necessarily the "smartest" people in the normal sense of that word, but they do possess a stupendous ability for pattern recognition.
A gift for pattern recognition enabled Beethoven to compose his symphonies, for example. It's not that Beethoven was a world-beater at a game of Trivial Pursuit, or would have aced his SATs, rather it's that special talent for seeing and making patterns that made Beethoven a genius.
If you have that kind of mind, where you can "see" math, where you can swiftly and accurately make connections between seemingly unrelated things, your brain might work well in Omaha Hi-Lo.
The dual nature of OHL--you can simultaneously be going for both high and low hands, and so can everyone else--dictates that those who do not see their hand for the quick-changing pattern that it is, those who rely on "recomputing" their hand at every arrival of a new card or every new piece of betting information that hits the table, may benefit from playing a simpler poker game.
If you are good at that sort of thing, individuals who are less gifted at pattern recognition will be your best source of winnings when you sit down at the table for a bout of Omaha Hi-Lo.
back to top of page
Contrarian Impulse
Another personal characteristic that can help you be successful playing Omaha Hi-Lo is a contrarian impulse, a propensity for going against the grain.
In Omaha 8, you must always seek to discover who among your opponents is going for the high side win, who is going for the low side win, and who is going for both the high and low side win, a.k.a. "Scoopage."
Although it's best to be pursuing both high and low hands in this game, the reality is that for most hands, after the flop, you will have a stronger chance at one side or the other. Likewise and at the same moment, many of your opponents will be faced with the same choice.
Seeing what they choose and then going in the opposite direction is one of the most profitable strategies in all of Omaha Hi-Lo. So many players only go to the high side, and these are the players that constantly get quartered, meaning they lose money even when they hit their hands, because they have to divide the pot with the other players that also hit on the high side.
If you're the type that follows the path less traveled, Omaha Hi-Lo may reward you for it.
back to top of page
The Importance of Game Selection
A talent for pattern recognition and a desire to go your own way are two qualities that all successful Omaha Hi-Lo players share. For other forms of poker, other attributes may be more crucial--appetite for risk, mathematical acuity, saint-like patience, as the case may be.
Most crucial of all, though, especially for the newer poker player, rather than any particular skill set needed, is to realize the awesome importance of game selection, especially if you are planning to actually make money in poker rather than just playing for fun.
You will drastically increase your chances of being successful in poker if you can find a game that suits your innate abilities.
Fortunately, one of the greatest things about poker is that there are enough variations that almost everyone can find a poker format at which they can, with practice, excel.
back to top of page
|
