One Round of Omaha

Omaha is played with blinds and dealer button which means that the positions are fixed throughout the whole hand. The dealer button is a white plate that marks the dealer position. The blinds are two mandatory bets made before the cards are dealt. The blinds are used to open play and force action. The first player to the left of the dealer posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The small blind is the size of half a big blind.

The dealer gives the players four cards face down, the first betting round begins and turn goes clockwise starting with the poker player to the left of the dealer. The players may do one of the following actions depending on what is possible at the moment: check, bet, raise, call or fold.

When the first betting round is finished the dealer places three cards open on the poker table, these are the flop cards. Betting resumes and remaining players make their move.
When the second betting round is finished the dealer places one card face up on the table. Betting resumes as usual. This is the turn card.

When the third betting round is finished the dealer places the fifth and last card open on the table. This is the river card. Betting resumes but when the last person has acted it's a showdown of the cards. The person who bet or raised last shows the cards first. The other players may choose to show or fold their hands depending if they have a better hand. The player with the best poker hand wins the pot. (In Omaha high-low the pot is split into a high hand and a low hand pot if there is a low hand qualifier)

To determine the best poker hand a player has to use two of the four hole cards with three of the five community cards.

The dealer button is moved one step to the left and a new hand may begin.

Take Another Look at Pocket Aces in Omaha

A player typically does a little leap in their head when a player stares down and sees pocket aces in Texas Holdem. In Pot Limit Omaha numerous players will have a tendency to do the same thing when they look down at pocket aces, but not all hands that contain aces are physically powerful.

A-A-K-K double suited as many people know, is the best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha. This also considered is a powerful hand while Preflop, is the hand that is always ahead. A couple of coordinated cards are also very power Poker hands. So does hands that have aces in them.

When the players play aces that are not coordinated or suited, a lot of them get into a trap with aces. Players treat any starting hand with two aces in it like the nuts and sometimes get into a holdem poker mentality. When you are relying on only the aces to win the hand, the problem with playing a hand with aces that does not have any backup or else you need to be incredibly lucky.

A poker player that is known to be an aggressive and loose player raised from middle position in an Omaha Online Poker tournament about a year ago. Mean while a player on the button reraised the pot and the LAG player that reraised all-in and was called. The LAG player showed A-A-4-9 with no suits while the opponent showed Qh-Jd-10h-9s. The aces are only 58% to win if you run stats on this hand preflop and this is almost a coin flip situation. The aces all of a sudden went to an underdog because the flop fell 8s-10c-2d and the player with the wrap had a 57% chance to win at this point. The aces were busted the wrapped player actually hit his straight.

Settled, the need for a player to have backup with their aces are required the wrap to hit. Hand must hit in order to stay ahead although any chance hand with two aces in it is indeed a slight favorite before the flop. Uncoordinated aces will not hit the flop and then fall behind in many cases.

The question of how should a player play a hand with uncoordinated aces depends on several factors including position, the nature of poker players at the table, the restrictions, and certainly your stack. Seeing if you get lucky and limping into a pot with on the flop is the type of one hand that you may even want to consider. Omaha is a drawing game although limping with aces look as if counterintuitive. Players that pick up a draw on the flop actually are ahead against "naked aces". You recognize that a raise will knock some players out. You may want to put in a raise if you are on the button against only limpers. If you do not hit the flop that you may want to tread very lightly should keep in mind or else you may end up giving your chips away.

A Legendary Poker Player Profile

Johnny Chan has become one of the best players in World Series of Poker history. Born in China, he sits second all time with 10 WSOP bracelets just one behind Phil Hellmuth. Chan's first World Series of Poker cash was in 1983 and he plays a full program to this day with 3 cashes in 2008. Johnny is widely considered one of the top 5 players in World Series of Poker history and is popular on Poker television. Chan came to the United States in 1968. He is married with six children. He won first bracelet in 1985 and his tenth in 2005.

Chan had already had one bracelet to his name, heading in to the 1987 World Series of Poker Main Event, however the Main Event would be where his career really started. Poker greats like Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington and Mickey Appleman Littered the Main Event final table in 1987. Johnny proved that he was a player to consider with and beat all those top pros and took home the title at the final table. Chan won $650 000 and beat Frank Henderson heads up. In 1988 Chan made the final table of the Main Event and once more a lot of names you will recognize were at the table with him. Guys like Erik Seidel, TJ Cloutier and Humberto Brenes. Johnny showed that he was one of the top pros in the world besting Seidel heads up to take home the bracelet and $700 000 once again. Johnny was now the man to observe with back to back wins and three career bracelets The 1989 Main Event where legends are born. Chan once again was there in the end. He battled his way to again being heads up for the title, and what happened was two upcoming poker legends would take clash. Maybe poker fans didn't realize it at the time, but it was legend vs legend. Phil Hellmuth vs Johnny Chan. Chan would still take home more then $300 000 although Hellmuth would take home the title. We will in no way see another player make three main event final tables in a row, pass up win 2 and finish second once. Johnny had made his name in the poker world. Making another Main Event final table in 1992he would win more bracelets and even.

While he won a 7 card stud tournament Chan wouldn't win his fourth bracelet until 1994. When he outlasted Barry Greenstein, Steve Zolotow and Lyle Berman in winning the deuce to seven lowball bracelet His fifth came in 1997. Chan won his sixth bracelet in 2000 and in 2002 he convene with an old friend in the no limit holdem heads up tournament, Phil Hellmuth and now Johnny took home the title and his seventh bracelet. In event 15 and event 24 his eighth and ninth bracelet both came in 2003. Chan won his then record 10th bracelet in a pot limit holdem tournament in 2005. He had to beat Phil Laak heads up to win that 10th title, which earned him over $300 000. After that Johnny has cashed eight times and most lately finished 4th in an Omaha event in 2008.

Overall Johnny has cashed 41 times and 10 bracelets in his career. Johnny has made more then $4 million at the World Series of Poker alone over his 25 year career. Chan is one of the most consistent poker players in poker history with 25 years and 27 final tables made. He has had triumphed playing Holdem of all limits and styles, Omaha and seven card poker games.

He commonly appears on Poker After Dark on NBC. Johnny is more then just the World Series. He has career tournament earnings of more then $6.5 million and also won Poker Superstars. Play Poker like Johnny Chan and Million Dollar Holdem are the two books he had written. He runs his personal online poker site, owns fast food franchises and desires to eventually open his own casino. Chan is a great poker player and a business man who will strive for success in all his endeavors.

Alpha→Omega

My online poker experience has a really interesting trajectory. Enjoy!

1, Learn poker rules
So far, I still remember my exclamation the first time when I combined a Full House

2, Practice poker with play money
At that time, I had to restrain myself from the impulsion of throwing all in. My mentor told me seriously that the play money is not for play.

3, Learn basic poker strategy
I finally learned I should better be a tight poker player than a calling station.

4, Play low stakes with real money
$0.02/$0.04 Limit is my sweet home.

5, Join No-Limit Tourney
For me, this would be Final Fantasy & Mission Accomplished (my first thought is Mission Impossible).

6, Try other poker games other than Texas Holdem
Following the same cycle in Omaha, or whatever it is, is essential.

Take Your Position

Manipulating position is a skill that Texas Holdem players need to focus on developing more deeply when moving to other games.

In Texas Holdem poker, the value of position is generally self-evident. You want opponents to make their decisions before you do, and then you want the final say, the last word. On top of that, Holdem is a game where it is common that nobody has much of anything. You are making decisions based on whose "nothing" will outplay the others to win the pot. While superior position doesn't automatically win hands, it does make it more likely you will make better bets—in the same way that a general who positions his troops on terrain he is familiar with will have an edge.

But position in Texas Holdem is simplistic. Last is basically best, particularly when only two players are in a pot. First position, or second position behind a maniac, or position in front of a maniac … sometimes these will offer positional advantages too, but for the most part, just being last to act is such a significant edge that all good players will tend to play more hands when they are in late position and less hands when they are in early position.

But the greatest difference in positional complexity comes in comparing Omaha Hi/Lo to Texas Holdem. Last position continues to have some general advantages, but it comes with disadvantages too. For example, bluffing from last position is suicide against good players. The bluffing arrow is almost removed from your quiver when you are last. In Texas Holdem having middle position seldom offers any advantages but middle position is the prime bluffing position in Omaha.

Welcome to PLO

Pot-Limit Omaha is a unique game. It is one of the few poker games that is much more widely played in Europe than in North America. Pot-Limit Omaha also is a game that tends to have huge swings. Even a poor player can be lucky one night and win almost all of the chips at the table in a game of Pot-Limit Omaha. It is also one of the few games that tends to be associated with higher stakes.

Pot-Limit Omaha centers on two things: building the nut hand, and position. The first point is obvious. The hands are strong in Pot-Limit Omaha, so you want to be able to hold the best hand. Most Pot-Limit Omaha games do not go to a showdown. When they do, more than likely one player has the nuts or was drawing to the nuts. When two players have strong made hands against each other, generally one has the nut hand or second-nut and the other player also has a near nut hand. An example would be a board with AQ554. One player could have AAxx and the other player might have QQxx. If a poker player called a huge bet on this board with 23xx, they would be a fool. While this straight would be a strong hand in Texas Hold'em, it would be a very weak hand for this board in Omaha.

Another central concept to Pot-Limit Omaha is position. Omaha is all about position. There are several reasons for this. First, free cards are death in Omaha. If you are in early position, you will almost always have to bet your hand, even if you hold the nuts. For example, if the board is 567 and you hold 899A, you definitely have to bet. Someone could too easily draw to a full house, flush, or perhaps even a higher straight. Because of this, people in early positions tend to give away their hands. People in late position can much more easily bluff at pots because they can be fairly certain that people in early posiitons do not have a hand, and people in late position can sometimes earn themselves extremely valuable free cards.

The following are some poker tips when evaluating preflop in Omaha:

• High pocket pairs are good. This is because they have the chance at building a big full house. If you do not hit a set with a big pair, the pair is essentially worthless.

• Connecting cards are helpful. A hand like JT98 is a very good Pot-Limit Omaha hand because it affords the player with so many straight opportunities. Holding JT98 is far superior to holding QJ56 because you can build many multi-way straight possibilities with JT98. However, you cannot with QJ56.

• Suited cards should be treated with caution. One can call and draw to an ace high flush. However, drawing to any non-nut flush can be very foolish. Having non-ace high suited cards is only helpful for redraws, multiple draws (i.e. also having a straight draw), or back-door flush draws. One should never draw to just a flush that is not a nut flush.

• Low and mid pocket pairs are close to worthless. A hand like 5588 belongs in the muck. Even if you hit a set, you can easily lose to a higher set, straight, or flush.

P.S. Kobe was definitely playing Speed Hold'em in the photo.

Against My Will

You know the game called Omaha? Have no idea? It's OK. I can explain it in just a few easy steps (I am assuming you all know its big brother Texas Hold'em).
What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the poker players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best poker hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again.

That's it. Hell of a simple poker game, right? For me, I won't blame if you label it as lame due to my lame introduction.

P.S.
I was bluffed at an online poker room last night. Refused to go in there anymore, at least a week I swear. If there are some unpleasant words mentioned in my article about the poker rules, forgive me. I don't mean it.

Top gun—Blackjack

Sometimes I love being in the crowd, enjoying the feeling of thinking while others are yelling. That's when I play in the pit, that's the charm of casino game, among which Blackjack is my favorite. The following is a simple-version of know-how about it.


Blackjack is partly based on luck, so don't expect to win every time. Compared with poker games (Texas Hold'em, Omaha, etc.), the way to play Blackjack is easy. All you need is a dealer (you can do that if it's played at home), some people, a deck of cards, and some poker chips (really optional and unnecessary when you play at online casinos). First of all, the dealer serves TWO cards to each person, face down. When people say HIT ME, you give them a card. If they pass the number 21, they lose. If you win with a black jack (it consist of an ace, a jack, queen, king, or the 10 card), you beat everyone, and the house wins. If you pass the 21 limit, you lose, and the players may win. If you play with poker chips, when you win, you take the chips (or if someone else won, they take the chips).

Quiz: I do not recall what it is called if two people have the same number (like you have 19, and someone else has 19).

P.S. My mind is like an open high way. Every thought can lead very far or nowhere.

Funny joker—introduction of wild card

Due to personal hobbies, I always look for weird things and exceptions to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, we are all geeks in some way. And here is what I find in poker game: some card that can be designated as any card you wish. Yes, it’s the "magic" wild card.


In most cases, wild cards are jokers, or they can be any cards agreed upon by the participating players. Poker rules make it clear that there are two kinds of functions for wild cards: "fully wild" cards and the "bug". A card that is fully wild can be designated by its holder as any cards he chooses with no restrictions. Under this rule, for example, a poker hand with a natural pair and a wild card becomes three of a kind. With wild cards in play, the best possible poker hand is a five of a kind. While the more common application of the wild card in casinos is that it plays as a bug, which is given the rank of ace unless designating it as a different card would complete a straight, flush, or straight flush. Under this rule, a hand such as T-T-Joker-7-3 is just a pair of tens (with an ace kicker), but any four same-suit cards with a bug make a flush, and a poker hand such as 8-Joker-6-5-4 makes a straight.

In particular, five-card draw is traditionally played with a joker in California (which plays as a bug), and also plays well with deuces fully wild. Seven-card stud plays well with one or two bugs, especially when played high-low split. Other games such as Texas Hold 'em and Omaha do not play well with wild cards.

What I learned about Omaha Poker game

Omaha is not an easy game to master which is why you should keep these things in mind. I'd like to share with you newbie some of my thoughts about how to start with this game.

First of all, be sure what the best hand is. It's one of the basics of any online poker strategy. Many people get into trouble because the nuts they think turn out to be a totally different hand.

Second, always bear in mind that the five-card hand has to be made up from three from the board and two from your hole cards.

Third, when you have made a monsters hand, strategically get the most out of it. Try to trap as many people as possible in the pot for the most bets.

Last but not the least, gain your experience from practice and learn by asking and reading pros' insights.


Play it now. With Omaha poker strategy on your side, hopefully you could start to win very soon. LOL.