Texas Hold’em doesn’t look to be dethroned as the world’s top poker game anytime soon. Hold’em is easy to pick up, and most poker tournaments deal with Hold’em so it’s only going to get more popular. However, if you’re tired of taking bad beats and constantly dealing with the “luck” aspect, perhaps you should give Omaha a try sometime.
Now if you’ve been playing Hold’em for years, switching to Omaha may not be the most attractive prospect. After all, the strategy is different, and you’re going to take some lumps in the beginning. However, if you stick with Omaha, you’ll find that it’s a game where skilled players gain bigger edges.
In fact, this is one of the biggest differences between Omaha and Hold’em because Omaha offers great players around an 80/20 advantage while Hold’em only gives great players about a 60/40 advantage. And it’s Omaha’s edge that draws some of the world’s best players such as Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius, Tom Dwan, “Ilsidur1,” Phil Galfond and llari Sahamies to the tables.
When you stop to think about it, Omaha gives people more information about hands on every street as opposed to Hold’em, where you’re often in the dark as to what your true chances of making a hand are. That’s because Omaha is all about getting the nut hand, and if you don’t have the nuts, you are drawing for top hand. Contrast this to Hold’em where players are constantly checking to see who is ahead at what point in the hand.
Sure it may sound like I’m over-hyping Omaha; however, I just think that every Hold’em player who is sick of dealing with luck and bad beats should try it. Of course, players who don’t like to study strategy and mainly play for fun should probably just stick with Hold’em since it gives them a little more variance (luck).
