Short handed Omaha. I love it when I am up. But it sure can kick you while you are down.
Backstory.
Started poker years back, made up to 1k from a combination of average play and one very strong OFC tourney finish. Withdrew to neteller but my account was hacked and i lost it all. Kind of put a downer on poker in general.
Stopped playing for about a year and started again recently. Tried some stud, some holdem, some sit and gos, some omaha. And then i got onto the short handed omaha tables. All micro limit as it was just some loose change i had sitting on the site from when i had stopped.
Short handed Omaha blows my mind. Being able to play the majority of hands has always suited my play style as i tend to be a bit loose aggressive.
The pros
Massive hands
flop was A34 hearts. I had 25 hearts and flopped the straight flush A-5. He had KQQ9 with the king high flush. We get all in on the flop and he runner runners quad queens. I almost felt bad for the guy.
I hit quads and get paid off on two separate tables simultaneously. (I am 3 tabling the majority of the time)
It rewards good reads.
Its fairly easy to fold to a river reraise in Omaha because from your average player it usually means something close to the nuts. But being able to bet out with 2 pair/over pairs/top pair and extract value from drawing hands can make a big difference.
The Cons
I find it very swingy.
I found myself (only against certain players, but it happened a lot) getting all in preflop holding something like AA79 suited twice against something more like KQ83 suited once. But my bankroll tended to take a beating from those all in preflops. This is mostly due to the small favorites that hands often are preflop, but I am a sucker for getting my money in any time when I am pretty sure I am the favorite, even if its only slim.
The second way this has happened to me on a semi frequent basis is getting outdrawn by sets when flopping the nuts. one hand that spring to mind was when i was playind AKT8 suited in clubs and spades. Board comes down 9JQ with two clubs, so I have the nut straight, the nut straight redraws, the nut flush redraws and we get ourselves all in. He flips over QQxx and the board pairs on the river.
The level of confusion
I have found myself *infrequently* but still much more often than in holdem making mistakes of my holdings. Can remember playing AKxx suited in hearts and diamonds. i rivered a King high flush. But stupidly thought it was an Ace high. I check raised the other player (not a move i like to do often in omaha, but the pot was small enough that the possible pay off seemed worth it) and then he reraised all in. I called in a heartbeat thinking i had the nuts. Turns out it was confusion on my behalf.
A second mistake i would sometimes make is not noticing all of the possible straights on a board. I think this is probably due to multi-tabling but i find it much more costly than in holdem where non obvious straights being runner runner'ed shouldnt be a concern to you holding top two pairs.
To end my story on a sad note i recently was up about 150% from where i started, so i decided to withdraw my winnings and start again. Because I am short on cash as a student moving up in limits didnt seem to be a great idea. Withdrew back down to my original starting point of 20 buy ins and hit a pretty bad down swing, ending up with a meager 4 buy ins and me likely needing to find some spare cash to play again cause the money i withdrew has already disappeared into bills and food.
Please no "too longs didnt read." I understand it was long and relatively unenlightening but if thats all you have to add to a conversation then i would prefer you added nothing.
Edited by SCDossett (31 March 2010 @ 05:24 GMT)
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